Remembrance of Joyful Times Past: The St. John’s College Experience

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the SJC Alumni Celebration Weekend at my previous UBC residence. The place is St. John’s College and although it was wonderful to get to see and reminisce with fellow residents some of whom I had not seen in over two decades, there was a somber underlining to it all: We were about to say goodbye to this landmark building, and we had this three-day event to cherish and celebrate our experiences and to bid adieu to the place that houses many unforgettable memories for each of us.

I have spent two and a half years (I prolonged and extended my degree to as long as I could) and they were some of the happiest times of my life. Why, you may ask and the answer could fill up volumes of novelistic writing; in fact, it could even make for a miniseries, sitcom, soap opera, or telenovela (love, romance, marriage, heartbreak, infidelity, deception, all of which were not unheard of at the times) but my own simple answer is two-fold: first off, I loved studying and was studying what I loved (French literature) and then we had an amazing, buzzing, bubbling, and vibrant community.

There was no time for boredom. The community was fostered organically, that is we were forced to sit together and eat, that included breakfast in the mornings and dinners in the evenings. Breakfasts were a rather subdued undertaking. Not everyone would show up for different reasons; some would trickle in at different hours and when they did, they would not be necessarily in the mood for chatting or they would be hung over or half asleep. I myself would need at least a couple cups of coffee to barely function at that ungodly hour.

The dinners, however, were a whole different story. Everyone showed up at pretty much the same time hungry for food and for social interaction. We were excited to have finished the day of studying, reading, writing, or what-have-you and were there to chew the fat with our meals or share and listen to the latest gossip and anything else under the sun.

Most tables had various often recognizable voices reverberating through the community dining hall. It was always a joy to see and talk to familiar faces, but when that was not the case because you or your friends were late and the tables had already been taken, you did have the opportunity to meet and to talk to new people. Nothing unites people more than breaking bread together and sometimes, we also bonded over bad food. Certain items on the menu - something we were privy to at the beginning of each week - were not exactly among our favorites but that was fine and made us appreciate the good and tasty food items even more. 

For instance, on paella days – that distinct smell still haunts me to this day - I would suddenly turn vegetarian. It succeeded for a while but soon enough, the kitchen assistants grew suspicious, checked their lists, put two and two together and realized that this was not necessarily true. I was outed as an imposter: a non-vegetarian posing as one. You could of course miss the dinner and ask for vouchers but then again, you would not see your friends on that given evening. And that was not an option for me.

What I loved at the time was the list of contact information we were provided with on day one. It included all the names with their room numbers and phone numbers. At the time, we did not have cellphones (I’m carbon dating myself now) but it was wonderful to be able to call up anyone one wanted to see, or you had taken an interest in. No more awkward asking for phone numbers; we were supplied with them already.

In fact, there were visitors coming in and out at pretty much any time of the day. We had a revolving door policy. It was especially interesting to see and notice who walked out of whose room during night hours. I remember some of us getting caught in flagrante a few times crossing the courtyard at night where smokers would nod and acknowledge us with a grin and then share the intel with everyone at the next dinner event. Yet at least whatever happened at St. John’s did stay there. Not that it had anywhere else to go for that matter.

Yet I remember vividly the various events that enriched the whole experience. It was often ideas proposed by residents, but the office also had several interesting initiatives of their own. This ranged from regular speaker series where we had a chance to share our interests, research or otherwise and then there were informal language courses offered by residents for residents. As if that was not enough, we also had movie nights, hiking and sports events, choir, Improv, theater, coffee houses, and many more. There were some others after my stay and sadly I cannot comment upon them.

I very much enjoyed my Improv experience, and it was something that helped me with my teaching. It was instructive to be on your feet, be alert and respond quickly. Comedy is all about timing and through this experience, teaching was not just sharing knowledge and information but responding to different situations and questions more spontaneously and without overthinking. It is a theory I tried to develop as “framed spontaneity.”

And yes, it also made the class much more fun and me funnier in the class. And our Improv group performed a few times in front our own community, but we also did a show to welcome undergrads, and we each got a T-shirt for it as a token of appreciation. This was to date my only official payment for doing Improv and I hope that we did not scare off the new students at the event.

At SJC, I did delve into sports too but with varying success. We had a field hockey team that ended up being the worst in the league – this is not hyperbole, but we were literally dead last just like the Vancouver Canucks this year. I remember at one point asking the ref for the score and it took him half a minute to count all the goals we had accumulated against us. I immediately regretted wanted to know. We also brought in a contraband goalie, my brother, to help our chances and it ended up destroying his confidence for good. He never was a goalie after this, and I take full responsibility for this outcome.

