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The 52 Project

30/52 Akan Esu

30/52 Akan Esu

“I love being a dad.

It holds a mirror to who I am, forces me to be better and makes me think about my legacy.

I think about the next generation, and the one after that. I think about the standard I am leaving behind.

I want to know that I’ve done and given my best, so that I can have comfort in who my son will be when I am not there.

For me the most valuable moments are knowing who my child is.

I am not perfect, I have flaws. It’s important for me to treat myself kindly and be vulnerable so that my son can see who I am. And this allows him to be himself around me and know that he doesn’t have to be perfect either.

As a man there's so much pressure to measure up but it's important to acknowledges that we are human and don't have all the answers.”

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29/52 Dylan Hollohan

29/52 Dylan Hollohan

“I was teaching in Korea, saving up money for my 3rd lane change in as many years, it seemed. I had been doing all sorts of jobs to get by after school and still keep doors open. I felt a bit trapped without much room to grow where I was and that nagged at me constantly, but I just didn’t have the money to go back to school and finish what I started. I always knew I’d be back soon but those years felt incredibly slow and I just wanted to move on to an industry with more open space to move.

When I was finally accepted to University of Toronto for Computer Science I was ecstatic, but I didn’t know the type of beat down I had just signed myself up for. The first semester was brutal, having not done any formal math for 7 years, or much coding at all. It still hasn’t gotten much easier.

The kids around me are phenomenal, super focused, talented, well-prepared. I felt a lot of envy, maybe for the first time in my life. Yet I am really proud of the fact that I made up all of that ground in a few short months, I didn’t completely lose my mind, and am finally starting to see a really good learning trajectory. I’m on the back half now which is full of courses I get to choose and can’t wait to take, opportunities to pursue. I can’t see where it’s all going yet but it’s going to be good. I’m sure of that much. Despite the really dark and tough beginning, I’d make this choice again 10 times out of 10. It’s just in my nature to feel dread when I don’t push myself, so here we are.”

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28/52 Anowa Quarcoo

28/52 Anowa Quarcoo

“I am, therefore I post..not the other way around. A lot of folks have it the other way around…I think social media can be really harmful, because people evaluate themselves based off others. It’s a medium that thrives off this need for instant gratification.

We’re junkies.

I think the difference between us and previous generations is we want fast food, they believed in farming. They’re two diametrically opposed approaches…something has been lost. The process of farming allows you to feel connected, it gives you a respect for the food you eat. And our relationships are often treated the same way. For example I really feel that people don’t invest, or water the grass in the same way, they’re like ‘just put turf down! It looks green! It’s perfect’.

People don’t stop to ask themselves why they think that grass is greener.”

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27/52 John Barrett
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27/52 John Barrett

“My experience playing in the 1984 olympics, I guess you could say was a dream come true. As a young boy… I started talking about wanting to be an olympian when I was 11 years of age. Being able to actually realize that dream for me was at the time surreal. You train for things, you dream about things… then all of a sudden you’re there. It was larger than life, everything was literally amazing, except for the fact that we didn’t get the medal we wanted. We ended up coming fourth….. Still burns to this day to be honest.. because when you dream about something and you make it your reality in your head.. to not achieve that when you’re so close, is a painful experience. Looking back on it now from many years past, I revel more in the experience, the relationships that I made, and the memories really are incredible. It was everything I thought it would’ve been and I shared it with some of the best friends of my life who are still some of my best friends to this day. Our group was an exceptionally tight knit group.

When they first told me I was getting inducted into the hall of fame, I burst into tears. Im not a crier, I don’t cry that much. I’ve been running it through my head and I’m like, what’s going on here. I think what it is for me is, it’s a realization that I did something with my life, and I did what I wanted to do, and I pushed it hard enough and long enough to get recognition from my peers. That’s never anything that I’m looking for, but obviously it carries great weight to be recognized. It’s people saying thank you for what you did. What I have received from the world of volleyball is something that I’ll never be able to pay back. I’ve received way more than I have given to the sport.

I’ve got no problem with it, I’m comfortable with it. You have to be able to show who you are, and being vulnerable, asking for help, saying you’re sorry is real strength. You dont have to hide it, you dont have to say tough guys dont cry. That’s not reality. Reality is you feel, and if you have an emotional attachment to something and you can express it. That gives you an even closer bond to the people that you’re involved with.

