McCol Iles: Inspiration and Exploration

This week HCUBC spoke with McCol Iles, an ArtsONE student passionate about writing, learning, and personal well-being. Read on to see what she shared about inspiration and exploring her goals at UBC.

HCUBC: What are your passions?

My main passion as of now is yoga because of the freedom and love and clarity it has allowed my to find in my body and confidence. I love writing, although I don’t do it enough due to anxiety and severe doubt, because there is so much inside of me that it feels like flowers when I write my thoughts down. I also learn a lot about myself through that, about what I think.  And an eternal passion and hobby of mine is equestrianism.  It’s a perpetual sending and receiving of love and command that has taught me to be kind, when to push, pull, and when to give and release.

HCUBC: Why did you pick ArtsONE, and how does the ArtsOne program compare to regular Arts courses?

I chose ArtsOne for the promise of it being a standout course with promise of great change to the student as a writer and student when faced with challenges and growth curves that come with the heavy reading and critical, exploratory writing. I most definitely haven’t been disappointed by the promise.  I’ve read massive books alongside the upwards of 10 books required for the course along with the biweekly essays: my proofreader, a PhD in Ancient History, insists that my writing has progressive become stronger, more coherent, and creative. That is something I believe other Arts courses may lack. That intensive, weighty responsibility ArtsOne has simply does not translate to, say, my Italian class, which must sprint through lectures with no room for personal exploration, just the facts.

HCUBC: In a world where anything is possible, what would be your dream career/future?

I would write to inspire the world after travelling the whole thing, and be in school with as many courses a semester for years on end, absorbing all I possibly can, and offering my love to people through therapy in psychology and yoga.  That is, if time and money and physicality had no limitations.

HCUBC: Do you have a Plan B? If so, what is it?

For a second I thought you meant the birth control method, and I giggled because that is so redundant when it comes to me. Anyways, I came to UBC knowing I have to become a therapist, and a writer.  I’ve known that for 4 years with a deep gut certainty. That what I feel is the only true possibility. I didn’t have a plan B until I got here and immersed myself in yoga. So, teaching yoga is my rock should everything go pear shaped. And even then, it’s not a last resort for me, more a touchstone, inevitability. Really I’m just flying by the seat of my pants.

HCUBC: Who are your role models?

My mom. My dad. My old horse riding instructors.  The enduring sass and strength of my old horses, all of whom have passed on. A handful of celebrities, including Sebastian Stan.  Wasfia Nazreen, the first Bangladeshi- woman and citizen- to summit all 7 highest mountains of the continents. Coll Thrush of UBC. My two dear friends Emma and Joe. And oddly enough, myself. To keep advancing who I am, so I can help others even better.

HCUBC: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

From riding: persistence over resistance. 

From my parents: independency as the core of who you are, and understand that it will both intimidate and attract. 

From yoga: you are who you are.

• arts
• wellbeing
• writing