The Peak

SFSS Profile: 20 questions with Jonathan Brockman

By Kelli Ross

1. What is your favourite thing about SFU?

My favourite things about SFU are all the opportunities to get involved. You can just come up the Hill, take your course, and leave but if you actually stay up here, there’s just a plethora of things to do. After taking the time to notice that and experience it, it’s really rewarding.

2. What is your greatest achievement?

Once I get into law school that will probably be my greatest achievement. Last semester, I got a 4.0 GPA and I was really happy about that, so that would probably be my greatest achievement. Well, maybe not my greatest achievement, but it’s the one that is most recent.

3. What is your guilty pleasure?

I like really nice things that I can’t afford. Last year I got a surround-sound system for my room in Residence; it’s a little Rez room so it doesn’t really need surround sound, but I wanted it.

4. Where do you hope to be in 10 years?

Somewhere warm and nice, with a job and hopefully halfway to paying off my student loans.

5. What was the last book you read?

Privilege, Power, and Difference, by Alan G. Johnson, [for my] Psychology 363: Intergroup Relations.

6. What was your most embarrassing moment?

That’s going to be a tough one, there’s been a few. One that I recall right now is back when I was four or five years old, I was playing with one of my friends at her house and we decided to get naked because she was a girl and I was a guy. Then my older brother came up, and opened the door when we had no clothes on, and started screaming, “Jonathan’s naked!” My [family and her family] came rushing in while we were struggling to get our clothes on. That scarred me for a while.

7. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

There are so many places I want to go. But I think right now, I would really like to go to the Netherlands.

8. What is your greatest fear?

Not being accepted, in life, in general, and into groups — just not having that sense of belonging.

9. What are you most grateful for?

My family and my parents. They’re amazing, I love them, and I miss them. They’re back in Edmonton. My brother’s here, but he’s a busy guy as well, so I don’t get to see him a lot.

10. What is your biggest regret?

There are things that you do, and they have trade-offs. In my first couple of years at university I had a lot of fun and met a lot of people, but my marks weren’t the best, and that’s going to affect my future. But, would I change that if I went back? Maybe a little bit, but it made me who I am today, and I like that person.

11. If you could switch lives with anyone, who would it be?

I think switching lives with Barack Obama would be really interesting right now. I could be black, the president of the United States — those are two things that I’ve never done in my life and I think that would be really interesting.

12. What is your biggest pet peeve?

My biggest pet peeves are people that try to take advantage of other people by bullshitting and using others’ lack of knowledge against them. I really think that we need to . . . understand that everybody has their strengths and weaknesses and not take advantage of other people’s weaknesses.

13. What is the most important thing you look for in a signifigant other?

Physically, I look at the eyes first, and then the rest of the face. Emotionally, [I want] someone I can hang out with, be really chill with, and someone I don’t need to worry about what’s happening too much. Someone I can just be with and be happy.

14. What is the best date you’ve ever been on?

We started off [at] Science World, played, and did fun stuff. Then we went down to Stanley Park and walked around. I had some friends of mine set up a surprise picnic but it [ended up] raining and [my friends had] lost the umbrella that I gave them. They set it up under the tree, and we got to have a little picnic underneath the tree. It was just a really good day.

15. If you could play any instrument, what would it be and why?

It would be piano. I used to play piano as a kid, but all kids hate practicing piano, so I stopped and now I really regret it. Or the harp, the harp would be really cool to . . . have on your back, walk around, and play it every now and then. It’s heavy, but I think it would be fun.

16. Who do you admire the most?

I’m going to say Kendra because she does the news [at The Peak] and it’s a great newspaper. I enjoy it, and you’re doing an article on me so that’s pretty cool.

17. What is your life motto?

My life motto is to be happy and not worry. In life, you can’t always control things so just love life and live it.

18. Finish this sentence: Student politics are . . .

Student politics are complicated. You think they don’t have any real influence on the outside world, but they actually do. I think if students paid more attention to it, student politics would be a lot better off.

19. You love going to the beach. What draws you to it?

The water and the sun. Back in Edmonton, where I’m from, we don’t have beaches, so it’s something new and exciting. I really like Wreck Beach because then I get to get naked. I really like the whole naked part.

20. You were the at-large member last year as well, what made you want to run again?

It was actually an interesting scenario. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to run [again], and it was the day before nominations were due. There were still a lot of things I hadn’t done with the [Simon Fraser Student] Society, I still have a lot of potential. There are still a lot of projects I want to do. So I thought I’d just throw my hat into the race and see what happened.