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26/52 Matt Smith
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26/52 Matt Smith

“For a long time, becoming a lawyer was the end-game — something to work towards, and maybe take some knocks for along the way.  But, you quickly realize that was all foreplay, and now real life is just starting, and it has to be sustainable.  When I got sick from work, after things had been non-stop for quite a while,  it was shocking to me.  I thought I had built-up a mental resiliency, so I could handle it — whatever “it” was — in good spirits.  And I was in good spirits.  I was “handling it”, as far as work was concerned — but I was also losing weight, couldn’t eat, waking up at 1am feeling like I was on the starting blocks of a 100m dash, not sleeping.  My body knew better than I did that it wasn’t sustainable, and it spoke up, and I’m glad I listened and took a leave.  Happy to say I’m in a better place now, in the same role.  Of course, it’s still a work in progress:  my next hurdle is finding my authentic voice in a profession that sort of asks you to be a S.O.B.  In litigation, everyone is at each other’s throats by design.  Clients ask you to be “a bulldog” — to “get scrappy”.  You’re supposed to be difficult, concede nothing, be borderline petty, and ride a wave of faux righteous indignation all the way to the win at trial.  I have trouble getting in that headspace, and I’m not sure I want to.  I fight for my clients, but I’m more conciliatory by nature; I’d rather broker the sour-peace.  To be honest, I think I am becoming a good lawyer, but at the end of the day, I am a guy who just wants to be silly.  I like stupid jokes.  I like games.  A lot of lawyers who I look up to professionally are serious people.  They don’t “play”.  Remains to be seen if I can have it both ways.  This is obviously not something that’s unique to me;  everyone’s asked to code-switch to get by in a work-environment — to be “office funny”, to use the business jargon, and so on.  I guess the trick is to find the sweet spot in your “range” where it’s still you.  As much as I love role-playing games, you can’t just play the part forever.”


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25/52 Kari Hollend
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25/52 Kari Hollend

“This is why I hate the term influencer; it’s born out of a generation obsessed with influence in their minds being tied to a number and a metric… I hear my kids say “oh look I got a new follower” as if that’s some sort of milestone or achievement, and they all lack the understanding of impact…your impact and your legacy is going to be completely tied to what you do or the mark you leave - how you’ve helped shape the world - not to your instagram account. 

It’s a false sense of activism.

Greta Thunberg is an influencer, Oprah is an influencer, there are a million people who are actually influencers, but the notion that that’s a title everyone just gets drives me crazy. Earn it.”

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24/52 Darrell Wonge

24/52 Darrell Wonge

““When Stevie (my brother) died I got a dog tag made. One side has my favourite picture of us, from when he graduated high school. It was the last time he was taller than me. The other side has his quote “Fam or Nothing”. Something he stood for and believed in. From the day I was born he was always there looking out for me, protecting me and guiding me to be better. Since his death I wear the tags everyday. It makes me feel like he’s still here with me when I do, still protecting and looking out for me.””

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23/52 Vik Hovanisian
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23/52 Vik Hovanisian

“I wasn’t expecting it to be that hard [moving from Paris to Toronto]. I’ve lived on 4 continents and I never had any problem being multicultural, but when we moved to Canada I was like “oh gosh, what is this world”. I was amazed by how people are nice but cold at the same time. It was very hard to meet people here. I remember it was the first week, I’m like ok I’m going for the Canadian experience, I’m going to a bar to grab a beer…there’s this guy there who’s like a dad. He’s talking to the barman, the barman is talking to me, and I like that because it felt familiar to the culture in France, but also different. I’m like “oh ya I like this, I like this” then the dad turns to me and begins to tell me about his life. That he’s in the middle of this horrible divorce, that he’s losing his kids, it was horrible! I’m like oh my god! So we talked for more than 2 hours. I went to the washroom, came back and the guy was gone! I was so lost I looked at the barman and he was like “yeah, welcome to Canada” I was like “is he going to be ok!?”. He was sort of like, this is Canada, this is how it goes. We confide more in people that we meet one time than to our own people. I’m like, ok…the adventure begins”

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22/52 Izzy Hall
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22/52 Izzy Hall

“My parents are successful corporate people, and they’ve always wanted what’s best for me, and I’ve consistently looked to them for guidance.

