Student Life

It’s difficult enough to be a feminist, regardless of your skin colour. You’re policed and dismissed. Your frustration is interpreted as rage, and you always seem to be ‘asking for too much.’ 

From costumes to candy to carving pumpkins, Halloween festivities can be full of single-use products that aren’t so sustainable.  

As university students, we’ve long traded trick-or-treating for costume parties and themed get-togethers. Now, the only thing scarier than ghosts and goblins is pulling together last-minute costumes and figuring out what to bring to Halloween potlucks. 

Queen’s Homecoming is a time to celebrate togetherness and school spirit, but not everyone experiences it in the same way. In honour of this year’s festivities, The Journal asked staff, students, and alumni to share what Homecoming means to them.

Many students can agree that school breaks should be a time for relaxation, family, and food, not panicking over academic deadlines. Still, many professors assign work over holiday breaks, leaving students little choice but to sneak away from family festivities to complete their schoolwork.

I still how relaxed and calm I felt after my first yoga class in high school.

Apart from academics and part-time jobs, most Queen’s students pursue a handful of hobbies. From ing clubs that satisfy our interests to going for runs along the waterfront, we fill our spare time with simple activities that make us happy.  

Social media can be a useful tool for keeping in with your family, completing schoolwork, and staying on top of the latest news. But if you overdo or misuse it, social networking sites can also have serious ramifications on your mental health.

Blustering winds, unexpected rain, and dreaded mid are getting us all down this month, as fall finally rears its head. Now that summer has ended and upbeat music no longer matches the mood and weather, it’s time for a new seasonal playlist to set the tone for autumn.

As someone who usually spends the entire fall semester dealing with a never-ending sinus cold, I’ve picked up many tricks for warding off the most unpleasant symptoms of dreaded back-to-school illness. 

Three years ago, I attended a venture capital firm’s annual meeting—an event where the company updates partners and portfolio companies on their investment and management strategies moving forward.

With classes getting back into full swing and the official first day of fall having come and gone, students are beginning to mourn the end of pier season, wearing shorts to class, and above all else, the phenomenon that is the “hot girl summer.”

While it’s clichéd to say, Mondays truly are the worst.

For as long as the Internet has existed, and probably before, there’s always been a type of “girl” that embodies the trends of the younger generations. We’ve seen the Tumblr girl, the basic bitch, and the E-girl, among others.

Chances are that if you drink boba tea (also known as bubble tea), you don’t just like it—you love it. The smooth milk tea and the squishy tapioca pearls makes for a dangerous combination out to get both your sanity and the cash in your wallet.

The climate crisis can no longer be ignored, and several cities, such as our very own Kingston, have declared states of climate emergency. As young people and students, it can feel overwhelming to live our daily lives while knowing we’re contributing to the problem.