Year 4.

In the Spring of 2011, as the second semester of my third year was winding down, I realized that I was awfully close to graduation with not much planned after that. The advice we all get always goes like this: “You’ll figure it out.” But nobody says when or how you figure it out. I knew ever since the end of my first semester (if you recall, I bombed Chemistry) that I would not complete my degree in the traditional four years. I was also comforted knowing that almost all of my friends who had a high level of commitment to student government or other extra-curricular’s had also taken an extra year or semester and went on to do great things after graduation. So I definitely wasn’t concerned about when I was graduating but rather what I was doing afterwards.

At this point, my term as Double Blue Officer was coming to an end. I had lived downtown for the year and so I had been extremely involved given my proximity to school had changed from 50km to about 400 metres. Yet, my grades were nothing to write home about. And I still had no idea what I was going to do after I graduated. So, given that SMCSU was one of my only outlets for developing myself throughout University, I thought it was only natural to run for re-election and attempt to finally take the reigns as Double Blue Commissioner.

Safe to say, I was re-elected and chosen as the DB Commissioner. My plan for the year was simple. Increase attendance at our events. Maximize charitable donations for our yearly charity event through sponsorship. Ensure our formal was affordable yet glamorous. And maintain the same level of excitement for SMC events, which had been at an all-time high in the past two years.

NOTE: St. Mike’s is notorious as the ‘party college’ at U of T. For anybody who has doubted U of T’s ability to have a social atmosphere like that of Western or Guelph, you have NOT attended a SMC event!

The best part about my third year on SMCSU was that, because of my heavy involvement over the previous two years, I had created many great friendships that made our work on council enjoyable.  My third time on SMCSU was by far my favourite year. The people who made up this council worked tirelessly. Most of the time SMCSU members don’t get the credit that they deserve. But these people that I’m about to discuss definitely helped me develop as a leader and as a person, so they have the utmost amount of respect and credit in my mind. And there IS a reason that I’m going in depth about these people besides the fact that they’ve become great friends. Each and every one of them have faced challenges and overcame them, all the while becoming awesome people. And each of us used one common outlet for this development – involvement at our University.

The council was led by two of the most passionate people at the school as President and Vice-President, Kyle Farren and Frank Fisico. From my experience, I knew that the Pres/VP make or break the council. Both Kyle and Frank had a commitment to SMCSU like no other tandem, and they finished with one of the most successful years.

Frank in front of our life-size poster; Also Frank doesn't
look like this anymore

Frank Fisico is a gem. I tell people this all the time, and I should probably stop because I’ve repeated it so much, but Frank has been to every one of my birthday parties since the beginning of University. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but considering that I didn’t really know him well until after the first two birthday parties, it tells you a lot about the type of person he is. He started as Frank the Tank when he ran for his first SMCSU campaign and because of this he was (and still is) really popular.  He’s also incredibly committed to anything and everything he does. He was a great Commuter Life officer in his first year on SMCSU and an even better Vice President. Nothing demonstrates Frank’s commitment  more then his new fitness lifestyle. Frank shed a crazy amount of weight and has literally become a new person ….. and the HEAVY WEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

Where to start with Kyle Farren? Kyle has received his fair share of slack from around campus and much of it is warranted. Kyle and I have talked about this a lot over the years so I don’t feel bad being candid here. When I met Kyle, he was extremely cocky, borderline rude, and very much so an intimidating figure (or at least he tried to be). But I like to observe people because we ALL have more to us than we give off and I realized that there was more to him than the hard skinned person that everybody saw.

In SMCSU meetings during my first year, Kyle was meticulous in his note taking. He was careful to note everything - all the way down to the exact start and end of the meeting and all the important notes in between. To someone like me, who definitely did not take meetings as seriously in my first year, this was weird. Regardless, what I saw from Kyle that majority of the people who know him never really got to see was somebody who was extremely passionate about something – that something being SMCSU.

Kyle is the ultimate success story. I don’t think he ever got his “first-choice” for commission on SMCSU. Sometimes he didn’t get his second or third choice either. After you are elected by the student body onto SMCSU, all the elected members democratically vote for who gets what position. Now put yourself in Kyle’s shoes: Imagine planning for a year how you wanted to run the Social Commission in the next year; running a campaign to get elected onto SMCSU, getting voted in by hundreds of students, sitting in a meeting  but not being voted into either Social Commissioner or Social Officer position. Some people would (and have) quit because they would be ‘stuck’ with a commission that they had no interest in. Kyle? He took the challenge straight on.

After three years of never really gaining the respect of his colleagues, Kyle finally got his first choice when he was elected as President of SMCSU. This is where he developed from a prick to a leader. Not many people know this but Kyle attended the most meetings that a SMCSU President has ever attended. He was involved with the St. Michael’s College Council, he had nearly bi-weekly meetings with College administration and the Dean of Students, and he chaired the cross-campus St George Roundtable. He did it all and took notes in the whole process.

