Kirsty Cameron

“It is great for one to return to the world that which is at least equal to the gifts one has been given! I believe in following the flow of good fortune, and that privilege must be accompanied by responsibility. I attempt to offer to others what I receive by way of love, support, guidance, training, and nurturing. We all need to take care of one another as we make our way through.”

“I think it takes a fight to recognize and manifest one’s gifts in this world, and to learn to value education as a means of developing not only a career, but a richer existence. If one’s gifts are recognized by others then this process may be accelerated. It is good and strengthening to challenge and celebrate ourselves and one another! That this challenge and celebration can occur within a formal academic setting elevates study, and the status of being a student. This is a place of privilege and possibility.”

“This Virginia Woolf quote lately resonates with me. I think that existence is worthy of great inquiry! How hard it is to love life and to speak to that love in a world that can silence and hurt. Yet, what a wonderful opportunity one lifetime offers for the exploration of love.”

“To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face, and to know it for what it is…at last, to love it for what it is, and then to put it away.”

“At some point I became audacious enough to believe it would be a good idea to follow my passion. Since returning to B.U. to complete my degree I have been inspired, assisted, encouraged, and pushed along this course by several generous professors and other helpers. It is good to be led in this way! I have discovered here that much happiness is the product of risk and dedicated effort.”

“One often writes after questions, I believe, and not in light of bold-faced answers. Curiosity is the ultimate driver, and it leads me nearly everywhere I want to go. Studies in Philosophy and Gender History provide various maps to explorations. Writing also is an attempt at connection. The theatre is a place of connection. The necessity of my own healing, and of my desire to understand and connect with myself and others, directs me continually into artistic expression.”

“I am moved by Beauty and strange stories, by a love for the earth, by suffering, and by empathy for others. I loathe class/cultural/ethnic/gender/sex/ability-based inequities, and whatever other unjust and oppressive power guises are perpetuated and keep people from an authentic expression of their full being. I see ‘reality’ largely as a story that we tell ourselves about what is happening, and believe that all truths are situated within various narrative structures.”

“I am currently working on a thesis in creative writing.”

“I was awarded the Lauralei Cederstrom Award for academic excellence in the Gender and Women’s Studies department at Brandon University. My creative non-fiction work, “River Stitched”, was awarded second prize in its category by Prairie Fire Literary Journal in its annual literary contest, and was subsequently published in the Autumn, 2010 quarterly edition.”

“In May, 2009, in an attempt to raise awareness of the migrant’s plight, I travelled with a group of B.U. students (led by B.U. professor, and Latin American historian, Patricia Harms) to the Sonora Desert to participate in the 75-mile Migrant Trail March between Sasabe, Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona. I have written and presented creative works on the migrant experience.”

“I am proud of my struggle to cultivate a creative spirit while independently raising my daughter, who at 20 is herself a strongly vocal, creative, and independent spirit. I am proud of participating in the creation and maintenance of a community which is healthily bound by actively loving, honestly communicative, and mutually supportive relationships.”

“I am in my last year of study at Brandon University, toward a Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in Creative Arts (writing and theatre), with a double minor in Philosophy, and Gender and Women’s Studies.”