1 Love UTSC

Hello, fellow readers! This week's topic is about something near and dear to my heart. It has been central to the last 5 years of my life - it's practically in my blood. It has shaped my future and the person I am today. It has also lead me here - this blog - it has for whatever reason allowed me to write to you every week. If you're still clueless as to what I'm talking about, allow me to enlighten you. I'm talking about UTSC.

Whether you're in your 1st year or 5th year I'm sure you've heard something along the lines of "UTSC sucks", "UTSC is boring, there's nothing to do here", "I hate this place (UTSC), UTSG is so much better" and "I hope my degree doesn't say 'University of Toronto Scarborough' and just says 'University of Toronto'.

I for one, LOVE UTSC - I absolutely ADORE UTSC.

Over my 5 years here I've heard so many people hate on UTSC, for whatever reason, I almost started to believe what they were saying. I did come across students who shared the same love for UTSC as I did, but they were few and far between. As I progressed through my university years I found a few students who actually took pride in being a UTSC student and actually wanted to make UTSC a better place - most of those students have graduated and have gone on to making the world a better place but not without leaving their mark.

Former students like Andre Vash and Nigel D'souza (who arguably have the most love for UTSC) come to mind. They have gone on to create Butterfly Communities a local charity that focuses on local projects in Toronto. Their first and on-going project is a Mornel Court Community Centre refresh which is right near UTSC - talk about mad love for UTSC and the Scarborough community.

Now being in my 5th year, I find it hard to find students who even remotely have the same level of respect, love and pride in UTSC as those students who have gone. I was beginning to lose faith - until October 19th 2011.

October 19th "1loveUTSC" shirts went on sale. 240 tshirts were ordered and they were literally GONE by noon. I didn't even have a chance to get one. I remember seeing masses and masses of students lining up to get one and even more disappointed students not being able to get a shirt in their size or a shirt in general. Students were buying shirts in colours they didn't want and sizes too big for them to wear. It was a pleasant sight to see all those students willing to show their pride for UTSC. Since the sale I have seen a number of students rocking the 1LoveUTSC shirt everyday. I even have recent graduates of UTSC messaging me on Facebook and Twitter asking me if I could get them a shirt. To be honest, I never expected such an out pour of UTSC love from the students - I guess I got proven wrong and I'm kind of glad I did.

If you got one you were one of the lucky ones! However, for those who didn't have the chance to snag the most epic piece of UTSC swag, don't fret! I heard rumours from some well placed sources that there will be another order of shirts!

Do you have pride for UTSC? If so why? If don't tell me why - All in the comment section below! You can now post without a google account which makes things a lot easier! Remember to Subscribe and follow me on twitter @malcolmwong1