Destiny and I met through a mutual friend. To chat, we went to the Naam, a vegetarian restaurant and Vancouver classic. Destiny is a great listener; she gives all of her focus and attention to you when you talk, and when she cracks a smile her whole face lights up. She is incredibly kind, and the type of person who engages with people quickly. When the waiter came over and asked about the project we were working on she smiled easily at him and told him all about it. She asked him his plans for the rest of the day and he told her he was going to see a friend later. After further consideration, he added “a romantic friend.” Destiny smiled, “Those are the best kinds!”
How did you end up at UBC?
Happenstance!
Where is your home town?
Fernie, BC. Its super small, like 5000 people.
What books are you reading right now?
I just finished Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, I was trying to get through his anthology. And then for Political Theory right now I’m reading a lot of essays by Toni Morrison.
Do you have any guilty-pleasure reading on the go?
I’m slowly working my way through Isabelle Allende’s The House of the Spirits; it’s sort of magical realism reminiscent of Marquez, but it’s so thick and such pleasure reading that it’s just something I pick at.
What languages do you speak?
Italian and English.
How did you learn Italian?
I lived in Italy for 2 years.
What are some cool places that you have traveled and loved?
Slovenia stole my heart – it’s the most fairy tale country and I think that one day I’d like to live there and make honey and Rakia and just be happy (sidenote: Rakia is a very strong alcohol from Eastern Europe, usually served as an after-dinner drink). There’s an Italian-speaking part of Slovenia, so I could live there. The most meaningful place I’ve traveled to would be that I spent a month and half living with my best friend in Jordan and we were working in a refugee camp.
Is the goal to ultimately end up overseas?
I used to think so, but the more time I spend in so-called British Columbia, the more I think of ‘place’ and the more I want to have stronger relationship to this land and unceded land and the stories of this land. And so I think that my goal used to be to go to Slovenia and be happy, but I think that I’m falling in love with a different relationship here.
I’m not from here, as you know, so what are your must-do activities either in Vancouver or BC? Things everyone should do to experience the place?
I can only think of really corny things. I’m thinking a lot about the way Vancouver is marketed to people and the way that we sell places and the way Vancouver is sold and that makes me uncomfortable. I think the thing you have to do in Vancouver is unlearn the Vancouver that you think you know and actually have meaningful interactions with community and learn about the Indigenous histories here especially and how Vancouver came to be in the late 19th century through capitalism, colonialism, and the Pacific Railway and all of that bullshit, and how all the streets are upholding an awful neo-imagination of what this place is. I think I’m only starting to really understand the place outside of that imaginary, if that even exists.
Is there anywhere that you recommend someone go if they’re interested in doing that unlearning?
I think there’s so many great things happening. If you’re on campus, obviously I think everyone should take an Indigenous studies course. I think Xwi7xwa library does a great job. Everybody should go see the c̓əsnaʔəm exhibits, the ones in different parts of the city, too. It’s a cool access point and it’s free for UBC students.
What’s your favorite museum you’ve ever gone to or some sort of exhibit?
I went with my partner two years ago to the Peggy Guggenheim exhibit in Venice. That’s probably just my most beautiful day ever.
What’s your favorite food?
Since it’s colder and I’m craving heavier food I, like, weep for this dish called ‘upside down’ that my friend Dina’s mom, who grew up in Palestine, makes. It’s like this chicken, cauliflower rice dish. You serve it with yogurt and cucumber.
Where do you get really good food in Vancouver?
Um, I make a lot of my own food. This morning I made bread and lentil stew. That’s the affordable way to go.
Okay, music: What do you like?
I wanted to be Bob Dylan when I was a child. That was my dream. I wanted to cut off my hair, I wore sunglasses and played the harmonica.
Do you listen to music to match a certain mood that you’re in?
Yeah for sure, or if I’m trying to get to a certain mood music is the way to do that.
What’s the best show that you’ve ever been to?
Um, it’s really cute, every year for the last couple years they hold a festival in Fernie in this big field that I used to feed ducks in when I was a little kid and it’s like really low-key but it attracts really big Canadian indie folk names and so every year dancing barefoot where I used to feed ducks is a really great time.
Is there any musician that you’re dying to see?
Because I grew up in small towns the idea of seeing people play is so out of reach. It’s so crazy to be in Vancouver and be talking about music and hear someone say “Oh yeah I’ve seen them three times!” or “I’m going to see them!” Like I lived some of my life in small town south Canada and some time in northern Canada and so much of my life in isolated communities where nobody came ever.
If you had to give advice to your first-year self?
Other than don’t take WORDS 150! *laughs* I think that I would tell my first-year self who was feeling really disillusioned and dissatisfied and wanting to leave that there are pockets of really inspirational really great people and programs.
What are those pockets at UBC right now that you’re feeling interested in and inspired by?
First Nations and Indigenous Studies is an amazing program and group of people, learners, and artists. I also volunteer at Sprouts on campus. I’m not as involved as much as I should be or would like to be, but I know everything I was doing last year was really intense and so to step back I volunteer for Sprouts where you are kind of, like, throwing food together in the kitchen and being really goofy and it’s a valuable way to spend your time as well.
What’s the dream job?
The dream job is not having a job.
Good answer! What’s your creative outlet?
Writing. I’ve been talking a lot about getting in touch with my creative side. I’ve been cartooning, actually. It’s bad quality but it’s really fun
Do you have a cartoonist you really like?
I saw this book about this guy who’s trying to draw every person in New York.
I saw that! At the Vancouver Art Gallery?
Yeah! So cool! I have this habit where I have a journal and I write down conversations that I overhear because I think it’s a really funny window into other people’s lives. It’s also a great way of keeping track of where I’ve been. Because when I reread it I’m taken back to that place. So seeing the guy doing that New York art-it’s so cool. I’d love to try something like that.
What’s one of the most interesting conversations that you’ve overhead?
People giving advice is really funny to listen to. It’s so out of context. You just hear really hyperbolic analogies. The other day I reread this old notebook and there was a conversation when I was sitting in Mercante on campus and these construction workers were sitting next to me, a man and a woman, and the woman turns to the man and says “I was reading this article about dying alone on site and so I went and talked to James and said I didn’t want to be on site alone anymore and he said, “Well you’re never alone! Ya know, like, there’s roofers.” And then the woman said, “Fuck roofers! They’re worse than landscapers! I’d rather die alone!” It was so funny.