After high school, I actually wanted to become a teacher because I loved helping to set people up for success. Instead, I followed my parents’ suggestion to “just give business a try”. I went to Queen’s Commerce, and I actually really did love parts of business, particularly strategy and problem-solving. Anyway, I remember so clearly, I hit this point after Queen’s when I was working at a bank, and I was just not loving living for the weekend. It became clear that the volunteer opportunities I took up after work were the things that were really giving me energy. I decided that I just needed to lean into this to see if I could build a full-time career in this space (or if it should remain as just a hobby).

I talked to a friend who worked at She Leads Africa…she just had so much energy when she was talking about her work and I was like THAT is what I want. She invited me to their Toronto workshop—I remember sitting in that room with goosebumps, knowing this is the kind of environment I want to be in, this is a mission that I connect to, and they offered me a job!

I remember telling my parents, and they were like “oh hell no!” I think they thought, not only is this such a risky career move, but it was a departure from the path they knew as successful. But it just felt so right in my heart, for the first time in my life, I didn’t care what my parents thought. I just went for it.

At the time, I didn’t really understand social enterprise. I knew the traditional model of charity, but She Leads Africa taught me about the intersection of business and social impact, which is really what I enjoy. It’s been so cool having opportunities to reimagine capitalism, and think about a world in which we don’t need the word “impact” in front of investing or “social” in front of enterprise. One where investors and businesses are considering a wider group of stakeholders, where social responsibility is at the core of operations as opposed to the periphery, and where doing well also means doing good”

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21/52 Jonathan Cherry
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21/52 Jonathan Cherry

“I was in university, I was at Western…It was a bunch of rich kids knowing that they’d either take over their parents business, or be lawyers or businessmen.. And I just had no interest. I liked people, movies, basketball, girls..I got a little depressed, I was like, what the fuck am I going to do, this isn’t me, I know I can’t do any of these things. And then I think Titanic was coming out on video..and there was a commercial.

I’d seen the movie and I loved it, you know it’s this epic thing… And I’m looking at this boat, and it’s tipping, and there’s this shot of this huge multi million dollar boat, and they’ve got this skinny blonde kid in front of the camera and I just had an epiphany..they set up all of this crazy shit, so that the camera can get images of this guys face…How do you get to there? And I was like, well maybe I’m not the magical person who can be THAT guy, but I was like, I would be really proud if I hammered a nail into that boat. In reality I wanted to be the one in front of that camera…but I was like there’s something here, where I feel like I could do that. Either way I want to be on that set, and I’d be proud if I was apart of that thing. I was like…is it ok to have a love for movies and television? I decided at that moment..obviously I want to be an actor…

I go home to my parents for Christmas and I had to tell them, I’m going to drop out to become an actor. My mom was like follow your dream, but skeptical y’know jewish parents and my dad was like “bullshit, this is just another excuse for you to not pick up a book”. So they said ok, do what you’ve got to do but you’ve got to figure it out for yourself.

So I come back to London and my best friend tells me he wants to go for dinner, and I’m like “ya I’ve gotta talk to you too”. So we get to dinner and I said to him “I’m dropping out dude, I want to go become an actor, and I already sent an application to Vancouver film school” he goes “…dude I was going to tell you the exact same thing.”

That fall him and I were driving out together to Vancouver to go become actors.”

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20/52 Jusep Sim
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20/52 Jusep Sim

“It’s been a rocky road as you can imagine. I had to shut down from march to august, and when I opened up again, it was just a trickle because I’m so dependent on tourism. But in the meantime, I actually started a new business that didn’t require social groups. I turned my food tour, into a virtual food tour, where I now set up a monthly subscription box…every month you get a box, filled with snacks, treats, and ingredients from a different country. Until you get the box you won’t know what country the box represents…

It’s about the story of cultures. Because I think the problem is, you can imagine if you’re outside of Toronto, often biases or prejudices are simply because of ignorance..they just don’t get exposed to different cultures and people. Hopefully this will trigger at least a curiosity.

