Presented with the opportunity to write the blog entry for the final day of SHAD Valley MUN,(Memorial University of Newfoundland) I am at a crossroads of options, so to speak. I could write about what SHAD was. I could write about what SHAD is. Or, I could write about what SHAD will become. Since the past is the best indicator of the future, this post will center on the former of the previous three possibilities.
The final day of SHAD MUN was a whirlwind of colour, sound, emotion, thought, warm embraces, and rapidly changing air pressure. Perhaps these things were largely a function of the scheduled “all nighter”, or the ominously high altitude the pilot decided to fly at, but all extraneous variables aside, it is clear that SHAD was “something”. What that “thing” was, is extremely difficult to define, but conceivably this difficulty is what makes it exciting.
How many days have you woken up, without even the vaguest idea of what you would do tomorrow? This is what we encountered every single day at MUN, a schedule with items such as “lecture”, and “recreational activity”, listed. Never a lecture title or even a vague hint of what we might actually be doing during that 1.5 hour slot. Needless to say, it was especially concerning when the final scheduled activity of SHAD MUN, had neither a broad categorical, or more specific topical, indicator of what we might be doing. It had, simply, three question marks.
Many people speculated about what these question marks meant. Most came to the conclusion that it was simply “free time”, where they could do whatever they want, more specifically, an opportunity to “party”. The question marks proved to be much more than simple “free time”. Whisked away, told not to bring cameras or flashlights, the participants of SHAD MUN soon discovered that they were far from correct on what the questions marks meant.
The event(s?) that occurred during the next two hours are secrets only known to the participants of SHAD MUN. Although I cannot describe the event(s) that occurred during that time, I will present three words – to evoke the feelings participants felt during that time:
1. Change
2. Life
3. Eternity
…
The hours directly following that event are filed in my brain alongside other events that were very significant, but disappeared without seemingly existing.
Travelling home passed in a similar fashion, as though time was passing, but had never really existed to pass. At the very end of my trip, descending down an escalator to the baggage collection area at Vancouver International Airport, I saw a sign which struck a harmonious chord with me. It included one of the most profound quotations, from one of the most meaningful movies that I know of. Look at the following picture, and think about the quotation. Then, think about the explicit, and implicit value it has.
This IS Shad Valley.
Mark Stothers
Shad Valley Memorial University
Hometown: Surrey, British Columbia
