This is the 98th and final issue of The Varsity that I have helped create as science editor, and comes at the end of my fourth and final year at U of T. I can’t leave without first saying a few things, so please indulge me.
First, I want to say thank you. Thank you to all the other editors at this paper who have given me so much help, guidance, and support these two years. Thank you to all the professors and grad students who have shared their passions with me and inspired me. And most of all, thank you to all the volunteers who have so generously given their time and energy to this paper.
Second, I want to pass on the meagre bits of advice I can offer. Don’t neglect your arts education. Without an appreciation for art, music, poetry, and the thousands of years of human history that have made us who we are, you’ll never understand what it means to be human. But don’t dismiss science as nothing more than shallow physical explanations. Without some understanding of the massive scope of the universe, the mystery of our origin, and the four billion years of evolutionary legacy that we share with the other 30 million species on this planet, you’ll never truly appreciate what it means to be alive in the first place.
And third, don’t spend your entire life working. There’s no point in pursuing a PhD or a six-figure salary if you waste your youth gathering dust in the library. You only get one shot at this lifetime, and the stupidest thing you could ever do is think that higher education (as enriching as it can be) could ever substitute for the experience of truly living.
~ Zoe Cormier, Science Editor 2003-05
