The Peak

SFSS Profile: 20 questions with Anton Bezglasnyy

By Kendra Wong

1. What is your favourite thing at SFU?

I really like that we’re on a mountain. We have the potential to develop our own culture; for example, the Rez kids really [have to] become SFU’s Rez kids, as opposed to people who just live in [Burnaby} and go to the same school.

2. What is your greatest achievement?

I think instead of achievement, I’d say ‘what are some of the things I’ve enjoyed most in life?’ I really wanted to go traveling a while ago. I spent a summer working three jobs, for four months, made a lot of money, and took off to Europe. It was a very liberating experience, six months of being the freest person in the world.

3. What’s your guilty pleasure?

I eat a lot of sushi — a lot of sushi, like a few times a week. I love the Alaska Roll, with a bit of salmon in there.

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

I hope to be done with traditional education, I hope to have traveled a lot more, I hope to have climbed a lot more mountains, become a much better skier, be employed somewhere, and be in a healthy relationship.

5. What was your most embarrassing moment?

At work, we’re supposed to wear a uniform; it’s very official looking. I showed up in a T-shirt because you’re not supposed to ride the bus with the uniform on, and I showed up in a T-shirt and nobody told me, and I went out there still in a T-shirt and then somebody told me. I guess it wasn’t embarrassing so much as unprofessional, and I didn’t like for people to think that I wasn’t doing my job well.

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

I really want to cross Russia on a train. It takes a few weeks of constant train riding, and you can get off, hang out in Siberia, you can end up in Beijing, and off you go down [to] Southeast Asia.

7. What is your greatest fear?

Becoming paralyzed so that I couldn’t do the things I love. Freedom is a big thing for me, and to be restricted in that way would be too much.

8. What are you most grateful for?

I’m grateful for a lot of things. I like living, so being alive and being here.

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

A duck, because I always wanted to fly. You can’t ever really fly, you can go skydiving but you’re not really flying, you’re falling. A duck can not only fly, but they can also swim, walk, and they can go in the water.

10. What is your biggest regret?

Not ending a particular relationship when it should have ended instead of trying to make it go on. I’ve wasted time on failed relationships.

11. What are your five favourite movies?

The Star Wars trilogy, the old one, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Godfather movies, Pulp Fiction, and Almost Famous.

12. What is your biggest pet peeve?

All those people that go to SFU and don’t read The Peak, don’t participate in university-organized, student society-organized events, don’t participate in athletics or recreation, don’t do anything on this campus except for bus up here, go to class, and then leave — and then have the courage to complain about their experience at university.

13. What’s the most important thing you look for in a potential mate?

My girlfriend right now is perfect. Next time I’m looking for somebody I’m going to compare everybody else to her. Also, I want to be with someone who is charismatic and exciting.

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

The best date I’ve ever been on was the last time I hung out with my girlfriend. We went to the beach and had lunch. We walked over a bridge and it was super windy and super sunny, and we were kind of watching the whole world, and there was just two of us. It’s awesome every time. So that was the last one and the best one.

15. If you could choose any five people to have an imaginary dinner with, who would they be?

Lenin, Marx, Napoleon, Plato, and Simon Fraser.

16. Who do you admire the most?

People who don’t really like big crowds and still force themselves to come out. I think it’s a lot harder for those people to come out, whether it’s a family engagement or to a party with people their own age. But I always admire that, because that would be really hard to step outside of your comfort zone.

17. You’re into mountain climbing. What was the last mountain you climbed?

I crossed the Garibaldi Neve on skis. It’s a mountain pass. I also tried climbing Mount Garibaldi. It was beautiful the entire time. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was a lot of fun. Recently, I’ve just been rock climbing.

18. What do you like most about mountaineering?

I like to be free, and I like to be responsible for myself. Society has taken away control of our own fates through setting up these grand institutions, but through setting up these institutions, through setting up these kind of fabricated lifestyles that everybody has to follow, we don’t get a lot of choice anymore. In the mountains, you’re completely responsible and that control is freedom and at the same time, it’s security.

19. What’s your life motto?

I like the concept of individual perception, the idea behind existentialism, that everything that happens to you is a result of what you do. You’re responsible for the perceptions of the world around you and therefore you’re responsible for how you’re feeling and how you’re going to take everything in.

20. Finish this sentence: Student politicians are . . .

Unlike real politicians, on the federal or provincial level. They are people who really care about their work in the student society and the people who are affected by their work. They are people that are, for the most part, there to make a difference, and not in their resume.