Title: Justin’s Wild Adventures at York University and Toronto's Nightlife
Why I enrolled in the Post Graduate Certificate in Digital Marketing
My experience at the York School of Continuing Studies has overall been positive but there are certainly a lot of learning experiences that have been eye opening throughout my time at York University. I decided to enroll in the post graduate certificate in digital marketing program because I wanted to be able to get a side job in digital marketing while managing my business. After completing my MBA at Cal State Long Beach in 2023, I returned to Belize to manage a startup internet company my father and I worked on after finishing my bachelors in 2016. However, while the business was growing I noticed that the speed of the growth is very slow and I’m unable to increase my salary because I need to reinvest as much money as possible into the business. I really enjoyed marketing during my time in the MBA program and this motivated me to become a digital marketer while also manage the growth of my own business.
My Experience with my classmates
Firstly, from a cultural point of view it has been unique because I was born in the US (Los Angeles, California) but my parents are from Belize and I have lived 50% of my life in Belize and the other 50% in the US. The first shocker when I entered my first class at York University was that 90% of my classmates were from India. I was shocked that there was not a single Canadian or American student within my class. This made me realize that I will learn a lot about Indian culture by being around a lot of classmates who are from India. This turned out to be a positive influence for me because I did learn a lot about Indian culture during my time at York Continuing studies in relation to Indian Gods and cultural traditions.
In addition to that the 2nd major shocker from my classmates was how much a smoke machine my classmates turned out to be. I believe this may be something unique to Canada rather than my classmates because I have noticed when I walk onto the street of Toronto that the majority of people smoke cigarettes. This is very different than both Belize and the US where not as many people smoke nicotine.
During the break at the halfway point of class my classmates would smoke like machines. I won’t name any names but I remember one student would start her cig and within less than five mins she would finish the entire thing and be ready for class. I also know a guy in my class who would rush to class outside and immediately chain smoke two cigarettes simultaneously and would also ask people if he could finish off any remaining cigarettes they weren’t going to finish.
Which was shocking and very desperate to say the least. On top of all that I’m not sure if it was the Cigarettes or if they were consuming other things but they would also talk about the wildest conspiracy theories imaginable during the break.
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The wildest of them all being that Justin Trudeau and the Canadian government have a secret bunker underneath York University and are creating android soldiers and shipping them a to Canadian military base for combat programming. These androids are bulletproof and can withstand nuclear radiation. According to some people in the class this is being done in case Canada and the US go to war with Russia. They also claim that York University is financially benefiting to host the bunker underneath the school.
(Alt Text - A picture of an android being created in a military laboratory)
However, I overall really enjoyed my time with classmates and I made 2 friends who I see myself staying in contact with after the program finishes. I found the One Piece Anime to be a very good way to bond with new students in the class What I also found very heartwarming was that when I compare this group of students to the group of students who I studied my MBA with, I found that my cohort at York University was overall much more respectful, nicer and less backstabbing compared to the Cohort back in Long Beach.
This really blows my mind because at the beginning of the program I was worried I would struggle to get along and make friends with people in this class since I wasn’t Indian and I didn’t speak Hindi and couldn’t relate to them culturally since I have a Belizean and American background. However, to my surprise this wasn’t the case instead they were really cool with me and I made friends. Even people who I’m not close with still made me comfortable.
I remember having a bad day and I told two students sitting near me about it and they spent time after class helping me to feel better. This was something my cohort in long beach would never have done. This really surprises me because even though I’ve lived 50% of my life in the US and I’m more American than Indian and can better relate to American culture I found it easier to get along with my classmates at York.
My Academic Experience
I really enjoyed the program overall as well and I feel that I have learned a lot about digital marketing during my time at York University. While it would take forever for me to list what all I have learned. The three biggest lessons I have learned about digital marketing during my time at York University is that
- Being creative and creating good content and community managing that content is key to being a digital marketer and growing your social media platforms and spreading the brand image of the company.
- Analyzing your web analytics and analyzing your data and traffic from your website and social media profiles is key in learning how to plan your digital marketing strategy. This will allow to better segment and target the type of audience you’re looking for.
- When it comes to creating ads and marketing those ads or editing a website with a CMS platform or learning how to email market. It is essential to practice how to use the technical aspects of these platforms rather than just knowing how something works. In school as students we learn about the various digital marketing tools that are available to use such as Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), LinkedIn), Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, WordPress, HubSpot, Constant Contact etc. However, actually learning and practicing how to utilize these software’s is key to becoming an experienced digital marketer.
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(Alt Text - A picture of a professor teaching his students using chalk and a blackboard.)
Enjoying Life Outside the classroom and managing the work life balance
I wanted to study in Canada because I wanted to not only experience another country but also have another country I could possibly move to in case my business doesn’t work out in Belize or if I decide to not live in the US (especially considering how politically polarizing the US is these days). The only thing that made me anxious about this decision was I only had 1 close friend in Canada besides my half-sister. I went to college with this friend back in LA and we had stayed in touch.