The people that I continue to host…people just want to learn, and once they do, their minds open. I hosted an afghan night once, where I had an afghan refugee make the food and then tell his story. I had 4 jewish guests that attended and they said, this is the only way we could’ve been exposed to afghan food, because we would never walk into an afghan restaurant and I’m like….wow. Food is the most accessible way to get a glimpse into the soul of a country or culture and the most wonderful way to connect with people. The more we learn about those around us, the better we understand and appreciate the people we share this beautiful and diverse planet with."

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19/52 Jessica Henry
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19/52 Jessica Henry


“Knowing other languages is like a superpower in my eyes - I want to become fluent in more than just English. I’m truly jealous of people who grew up in multi-language households. I do, however feel very privileged to have learned French in immersion growing up. My brother who’s a year older took Spanish in high school and that year my family went Costa Rica on holiday. He knew all these words off the menu already, and that made me SO eager to take Spanish too. I was surprised that more people didn’t want to take it. Such a fun language to speak once you learn a little. In my experience when you're meeting people who have different first languages— even though most places I've been, the majority of people can also speak English— if you make an effort to speak their language, apart from it being fun and useful, it also opens people's hearts to you. Even if you can only get the pronunciation of the greeting down, and maybe a funny phrase to break the ice…You're saying you care about them and where they're from. It opens a door for them to teach you more. I think the biggest thing that stops people from trying new languages is the fear of sounding dumb, but I swear it’s worth it, even if you try and get it wrong, for the most part no one will make fun of you. More likely you’ll make a new friend.”

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18/52 Ahmed Moneka
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18/52 Ahmed Moneka

I’ve been here for like 5 years. When I came to Toronto, I was only coming to visit, because I was a well known actor and activist back home (Baghdad, Iraq). I talk about human rights, you know shit there is crazy, but the people there are like the people here. People are people. They love life, they love to express themselves, they want to enjoy their lives, they want better for themselves. There’s a lot of positivity that no one knows about. So when they killed the gays in 2011 (in Iraq), in a horrible way… As artists we wanted to talk about it. No ones saying anything. So we made the movie (The Society: a short film about homosexuality in Baghdad) in 2011. But who wants to screen it? No one because we’ll be killed for it. Until 2015, we got an offer to screen it at Cannes…This is Cannes, this is the dream…Cannes gave it great exposure and so TIFF saw it and put it in their Short Cuts program. So anyway I came here in September 2015, just you know, suits, red carpets, TIFF, its amazing! While screening the movie they (the Iraqi Government) went to my father and they tell him if I come back they want to kill me…They tell him I’m faggot, blah blah blah, that I won’t make it into heaven, he’s against us.

My father he is a very big comedian actor as well, and he was scared for our family. I was like “fuck them, this is my home, I’m coming back, I have a lot of work.” And my dad is like “no it’s not game..we’ll be threatened as well”…So I stayed in Toronto. 

It was really hard at the beginning because I don’t know how to speak any English at that time. So I found a place in North York and the people I lived with are all gays. They’re amazing. I told them my story and they welcomed me… I went to ESL school, it was like a comic show, like all these people from all over the world, no one knows how to speak English properly, it was crazy. 

I started learning the language but…still I want to be an actor, I want to come back to my field, back to my career. It was hard at the beginning. Took me 2 years to just find my way. Then I got an amazing grant from TAC (Toronto Art Council). They created a mentorship program for refugees and immigrants. So they hooked me up with my mentor Jeremy Smith; he’s an amazing guy. He introduced me to people in the theatre…But with film it was really hard and is still hard. I have an agent, but I don’t know a lot of people. You know the field, if you don’t know people, people won’t recommend you. I’m still working step by step. 

I am happy now. I feel its meant to be to be here. Canada is the best country. I’m so happy, so proud, because my family hopefully will be here too, but they got exiled too because of what I did… I thought doing the society was a risk to myself because you know I was single, didn’t have kids, and I thought, if anything happens I will take responsibility. But I didn’t imagine that it would impact my family. My father was a very big actor, my little sister was a very famous singer..we were known in the community and the country, so I didn’t imagine they would chase them out. When that happened, that was really killing me, like I felt so guilty. I lost a lot of weight, I was like “what the fuck did I do” I’m here in a safe place, and they’re there and they’ve lost everything and been exiled to Turkey. But I support them financially just to make things easier for them. Now hopefully they are coming before the New Year…I feel I really belong to Canada.

