Welcome to Edwards!
Hi, I'm David, and I'm a first-year Humanities student.
Hi everybody, my name is Jonathan and I'm an Integrated Business and Humanities
student, and we are living in a double room with an ensuite washroom.
So my favorite part of my room, actually, is this corkboard wall that we have here.
So living on res, you do miss family a lot and do miss friends
a lot from back home, so with this corkboard that Edwards
provides, it's quite a big space to put all my photos
and small mementos here and there from middle school and high school as well.
So every time
I get a little bit of a homesick vibe, all I do is just look at the photos,
see all my family and friends - makes you feel at home again,
and that's what you want on res.
And my favorite part is also going to be my desk over here.
I keep a lot of my mementos from back home.
The couple of Funko Pops were gifts.
The books I remember reading last year, and also my snack corner,
which I really like as well - I keep a lot of candy, I do enjoy that.
And I like my desk down here
to be as kind of empty as possible so I can just focus on my stuff over here.
And then I also have my photo wall as well.
I added to it with a lot of the pictures that I was able to take this year,
kind of commemorating the friends I was going to make, the experiences
I had, and I was grateful for the little mementos as well.
Other things as well that were up there that really make me happy to look at,
and they're kind of a joy to have in my room
because it kind of ties the place together with all the new memories.
So when you think about home, you always think about
celebrating holidays with your family,
and so for both me and my roommate, we did celebrate Christmas.
So to make our room a little bit more homey, what we did
is that we actually brought a Christmas tree into our dorm.
You wouldn't think there would be enough space
for a Christmas tree in the dorm, but we made it work.
And we used to have, like, strobe lights
and Christmas lights hanging down from the window.
We had disco lights all around the room,
snow globes, mini Christmas trees all around, Santa hats, stockings.
We did the whole shebang.
It was great to have our friends over when we had the Christmas lights up, we’d
get everyone over and they could really enjoy,
we could share that same spirit of Christmas, same holiday spirit
during a really stressful time, like Jonathan was saying.
It was a great reason to get people here to be sociable with all of them.
and still give them the same feeling of home that we had as well.
For us living in Edwards is great because we actually do have a lot of closet space.
So this wardrobe right over here as well, we do get full access to this.
You got a lot of underneath storage
and then quite a bit of storage with the hangers as well.
And also thankfully
we have another closet as well and I didn't think I would have to use it.
But your boy has a lot of clothes.
So quite a bit of space in here as well for jackets.
And then also some over top storage as well.
So if you want to keep any of your
toiletries or anything of that sort, you have some over top storage as well.
I did not think I would need this much space, but clearly I do.
And I'm very much grateful for it
here in Edwards.
So we got really lucky at Edwards where we got a private bathroom.
So that means me and him only have to share,
we don’t have to share with anyone else.
So as you can see here, you have the sink.
And if you do get a private bathroom, please keep in mind
that you don't have much counter space.
So this is why we have both our organizers on the left and right.
And as you can see behind the door, the toilet, you do get
toilet paper provided by Edwards.
But we brought our own just for simplicity reasons.
The shower is a stand up shower
but it's more than functional for all of your purposes.
But the only, I guess, downside
of having your own bathroom is that you do have to clean it yourself.
But you and your roommate can work that out -
that's like a weekly schedule, whatever you're comfortable with,
and then making sure your space is clean,
especially because it's a shared bathroom is key.
So me and my roommate here are in a unique situation over here.
We're actually best friends from back home,
so you would think you know somebody like when you've known them
for years, like, okay, you know what?
I could live with him, that's fine.
But then once you move in, it's a totally different vibe where it's like
you actually have to put in the effort to understand each other as roommates.
Yeah, you’re best friends first, but roommates second.
And to understand each other's boundaries, understand each other's lifestyle,
because once again, this is our home for the next eight months.
So for me, I grew because I learned
how to live with my best friend and live with the person I love so much.
So for me, that was like the biggest growth
in terms of understanding
how to live with people and how different it is to live
with people versus being friends with them.
And regardless of what your relationship
to your roommate is, even if you're complete strangers,
you're going to have a chance to get to know each other
really, really well because you live so closely to each other
and you're going to pick up each other's habits,
you're gonna pick up each other's interests, and you're going to hate
and love the same things because that's just the nature
of living with someone so closely for eight months.
And it's a great opportunity to make a new friend, honestly, for life.
You just can't separate that bond.
Once you live together,
you're genuinely connected in such a deep and meaningful way.
So a great part of living in Edwards and really most other buildings as well
is that they have an LLC which is a Learning & Living Community.
So the one at Edwards is the leadership and Influencers LLC,
and that means that we get a chance to be connected with and network
with professionals in the area or in business development.
We also get to connect and network with people in our own res
on other floors and on our own with other meaningful events as well.
So recently we did a tote bag painting and that was a great night.
We got to watch some videos, we got to see our other CAs
and our other friends in our building, and it was a great way to connect about
leadership specifically, but in a very comfortable, neutral setting.
