Stories

Loss of choice

I am a returning University of Victoria student, currently studying Psychology. I am in my late 40s, reasonably intelligent and well read. I have many interests: I love to learn, I…

The costs of an active Canadian child

On a frigid winter night, Sam Anderson trekked across the University of Victoria campus, headed for the blazing lights igniting the black sky. Approaching the labyrinth of interlocking athletic fields—a Rubik’s…

They shoot, I write

I drew a hockey rink in my notebook. Underneath, on the same dotted lines that fifth-graders practice on, I described the play: “Naslund to Mo’, back to Naslund—he scores! The…

Rules of the road: A hitchhiker’s christening

I stood there, straddling the white line that separated shoulder from highway, wondering whether I actually wanted to do this. The cloud cover broke and allowed the April sun to…

Stressed to Shingles

The Itch It started small; a spattering of circular bumps on my right breast. I assumed they were mosquito bites—it was summer in Yellowknife, a time when mosquitos infest the…

Anorexia: My Story

  When people hear me fluently speak unaccented English, they least expect me to say I am from Taiwan. And when my friends compliment my simple and nutritious eating and…

A woman with lofty talents

Coloured streamers dive and swoop from rigging on the 40-foot-high vaulted ceiling.  Trapezes and aerial hoops hang like empty bird perches above a pale wooden floor. A 25-foot window reveals…

Mr. Sandman and the hippocampus

Your eyes snap open and you feel an immediate rush of adrenaline surge through your body like a misguided thunderbolt. “How long have I been asleep?” you think to yourself. As…

Dumpstering 101: Picking produce

I was thinking headlamps and twitchy nerves. There was a feeling of darkness and deceit. But when I first emailed Julie Anne, my soon-to-be-guide to the underworld of dumpster diving,…