UPDATE: Since this quote Ahmed’s Family has made it to Toronto and are settling in to life in Canada. 

Credit for The Society: Directed by Osama Rasheed

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17/52 Elise Pulver
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17/52 Elise Pulver

“Never the less she persisted: I wore this on the way out of the hospital after my third back surgery. A spinal fusion… What does it mean to me? It means everything. It defines who I am. I’ve never given myself a choice. I have never let any of my adversities define me and I've had my fair share.

Getting divorced with a 2 year old and 4 year old was life altering. How couldn't it be? But from the adversity came prosperity. I have two kids, a fiancee and a step-daughter. I have a friendship with my ex husband and his new wife and my kids have a half-sister. Life is beautiful.

Here's what I think makes me who I am and what differentiates me from others...
I have always believed that good things come when you have a positive mindset and when faced with adversity. Knowing that it too will pass, not letting the anger you feel towards the world break you. Ya life can be unfair, but it's how you deal with the unfairness. I never wanted to be the person that 5 years later was no further ahead because I was still angry at the world. No one in my life had time for me complaining about my divorce or my surgeries, for example. I know everyone cared, but I didn't need to be "that" person. People don’t want to be surrounded by a Debbie downer all the time. It’s ok to have your moments, but it’s important to learn from them and move past them. In the past few years I’ve made huge life changes, I think I realized that I just wanted to be happy. I chose to be happy. Now I do yoga, I’m healthier than I’ve ever been and I can walk for hours without pain.

I worked for 17 years as a lawyer in a law firm environment and it was really intense and took its toll on me and my family. I was always emotionally exhausted...I had no balance, I thought I was happy but now I realize I wasn't. My mind was always with my clients and I was always thinking about work. And now my kids say to me “mommy we used to try and talk to you and you would just be standing at your computer typing”. I’m in a much better place now. I needed to get through the fire to realize there is another side.”

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16/52 Tristan Ross
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16/52 Tristen Ross

“When you create something on your own, and you’re so passionate about it, I think that’s where- once you find your avenue to story tell- that’s when it gets fun. Everything that humans are, we’re just storytellers and we just tell our story in a different way. A basketball player tells his story on the court, a photographer tells his story through a shot, and those are unique from how any other person tells their story. Even businesses and brands are telling stories through their product…It will always be about communication. What are we doing here If we aren’t creating and sharing experiences with other people? Even this! I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures and I’m sure they’ll be great, but what I’m going to remember is this conversation…By me getting introduced to this world of photography and film, it’s just me learning a different way to tell a story.”

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15/52 Tim Daniels
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15/52 Tim Daniels

“During the pandemic I decided I was going to try something new and so I did a 6 week acting class through the William Esper Studio in New York. So I get into the class and everyone is really great; everything seems to be going really well. After the 6 weeks is up the teacher sits with me to do the year end review. I couldn’t be happier when she tells me she thinks I have a real talent for this and that she wants to invite me to continue the class. You don’t necessarily think that you are going to find something that you are ‘born for’ at such a late age but I guess anything is possible.

Now here I am after just a few classes and it feels like this is indeed something I should have been doing my whole life. So after 30+ years as a technologist I am now taking the time to dedicate to training to be the best actor I can. I have always admired the work and effort that goes into telling a story. If I have the talent to help bring those stories to life, well that would be a dream come true.”

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14/52 Shari Majerovic
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14/52 Shari Majerovic

““The most rewarding experience I have working with people is helping them break down the barriers that they have built for themselves. I often hear, ‘I love that but I could never wear it’, my response is a resounding WAIT... Stop right there! Let’s discuss. Why did you decide this was unattainable? Often it is necessary to be creative to explore what you are drawn to but that’s what makes it worthwhile. Too often people decide to redirect their passion with the notion that they must. I believe that if their passion led them to this self limiting obstacle then they are able overcome it. It’s imperative to determine what that wall’s made up of..maybe it’s simply paper and they can break right through it. I love how their faces light up when they finally conquer the barrier to find their best self on the other side. It’s not just about fashion. It about self realization.”