I made the mistake of joining him on one of these meetings. At one point, I agreed with the Principal of SMC that the number of student seats at the College Council executive meetings should be reduced by a minimal number (I cant really remember how many but Kyle probably has it written down somewhere) Within a second, Kyle, who was sitting beside, gave me a massive kick to the leg under the table. He's a scrawny guy, super skinny, but he used to play Varsity Soccer - safe to say it bruised. Later he told me that he never wants to be responsible for students losing a voice until he had the time to ensure the decision was sensible. Safe to say I never said a word at one of those meetings again.

Me and Kyle - when I opened the ridiculous
SMCSU Secret Santa Gift he gave me. 

I don’t want this to turn into a Kyle Farren love-in.  Afterall, he did ‘accidentally’ kiss my girlfriend..... and has since offered to 'take my place' in the relationship while I'm away at Windsor. I'll leave it at that. We have also been in dozens of arguments, too. Good times. But he is one of my best friends now and I think he deserves the credit that nobody ever wanted to give him. This past May, Kyle and Frank asked me to facilitate with them at the bi-annual SMCSU leadership retreat and I finally figured out why Kyle was so meticulous in his note keeping.  This retreat was one of the most insightful in SMCSU’s history. Kyle had kept a copy of nearly every SMCSU agenda (and notes) from every meeting he attended. He incorporated all these facts and insights into the leadership activities at the retreat. He had one final send off and, if anything, he proved that he has definitely been changed by SMCSU. If you’re reading this 10 years from now in your office as a diplomat, Kyle, you owe me a flight on your private jet.

This is the leadership that I had to work under as  Double Blue Commissioner. Safe to say they were very supportive and we all worked very well together. The Finance Commissioner for that year (who essentially rounds out the Big 3 of SMSCU in addition to the President and Vice-President) was Fran Turco. Full disclosure: Fran and I didn’t get along when I met her in first year. I can’t quite remember how I met her to be honest but I know that we just didn’t mesh and its funny now to look back. At some point we became close, and again I can’t really pinpoint it. Maybe it was the carpooling from Markham to Toronto? Maybe it was the Leafs preseason games? Daniel Morad and her cousin? Regardless, I can’t really remember what moment we went from not getting along to being very good friends.

Campaign Poster - 2011

Fran is a next level workhorse. She was the first member in SMCSU history to hold a position and also be a don on residence. It was never allowed before, but somehow she pulled it off. We ran a campaign together in our first ever SMCSU election (if you recall my previous blog post). We were general Councillors together. She took over charge of Commuter Life in her second year on SMCSU when I was in DB. We both reached our desired positions in our third year. And, even though we were probably asked a hundred times by various people to run as a President/VP combo, the both of us decided to pursue other things while we still were in University. At the end of the day, we accomplished everything and more on SMCSU - and we didnt see the need to run for Pres/VP just because we could. To this day, neither of us regret that decision as it has allowed us to really figure out our other passions but safe to say that if our heart was in it, we definitely would have ran for President and VP together!

**I know Fran is refreshing this blog daily to see what I have to say, but because of the chronology of events in my life (also because Kyle took up so much damn space), this will be the second time I say that there will be more on her later**

Anyway, imagine that this was who I reported to: Fran, Kyle and Frank. Three people who I was extremely comfortable with but would motivate me to do well. My year as Double Blue Commissioner was by far my most enjoyable year on SMCSU. Much of the success of the Double Blue Commission has to be attributed to these three beauties (or 'absolute beauts' - did I do that right?) that I've mentioned. For the most part, they were with me every step of the way; be it to book venues, get sponsorship, or to be there early to set up. As a result, the Double Blue Commission experienced its highest revenues and shattered attendance records. We raised 7,000$ for the Remix Project, up from $4500 the year before – just by tuning inefficiencies in the way we ran the event. Our Formal was a success and Sold Out two weeks beforehand. SMCSU led the largest cross-campus Winterfest Social Event in U of T History. The list goes on. All thanks to the council and my friends at the top.

Given the success we had, and three long years of climbing the ladder to get the position I desired, I felt that I wanted something more. Something that would act as an outlet for what I wanted to do when I graduated. Something that would help me in the future. You see, I had the best academic year of MY LIFE in my fourth year. And not because I got smarter or anything like that. I think the reason is because I was in my comfort zone: I had a great network of friends, a supportive girlfriend (who still hadn't kissed Kyle Farren ;), and I was heavily involved with SMCSU in a position that I LOVED. I knew that if I continued to challenge myself, and remain involved, the good marks would continue – now if only I knew that 3 years EARLIER! 


Oh well. YOLO.

I could probably make this whole blog about Drake Lyrics.
But I won't.