I was in Grade 13, and already planning to attend university in Ontario for journalism. By chance, my dad invited me to join him on a last-minute trip to Montreal to check out McGill. Unlike today, McGill was not a particularly fashionable choice in 1980, at least not among the graduating class of a small rural high school in Southwestern Ontario. So even though I knew very little about McGill, I tagged along anyway.
We arrived on a beautiful late spring afternoon. I remember walking from the train station up to Roddick Gates and feeling an immediate sense of comfort from the moment I set foot on campus. Within five minutes, I knew that this was where I was going to school. In a way, I didn’t choose McGill. McGill chose me.
I enrolled in the Faculty of Arts, with a major in English Literature. One of my first impressions of McGill was the calibre of the student body. From your first lecture in Leacock, it becomes clear that every person in the room was probably the top of their class in high school. It’s a humbling experience that was both intimidating and inspiring. McGill was an amalgam of smart, ambitious people, and I felt very lucky to be a part of it.
This was the early ’80s; a time when Montreal and McGill were both in states of transition and facing multiple challenges. The economy was struggling, and politics were in turmoil. On campus, programs were under-funded and many buildings were in disrepair.
Yet through all my time here, what struck me was the resilience displayed by the city and the university. I saw both pull themselves together to get through the hard times by looking past the immediate obstacles, staying the course and focusing on the long term.
Advertising is a full-contact sport that is not for the faint of heart. The highs are higher, the lows are lower, and we’ve had lots of both over the years.”
I graduated in the spring of ’83 and moved to Toronto to pursue a career as a writer. I had always been interested in advertising and landed a job as a media buyer in a downtown agency. A few years later, I switched to account management, and then finally into the creative department as a copywriter – a vocation I have practiced for the past 30 years.
I had always hoped to run my own agency one day, and in late 2004, I started Hyphen Communications in an office with no windows and one partner. Advertising is a full-contact sport that is not for the faint of heart. The highs are higher, the lows are lower, and we’ve had lots of both over the years. And while we’ve faced many challenges, I credit my time at McGill with giving me the confidence to face them head-on, and to know that we’ll come out of them stronger on the other side.
A liberal arts degree prepares you for a changing world. It gives you a tremendously broad base of knowledge, together with the critical thinking skills to evaluate and apply them. The skills I developed at McGill to create strong, compelling arguments have paid enormous dividends over the years. I am grateful to all my peers and professors for making that possible.
If there is any advice I could give to today’s students, the first thing would be to learn to be nimble with your life and career choices. There is never just one way to the finish line. Assume things will get in your way. Have a Plan A, but also a Plan B, and a Plan C.
Second, stay curious. Keep learning across your whole life. New ideas are the fuel that keeps your passions burning. Keep an open mind and you never know what will drop in.
And finally, trust your instincts. Even if you don’t fully understand them right away, they will come to serve you well in later life. Listen to your head, but always follow your heart.