PSA

In my undergrad I spent a lot of my time in a small windowless room on the political science floor of the University of Calgary. It was the office for the Political Science Association, or as we called it the PSA. You have two options for PSA: you can read out each letter, distinctive and unique, or you can meld them all together as if they were a word. Both were used. I usually went with spelling each out.

I started going there in first-year because my sister hung out there. As a recovering high school debater it was exactly my type of crowd. People were loud and said whatever they wanted. We ranged from libertarian, to Randian, to middle of the way Alberta Red Tory to me, a pragmatic Nordic style social democratic, though I was about eight years behind on life experience including living in two Nordic social democracies to say that's how I felt. We were a random bunch and we never took agreements personally. This approach to socializing didn't prepare me well for the post-uni world where bosses want you to smile and nod, and interns are to be quiet and do whatever work they get thrown.

At the end of the first semester of first-year I was asked to be the first-year rep. Then I was asked to run for President at the end of the year. The powers that be liked me and wanted me around. I won. I spent the rest of my university experience on the executive and went to that office whenever I needed a microwave, fridge, place to dump some crap or people to hang out with.

The club didn't do a whole lot. We held some events. Mostly we sat around the office. I tried to keep it clean and organized. I was the angry one who would complain when pop can jenga was used to decide who would deal with the large mound of deposits.

I also designed posters and wanted to rebrand the club. The old logo was lame and we didn't have it on file anywhere. So I designed a new logo. When we had events I made posters. We didn't really need them in the way I was making them but I liked it.

I did a graphic design program at SAIT over the summer. I am building a portfolio of sorts. I still love these posters. I still love the way they looked and they way they turned out. It was fun. I really loved that place.