I had been living in Winnipeg. No one in my family had previously attended university. I liked the look and feel of McGill. I liked the fact that it was in Montreal. I thought it would be a different change in pace.
All these years later, the memories of my time in Montreal remain vivid: the orange-yellow hue of light that street lamps cast on cold winter evenings, the sound of snow crunching under my boots as I walked across campus, the rotating beacon atop Place Ville Marie, that was almost like a North Star to guide you home. It was the experience of being in a foreign city, it was my first taste of freedom.
I still remember being in the Rutherford Building at McGill, doing modeling on computers and the big Silicon Graphics machines. It was by odd coincidence that soon after McGill, during my graduate studies, the internet was starting to happen. We went from the gopher to the browser and everything started to change. While I didn’t jump right into starting a company, I did so three years after finishing my master’s degree. It seemed exciting. All of a sudden, here was an industry that was a blank slate. It offered boundless opportunities to people of my generation. The internet’s maturation was a cool coincidence with mine. It represented, again, a little bit of freedom.
Since graduating from McGill, I have lived in various places. Wherever I've been, whether it's Vancouver or in the Northeast U.S., McGill is well-known. You see McGill sweaters and cars with McGill bumper stickers. My company recently hired a McGill graduate, and the two of us talk about our McGill experiences. It’s part of who you are.
I encourage today’s students to study what they are passionate about. While some people feel that the most important thing about university is preparing for a job, I think what’s most important is having an opportunity to really just learn. There is a joy that comes from learning. The experience of going to university, of studying in the library, and being around other people who are curious is phenomenal.