By Swetha Srikanth
Emma is a second-year journalism student. I’ve known her since 2007, when I moved to Oshawa, Ontario and met her on the first day of grade four. We got a chance to reflect on old memories and how we have grown over the last 10 years.
What is your first memory of our friendship?
I have a few random ones from when we were younger. I remember one of the very first days you came to Phillips and I showed you around the playground. We just did a few laps and talked all about India and your time living in the States because I was so curious. Then Beanie (the third to our trio) came into the picture and we were inseparable. We swam at her house in the summer, played horse in your driveway, hosted sleepovers at each other’s houses. One summer that you went back to visit family in India, I took it upon myself to print our entire email conversation thread and leave it on your doorstep. It was creepier than it was sentimental now that I think of it, but email was our only real means of communication back then and I “didn’t want you to forget me” while you were gone.
We both had career goals since elementary school. You wanted to do journalism and I wanted to do interior design, and we both ended up here at Ryerson studying exactly that. How did you initially decide on this path?
That’s funny because I wanted to do so many different things when I was younger, a number of which you witnessed. I also remember you wanting to be an artist, but you always had a knack for design that I suppose destined you on the path you’re on now. Maybe our lengthy email conversations were evidence that I always wanted to be a writer at heart.
Since studying journalism has been a goal for so many years, going from a childhood dream to reality, how has your perception of the subject changed over the years?
I remember when I first really considered being a journalist in grade seven. I downloaded a journalism app and took notes on a pad of all the character traits that made a journalist. We talk a lot about morals in journalism now and how to report objectively so those things were always inherent. Back then however, I thought it was necessary to carry a notepad wherever I went and wear a fedora at all times.
How was the change from living in the suburbs of Oshawa to living in the city of Toronto?
It was a change that was bound to happen. Visiting Toronto was always a special thing to do when I was younger, like dinner on New Year’s Eve, or a shopping trip to the Eaton Centre. I remember so many kids at our school talking about BuskerFest or concerts in Nathan Phillips Square. As we got older, those trips became more accessible and all the more frequent until eventually I couldn’t really see myself anywhere else. At heart I always wanted to be a city girl and going to Ryerson was the perfect way to do that. At the end of the day, I really didn’t apply to the school for anyone else. Besides you and a few other people we didn’t talk to, no one from our school was going to Ryerson. I wasn’t even going for the school so much as the city.
Naturally, we have both changed so much over the years. I have noticed how strong, free, and confident you have become. Is there anything you want to say about moving from your teenage years and into adulthood?
I never liked high school and blame that partially on how I interacted with my peers. I abandoned some relationships that I wish I hadn’t in pursuit of a better version of myself. But at the end of the day, my better version wasn’t popular and pretty. She was authentic and kind. It took me a very long time to realize that I liked myself the best when I wasn’t conforming to other people’s idea of me. I find now that one of the most attractive qualities a person can have is their ability to create. With that ability, comes an open perspective to art and life, a confidence in one’s artistic choices and a sense of serenity.