Minutes spent musing are minutes spent missing
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
[…]
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
– The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot
When readers hear the theme “Revolt,” they might think of Bastille-style violence, blood running through the streets, the rage of a people fed up with corruption or societal injustice.
But to our first-time readers, particularly to our first years, I want you to think beyond immediate semantic associations. Consider a revolt against indecision. Against the anxiety of a new year, a new place, new people keeping their eyes forward, face flat, too terrified to speak to their peers, much less to their professors. A revolt against your parents’ perception of you as a newborn lamb, their little toddler stumbling through family photographs, when you’ve already learned to clean the grout out of your bath tiles, or flash your ID at a bar. A revolt against consumerism, the $9 strawberry matcha promotions, blind boxes, a revolt in which you don’t buy overpriced, dazzlingly disappointing pistachio chocolate. A revolt against the academic institutions, large media outlets, and politicians capitulating to the pressure of those people behind the curtains, the puppet masters we cannot see, muzzling students for daring to speak the word ‘genocide’ as Israeli forces slaughter and starve and silence tens of thousands of Palestinians far from our eyes.
Decades from now, when you’re standing at the top of the stairs “with a bald spot in the middle of [your] hair,” you’ll realize Eliot’s narrator was wrong. You’ll kick yourself for having wasted time wondering “Do I dare?” Do I dare go to office hours? Do I dare join intramurals? Do I dare apply to this super selective program? Do yourself a favor—don’t fall prey to indecision.
So go out and disturb the universe. Ask that stylish person in class where they got their jacket, the stickers on their laptop, ANYTHING to start a conversation. Think about what it means to be an ‘emerging adult’ when you’re partying one night and helping your mom cook dinner another. Hell, buy yourself a sweet treat on a whim if you so wish. Write that provocative article for The Strand, about Palestine or questionable UofT administrative decisions, because we sure as hell will publish it. Censorship be damned.
And last but not least, if you find your fingers hovering over your keyboard, your fluttering heart longing to put forth an article pitch, your pointer just shy of hitting ‘send’ on an email to one of our beloved section editors, HIT SEND!
We’re here to help you write, and we’re here to help you fight. Pick up a friend, pick up a pen. Rise up. REVOLT!