August 9thA CMU Student's Reflections
Thinking back on my first year at Canadian Mennonite University brings many memories to mind. Entering as an inexperienced and awkward young adult set the stage for me to find what it was I searched for. There was an undeniable spirit of life acting in all the people I interacted with, even if I did not understand or disagree with them completely. Finding out about people’s political, moral, social, and of course, spiritual and religious perspectives enraptured me into the minds of my peers. In that lounge in residence, people would come and talk, make puzzles, study, and overall enjoy themselves in a peaceful and serene kind of environment in a way that always left you knowing or wondering more than when you sat down. There are many mistakes I made throughout my first year, some I am sure I have yet to realize; however, each mistake that I made, I was supported by my friends and teachers.
Two events first established to me that I belonged at this university. The first was a long walk around and through the nearby park where two lines would be walking, holding hands or linking arms if comfortable, where each pair would try to get to know the other in the brief period before people were shuffled around. I was extremely nervous about this exercise, I had done these before and feared it would be hard and awkward. As it turned out, it was a fascinating and enlightening experience, wandering in this line through the dark, talking to people whose faces I could barely see, and it was a really fun game to match peoples faces to the names you heard later on in the year. These people that I met showed me something I thought I already knew, the paths we walk through ours and the Creator’s world are nothing to be afraid of and are to be celebrated.
The second event I partook in involved me getting into a car with four total strangers and driving around to three different professor’s homes to have snacks and chat. To this day, that experience was one of the best of my life. The generosity and hospitality I experienced in those short hours impacted how I would perceive CMU immensely. I took that experience of being welcomed into someone else’s safe space, and applied it to the university. I may not have felt at home initially, but the people and the spirit convinced me otherwise.
I was anxious to enter CMU at first. I made sure I had back ups for when (I did not think ‘if’) things went wrong and wound myself in defense mechanisms only to be beckoned out of my shell by the Creator’s people. My horizons broadened as I saw how individuals were shaped and grew. Only to explode in a wave of realization as I noticed the same forces were acting hard within me too. The passion in the lectures, the sincerity in the lounge discussions, the focus on love in topics of gender equality and reconciliation, the late study nights, taught me to know and to be grateful for the future ahead.