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13/52 Malik Yassein
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13/52 Malik Yassein

“I’m going back to Courtice tomorrow morning. I feel like I’m going to be back at home for the whole winter..because…Toronto doesn’t feel like Toronto right now. The reason I wanted to come downtown originally was because I wanted to be at concert venues like every night of the week, and when I couldn’t go to those anymore, being here was like…why? There are obviously other reasons, but that was the core reason why I wanted to be downtown…I’ve been at home for like 6 months or so now and it’s been sweet, I’ve actually loved it. A few years ago I remember my cousin Josh asked me “so when do you think you’re going to move back home?” [laughter] and I was like “what do you mean?”. He was like “well everyone moves back home at some point” and I was like “but I’ve started my life in Toronto, why would I move back home?” But here I am [laughter]. Life in Toronto was so busy, so many late nights, I was never home. Now I’m always home, and it’s so calm. Life really slows down, the days are so much longer, it’s sweet. Even being in Courtice is nice. I always used to be so anti Courtice, I felt like once I got to Toronto, that’s when I figured out who I was in life and I always felt more trapped back home. But now that I’m back I’m really starting to appreciate it like...this is actually a pretty beautiful place to wake up every morning.”

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12/52 Maxine Fish
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12/52 Maxine Fish

“If you had told me in my senior year of high school, 10 years from now you’re going to be doing an MBA in England, in a field that you didn’t even know existed at 18..I would’ve told you to get lost. I would’ve been like “that’s not even possible, I’m going to go to law school, I’m going to go into humanitarian law, I’m going to be in the US, I’ll be married, I’ll have a house” and obviously none of those things have happened, but so many other things HAVE happened.
Sometimes when one door closes, another opens. I think the fact that I didn’t get into the school I wanted out of high school was a huge saving grace. Im so glad I went to Montreal and had a truly brilliant 4 years at McGill. I’m genuinely glad I didn’t get the score I wanted on the LSAT, because I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed law school, and I’m REALLY glad I took two years to do my masters of science because it gave me time to work and travel and explore other interests and just take stock of what I was doing as opposed to rushing through everything. None of those things are what I expected I’d be doing. Even though those pivotal moments seem like “oh my god I can never recover from this, my life won’t turn out the way I wanted it to”, in the end sometimes they are exactly what you need.”

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11/52 Sam Morse & Sonia Jain
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11/52 Sam Morse & Sonia Jain

Sonia: It’s inevitable when we walk down the street that people look at us, like “That Is a brown woman with a white man”. It’s hard to avoid not thinking about it. It’s something we’ve talked about a lot, that mixed element.

Sam: There is an element that always exists- everyday it comes up. There are glass ceilings or invisible barriers to whatever Sonia does that has to do with culture and race. There are certain biases that we operate under being white guys that I don’t see, that Sonia does and vice versa. For me it’s been a huge eye opener. I think about it all the time now and I’ll read certain things or hear certain things that people say and I’m often like “that is completely closed minded”. I am here to learn. There are really difficult conversations that need to be had, but for me it’s been a great thing that’s helped me grow as a person.

Sonia: Yeah, for sure. I think we’re both learning though. I always felt like I was a burden almost, in the fact that I have all these things that I’m trying to bring into Sam’s life, knowing that I also can’t change Sam. I think we’ve got to compromise and adapt to each other. So it’s also been an experience for me to be patient and know that people are going to take their own time to learn. I have all this history and culture behind me, but I can’t expect someone to meet me at that same level immediately. I remember our first date three years ago, I snapped because I was like “wow we’re so different” it almost threw me off. But it was also like..I’ve just been in so many settings where no one is similar to me, it probably put me over the edge. Then it was just.. sitting down and being like “ok lets communicate about this, what can we do to have good communication”

Sam: I totally agree. Sonia has such a good grasp on social issues and she totally calls me on any of my shit. She’s so well educated on the topics and can easily explain why I might be looking at things the wrong way but I’m also here to learn things myself. It’s unfair to not take ownership in the process and it’s essential if you’re going to work through things as a team.

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