Undocumented Stories

I wrote a blog post on my personal blog My Life Is Like A Song about Black Lives Matter where I share what has resonated with me on the topic. You can read my full blog post by clicking here.

I shared an article that I saw on the CBC website about the University of Western Ontario professor Philippe Rushton that reminded me of my university days.

"Rushton was a psychology professor [whose] work was widely criticized as racist as he attempted to draw conclusions between race and intelligence, fuelling beliefs that white people were genetically superior to Black people."  Click here to read the full article.

Our student newspaper at the University of Waterloo asked a question every week and printed the answers they received. I remembered being asked about Rushton's research and searched online to find this newspaper clipping.

Here's my (zoomed in) response:

Do you have memories with no documentation? 

During my Revive55 Project, I went through my memory boxes. I found a different "Campus Question" newspaper clipping that I was in and remembered this one as well, but I didn't have a clipping for this one. Reflecting back, what are the chances that I was featured in two "Campus Questions"? Hanging out at the Campus Centre where the newspaper office was probably helped.

This controversy with the university professor's research may be especially memorable to me because I was doing research in the Chemical Engineering Department so I was very interested in the methodology that this professor was presenting for his findings. When the reporter asked me if I wanted to share my thoughts on it, I wasn't shy to share my opinion.

Which brings me back to the idea of our memories. I was telling my daughter my memory of the campus question but did wonder, 'am I remembering this right?' 'am I embellishing it?'

When we don't have documentation for moments in our lives, we have a few options.

In this case, I was lucky to find the newspaper clipping online. Our university newspapers have been scanned. Last year, I went through many of them, trying to find this clipping.  Although I didn't find it at the time, I found other meaningful moments from concerts or other events that I was happy to be reminded of.

Telling stories helps us remember. I have often told the story of the days when I started dating my husband so we remember some of the details, but we don't have photos or specific mementos. We luckily have a photo of us from around that time period - we think before we were actually dating. But without cell phones, many of these earlier moments are not photographed.

I am taking a course called Tiny Story Society. This month's challenge was to photograph a story that isn't documented. We were asked to first document the story from memory to tell or write the story the way we remember it.

This week I was driving my daughter to Waterloo where I met my husband, so I took the time to go on campus and photograph the place where we watched a movie the night before our first official date. COVID-19 days made for an unusual photo with an empty hall that would normally be full of students lounging in chairs, walking or standing around.

I also went to the bar where I first saw him and we went for our first date.

Memories of lining up on this ramp, and watching people leave are so memorable.

Although this venue is no longer a bar, it was the venue for the open house our daughter attended while trying to decide on her university choice. My husband took a photo that day as we remembered the stage I was sitting on when I first saw him; the DJ booth where we'd make song requests and the dance floor where we spent hours enjoying our favourite songs.

Sometimes, actually going to the place isn't possible but there are other ways to bring those memories back to life.

What story do you want to capture?