7 Days -- 7 Photos (Day 2, Monday)

This photo actually represents a lot of things for me. George Elliot Clarke is one of my favorite Canadian poets. I once wrote an essay about the way he uses line breaks and punctuation in his poem "Casualties" to emphasize the emotional impact he is trying to get across. I first became interested in politics when I was 15 and a teacher lent me a VHS (no, really) of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's funeral. Justin's speech was incredibly moving and heartbreaking and I ended up becoming fascinated with his father, a man who inspired such a huge outpouring of grief from the country when he passed away. From there I started paying more attention to Canadian politics in general and realized that it's important to know what's going on and to vote. I tried using my sister's I.D. to vote when I was 16, but got totally busted. Somehow I didn't get in trouble for that. It was technically an attempt at election fraud. Studying seems to be all I have time for during the school year, but right now our TA's at U of T are on strike and one of my classes has been cancelled. It is extremely frustrating as both sides are using the students as leverage against each other. Eventually when they finally come to an agreement, which they will, it will be the students who will be left facing the most consequences. Some are trying to graduate and move on with their lives, some will have to redo courses that they already paid for and set back their education, some face potentially losing their spots in grad school because they wont have their marks in time. All of us have missed out on learning, which is supposed to be the reason to go to school. They are coming up with solutions so that we can pass and get the credits, but for the classes that have been on hold, we have missed lectures and assignments that would have translated into knowledge and learning opportunities. They can't give that time back to us, even if they do let us pass the classes. I'll say it again, it is extremely frustrating, and the uncertainty and anger affect our ability to learn properly in the courses that are still running. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens and keep up with the readings.