Sunday, November 27, 2011

Attitude of Gratitude V4#11 - Remembrance Day

You may remember last year how annoyed I was that I couldn't attend a proper Remembrance Day ceremony because I had class. This year I figured out where the one on campus was held (it helps to be friends with the History Students Association now) and I just skipped my French tutorial in order to attend. It was very nice. Totally student run and quite simple. Barry (top left) the president of the HSA spoke about the student's role in remembering, the president of the Student's Union spoke, a girl who had done a battle fields tour shared a bit about her experience and the Dean of Students not only read "In Flanders Fields" but also gave a bit of the story around when John McCrae wrote it and what it was like for him. Brendan (right) was the MC. He was really nervous but he did a really good job.


We had five of the music students play a couple of selections including "Last Post" (which gave me chills like it normally does) and Amazing Grace. At one point the friend I was sitting beside nuged me and pointed behind us. There were about 100 chairs filled with students and faculty but behind that it was standing room only and it was PACKED. So many people stopping and standing silently was pretty cool.

Afterwards there was a reception on one of the upper levels of the Student Centre. I ended up, somewhat randomly, talking to an older gentleman who turned out to be the past Dean of Students (and now the student centre is named after him). I had heard that he still worked on campus so I was excited to meet him. We chatted for a bit and I learned that he had actually fought for the American's in the Korean War and then went to West Virginia University where he got his degree. He came to Canada in 1968 and has been at the university ever since. I'm pretty sure most of the people in the room didn't realize that he was a veteran so that was cool plus, around campus, he's a living legend so it was extra special.

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