And also living with Edwards, when you go to the basement,
if you do end up living in Edwards,
there's a games room and a music room as well where there's
a grand piano that you can play and there's pool tables, foosball tables.
So it's a great time where like, you know, if you just want to meet up
with some new people or bring some of your friends along
and just play some games and have some fun, it's a great way to socialize.
It's a great way to bond as well with some new people.
So students can always access their meal plans
at the many restaurants across campus with their student card.
It's a simple swipe.
It's just like a debit
where you get whatever you need
and then you're able to swipe out and then take it home.
You always have to remember to keep it safe though
because there is a charge to replace it.
Of course, and if you get tired of campus food,
there's some off campus vendors that you can go to as well
where you can pay with your student card, with your Flex dollars as well.
And also keep in mind,
if you're living on res, you have kitchens on almost every floor.
So what you can do if you want to cook, go to the grocery store, go to Food Basics
or Fortinos and bring some pots and pans from home and keep them in your drawers.
And then if you ever want to cook with your friends, you most definitely can.
So one of the greatest memories that we have was actually around Halloween.
And during Halloween, everyone gets together
and it's this - it's exactly like in your childhood.
People get up in costume,
they get together and it's all the same fun activities.
So part of what we did was a traditional Halloween activity of carving pumpkins
with our friends on our floor.
So we made the trip out to Fortinos - it's not too far from campus.
We ended up getting a lot of pumpkins and walking back with them.
And so we did get back to campus and carve them with our friends.
So after we carved them, you would think, “oh, you’d just keep them on display?”
No, what we decided to do is put them on our heads and walk around campus.
So what we did is that we took pictures around campus with people, with strangers,
with pumpkins on our heads.
It was honestly one of the best times.
And also, like one of the core memories for me was actually during Welcome Week.
So right over here, like if you look outside the window,
you do see the student center.
And in that student center there was a Monday night party, like right
when you moved in
and it was just like a super dope DJ with strobe lights going around.
And I remember that was the first time that, like,
I got in the middle of the dance circle and I got so hyped up, like everyone
was like, screaming your name, shouting and like, just hyping you up.
And that was like, one of the first times at Mac where I felt like, you know what?
You're in a community, you're locked in with these people for life.
And it probably is one of the best memories that I've had during Mac so far.
Absolutely. Welcome Week is your key focus to really make those experiences,
make those memories and you’ll remember specific days, specific experiences
and you'll see those same people around campus and it brings up all of those,
like you were saying, hyped up feelings, feelings of community,
and everyone just gets along and they understand that
they're here for that and it's a great experience.
So for me, living on was incredibly important to my first year
because living on res allows you to make friends a lot more easier
because once again, you are living with so many other people in a building.
You can go out anytime you want.
So like if you want to meet up with your friends at three
AM like, “guys, let’s go to McDonalds”, okay, let’s go to McDonalds at 3 a.m.
in the morning, right?
Can’t necessarily
do that when you're back home and you have to commute to and from Mac.
So for me, that was just incredibly important
to your first year of university. Regardless of where you go.
The change can really seem scary.
But the fact is you learn very quickly the right experiences, the wrong experiences
and what you should and shouldn't be doing.
And that's key, right?
That develops your own personal character, that develops your decision
making skills and you decide whether to go out or study for a midterm.
Sometimes you pick the wrong choice, admittedly, it works out,
but it's all about making sure that you have that balance.
But the good thing about all of these
reses is that they're so centrally located to all of your classes on campus
that if you are in any res it's not a long walk, it's maximum 10 minutes
to any other building on campus.
You're always making sure that you're not getting to classes late,
you're not getting to other places late,
or even getting lunch with your friends on time is a perfect opportunity too.
And living on res, just to add on to that - it’s your first step into adulthood.
You know what I'm saying?
Because you're living by yourself, you’re not living with your family anymore.
You're your own protector at this point
because you
have to make your own decisions as he said,
and sometimes you do make the wrong decisions as well.
But what you know is that you understand the repercussions of your actions
and it allows you to grow as an adult and as you’re stepping as an 18, 19 year
old into these buildings, you’re gonna understand life gets real really fast.
So being on res definitely helps nurture the maturity level.
If I had anything to tell my past self, it would absolutely be to rely
on the people around you,
because everyone in res understands that they're part of a community
just as much as your roommates are going to be part of your community -
because they live in the same four walls that you do.
But people are truly there to help you out if you need it,
whether they're in the same program or not,
they understand that you're going through the same challenges that they are,
and everyone is truly capable and willing and excited
to make the environment as comfortable for you as possible.
Sure, and to make it a little more personal
to the roommate life -
I know a lot of people have apprehension about living in the same room
as somebody or sleeping less than a meter away from somebody.
It's really not that bad, as long as there's communication involved
and you and your roommate actually take the chance and the efforts
to get along, it's really not that bad - actually it's pretty fun.
So that was our room.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
And we'll see you at Mac next year!