This time last year, I was being hounded by my parents, my high school, and my potential future to apply to university. With journalism ambitions in mind, I applied to notable schools including Wilfrid Laurier University. “Oh! I’ll be going to Waterloo? Fantastic!” I thought. All such hopes were dashed when I learned I was going to the middle of nowhere: Brantford. I generally love my time at Laurier Brantford, but there are a lot of things missing.

Brantford is quite…unexpected. It’s creepy and old and the locals are weird. When I came here, I expected the campus surrounded by a city, not a small, tight-knit downtown community. And more recently, Brantford doesn’t seem safe. There are home robberies and attacks on students occurring in the middle of the night. In December, an intoxicated man jumped out of a second-storey window in the building behind Lucy Marco Place. A week after that, a drug bust occurred at the same location with enough police cruisers and lights to make anyone dizzy. Laurier Brantford lacks a campus feel. Although this is accredited to Laurier Brantford being very small and quite new, the presence of a campus makes a university experience great. I’m a bit envious of other universities that have a campus they can call their own.

But Laurier Brantford lacks more than just a strong campus presence. It also lacks events that build culture. What about varsity sports? Where are they? Obviously not here in Brantford, otherwise all the talented and athletic students would be balancing school with sports. Why is the Waterloo campus hogging all the competitive sports? Just because they more students does not mean they have an equally greater amount of talent and athleticism. I’ve met many students on campus who played rugby, basketball, football, soccer, baseball and various other sports throughout their whole lives. Heck, I wanted to play soccer! It’s extremely difficult for a student who is attending classes at Laurier Brantford to travel to Waterloo and play sports there. Not only is it a waste of time, it’s asking too much for students who already have various commitments. Competitive sports need to be brought down to Laurier Brantford! Sure, intramurals are fun – but they’re just fun. Competitive sports bring students together for a common goal, and could go a long way in giving this campus something to cheer about.