Yet, we also had two volleyball teams: there were the Eagles and the Eaglets. One of them was in it for competition, the other one was in it to have fun. I was in the fun category of course. Losing did not faze us, and we shrugged it off skillfully (some might say masterfully), but we did have one memorable showdown against our own competitive team. And that night, against all odds and perhaps because it came upon the heels of a gala dinner night where wine made me less scared of the volleyball, we won against our fellow Johanneans.

Some of the players in the competitive team were upset and did not talk to me for a whole week but that remained such an unforgettable event for us. I remember celebrating with R. (more on her later) that same night. Moral lesson: Never lose hope because one day, you will beat those who are better than you.

Apart from scheduled and impromptu events – quite a memorable one would be the infamous room crawl, but memories are hazy on that account yet I remember it was a blast and we may or may not have ended up dancing and potentially stripping on the pool table and there may or may not be a photo of this somewhere - there was also the monthly gala dinner where we all dressed up semi-formally and formally ate delicious food with a copious amount of wine.

Many pictures were taken at those events. Again, we are talking about an era before cellphones and digital cameras so there was effort involved in getting the film developed etc. and they were snapshots of precious moments. As I was reviewing them, there were some names that have been forgotten but it was wonderful to have a chance to check with residents at the SJC celebration event and most of those names have been fortunately recovered.

There are some faces I will never forget. Apart from dear friends, there are also my more than half a dozen crushes (you probably know who you are). There were a few I had the fortune to date very briefly but most of them remained out of reach due to my shyness at the time. Some of them could have turned into something more lasting but in one case, let’s call her R., I was not at my best. From the get-go it was casual and was not meant to be serious; that said, I appreciated her very much, but I don’t think I showed it enough. As she said to me once, SJC was my world and I was so enmeshed in it that I could not perceive any other place outside of it.

I might have denied it at the moment, but she was absolutely right and hit the nail on the head. SJC was my go-to fairy tale place that blurred the lines with reality. To get me out of my cocoon, R. devised a wonderful adventure. I was supposed to leave the premises and all I needed to take with me was a toothbrush. I was given a note with clear instructions (again no cellphones), and I had to follow them to the letter. I did so and for a moment the world outside of my residence came into focus. But the moment we returned to SJC; I fell into my trance and slumber. I was both hopeful and terrified to see R. at this final reunion, but she did not make it.

It is still hard to imagine that the building will no longer stand. When I moved in, it was still new; now there were some natural misgivings. Aging may be good for wine and even certain people but as a rule, this does not apply to building structures. I was told nay warned that my hallway had a peculiar and strange smell around it and our current tour avoided it like the pest. But I could not resist and had to see it or rather smell it for myself. And yes, there was something funky that had not been there in the past.

As mentioned earlier, the event was a three-day affair that included a pizza reception on Friday evening, a gala dinner on Saturday and a brunch on Sunday. I signed up for all three but was considering skipping the brunch. When I arrived at SJC, I noticed my name tag was missing. I assured them and I assure you now that I did register and pay and felt a bit sad that they had not included my name there. However, as I looked through the tags, there were certain names that I recognized and was looking forward to talk to those fellow alumni soon. I got to use a makeshift one for oneself.

As I sat there, more and more familiar faces trickled in. Most of them looked very similar to how I remembered them, one of them, don’t ask me how, looked even younger than I remembered him – yes, I’m looking at you Kent! – and it was interesting to hear that among those that had kids, they tended to be of the same age as my son. This created an interesting common bonding experience, a sort of biological rhythm with people I had not talked to in two decades. It was also great to see what they were up to and to update them on my own exploits and adventures.

This was quite the event after all and I even met someone amazing who moved in after me but like me had gotten a good portion of her studies and readings done at Wreck Beach! Although she went to see the beach again, I'm still slated to do so sometime soon. 

I did not skip the brunch after all. Unlike the breakfasts, this one was well attended. We were encouraged to do graffiti on the building and off the record were told that we could scrape off our room number sign. Although there were still a few people residing at SJC, they might be confused but would not have issues finding their room without the attached number. Or so we were told. Well, I sure hope so because I could not resist to take this lasting souvenir with me as a physical reminder of a very precious time in my life.

The old building will be gone, and the clocktower will be no more, which served as a quintessential meeting place – “meet me at the clocktower” was a common and easily understood phrase that facilitated our meetings and get-togethers. And I want to thank everyone directly and indirectly associated with St. John’s College: Chef Clarence for feeding and taking care of us all over all those years (he is happily retired now), my fellow Johanneans from the past, the current ones and those yet to come, and each and everyone for making this vibrant community last and prosper since time immemorial and for a long time to come.