The realest moments at UofT St. George

As a graduating student, I’ve done my time at UofT. I sat through four difficult years of my undergrad (one year of which was completely online and done from my childhood bedroom), and I’ve paid my dues (tens of thousands of them, in fact)! As one last goodbye to the campus that brought me so many heart palpitations, I present to you: the realest moments at UofT St. George.

1: The opening of Robarts Commons

We’re coming in hot with the official unveiling of Robarts Commons. I was nearing the end of my third year when this was announced, and the best part of my year hands down was meeting up with my friends every single day during exams season to monopolise the study rooms for ten hours at a time (you didn’t hear that from me). The opening of Robarts Commons was a shift in UofT culture. No longer would we be forced to slave away in the hideous concrete labyrinth that is Robarts, trying futilely to memorise the RNA cycle in rooms that smelled like mothballs and had no windows. All of a sudden, studying could include sunlight! Floor-to-ceiling windows! Comfy seating! Of course, the thermometer was busted for the first few months of the grand opening and I was sweating through all of my clothes, but the Bluetooth TV setup made it all worth it <3. The Commons will go down in history as Robarts’ younger, prettier sister, and the ideal linkup spot for those who love to wait 40 minutes in line for Starbucks, open their MacBooks, and promptly begin gossiping and kiki-ing instead of studying for midterms they have the following day.

2: PP Man

If you know, you know, and if you don’t, consider yourself extremely lucky. Back when I was in first year (alllllll the way back in 2019), there was a man terrorising the streets of Toronto (and our very own Robarts) by going around and throwing literal buckets of shit on people. There was a notice sent out to UofT students to be on the lookout and the perpetrator was eventually apprehended, but not before striking fear into the hearts of students everywhere. My brain has forced me to mostly block this memory out for the sake of my own well-being so there’s not much more I’ll say on the matter, but it is still very much Googleable (at your own risk).

3: OVO Merch

Everyone knows where they were when Drake announced that his clothing brand OVO would be collaborating with the UofT Bookstore to release limited edition merch. I, for one, opened the website on my phone, saw the price of one t-shirt (plus shipping), and immediately closed the tab, but shoutout to those who had enough money in their bank account to partake! The most entertaining part of the whole thing for me was seeing how much people were reselling baseball hats and Varsity jackets for on Facebook marketplace, and the memes that UofT students made making fun of TMU for not being chosen to have their own collab. We all know that if there’s one thing UofT students know how to do, it’s brag.

4: The Brown Food Truck

Admittedly, this one isn’t a “moment” so much as a permanent fixture of our campus, but I couldn’t write an article without mentioning it anyways. Given that St. George is one of the few college campuses (probably ever) to have no centralised, universal location for students to be able to buy food, the food trucks have become many students’ only option when they’re going on hour seven of a Robarts study session or walking bleary-eyed out of back-to-back classes at Sid Smith. Although I personally have never bought food from the Brown Food Truck, I know from word-of-mouth alone that it will go down in history as one of the best food trucks permanently parked on St. George. In a world full of mediocre dining halls and haphazardly scattered Second Cup’s, we should all strive to be as solid and stable as the fabled Brown Food Truck.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it is the best I can come up with with my currently senioritis-addled brain. I hope this will suffice as a silly little tribute to the campus that I love to hate :) Goodbye St. George, I’ll miss you!