During my first two months in Canada while I enjoyed all Toronto had to offer and I was enjoying the digital marketing program I was very lonely. Compounding this loneliness, I had an employee in my business causing a lot of issues back home for the business and was bullying a lot of the employees and this situation got ugly. My family got involved and I got incredibly angry and stressed out by the entire situation. In addition to all this I has an issue with a root canal that a dentist in Belize messed up and I got several infections and had to deal with all that as well. This eventually lead to me losing the tooth. I say all this to say that loneliness and stress were the biggest enemies and threat to my mental health during my first 2 months in Canada. I remember getting sick frequently in the first 2 months because I was under so much stress.
The cherry to top this all off was that within this same time period I witnessed grand theft auto occur right outside my place. Luckily, they were arrested a month later. However, this was traumatizing and this was in addition to me witnessing my neighbor commit suicide in 2022while studying for my MBA. All these factors were putting my mental health to the test.
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(Alt Text - A picture of a criminal breaking the window of the front seat of the car.)
Many of the people in my class were very busy with work and school so it was difficult for me to find time to spend with them on a regular basis. However, my friend from college luckily came to the rescue. My friend was a very adventurous person to say the least and introduced me to this sex club in Canada. She was single at the time and was willing to show me the ropes of how it worked. To cut a long story short I had a blast and this thankfully saved my mental health and helped me to heal.
Over the course of several weeks I attended several orgies, bukkake parties and sex machine parties. The most memorable moments of these parties involved me meeting this couple and really hitting off with them and becoming friends with them.
I ended up spreading cake all over his girlfriends boobs and ass cheeks and we both ate the cake off her body together. We then took a shower together and had a threesome afterwards. Another amazing moment was a girl who decided she wanted have sex with 20 men in one night. Her boyfriend decided to conduct the orgy and gave us 5 mins each to have sex with her. The line was so long it felt like waiting in line at an airport but when my turn eventually came around it was so dam fun.
Another extremely memorable moment was meeting a girl at a bukkake party who was really into video games. We hit off since we had something in common. It was a dream true for me to watch her give me a hand job while I talk to her about video games. There was also a bukkake circle for gay men next to me and one of the guys from the circle joined in the video game conversation with me and this girl while other men were giving him a blowjob and it was so amazing.
(Alt Text - A picture of a guy and 2 girls hanging out at the pool of a sex club and chatting.)
My friend introducing me to a sex club was truly a savior for my mental health and created some of the most memorable moments for me in Canada. I can say with confidence what I enjoy the most about Canada is that similarly to LA, it’s very liberal and you can live the way you want to live while feeling safe and without being heavily judged. Usually once a week I would attend this sex club to not only seek women who were interested in sex or other fun experiences but also attempt to make new friends. This not only significantly helped my mental health but also created some of the most memorable experiences of my life in Canada.
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Advice for Future Students
I do have quite a bit of advice for future students when it comes to managing academics, work and social life. I really hope future students in some way read these tips before starting the program.
Tip #1: Figure out your work hours, finances as well as a work life balance before starting the program. Please don’t let that interrupt your education and please come to class!
Explanation: I understand that doing this program is expensive and that maintaining an income while studying is not easy. I personally was fortunate and thankful I could work at home in the morning and evening and come to school in the afternoon. While many may not have that luxury I believe it is imperative that before any student starts this program that they either save as much as money as possible or establish a job that does not interfere with their school hours.
Many of my classmates missed class simply because they have a job and this would cause not only their grades to suffer but they also would not learn as much about digital marketing which was the whole purpose of doing the program in the first place. This also caused many of my classmates to not understand the details of assignments assigned in class because they were not present and they would contact me to fill in the details. Which would not be fair to me since it would eat into my time as well.
Tip #2: Get some exercise and for the love of God get some sleep please
Explanation: I can tell from many group work assignments that the average bedtime for many students in this program was between 3:00am – 4:00am. That is simply insane! I would ask many of my classmates to not text me late at night due the fact that I personally don’t want to think about work or school late at night when I’m trying to relax plus I go to bed between the hours of 11:00pm – 12:00am.
If I forget to turn my phone off their texts will wake me up. Nevertheless, they still text and even bombard me with texts at 3:00am in the morning which I found to be disrespectful and rude. In any case I would simply turn my phone before bed. With that said it is imperative that students go to bed early and get some exercise as well. It’s not only important to maintain overall health but school work as well as performance on a job will suffer if students are going to bed that late. It’s ok to do that on the weekend but during the week try to go to bed early.
Tip #3: Start assignments WAY ahead of time and don’t rush it at the last min.
Explanation: Most students would start assignments 24-48 hours before its due which again is simply insane! Literally while writing the finishing touches to this assignment for example I had a student text me asking me what to do for the assignment today and hadn’t even started till just now.
Combined with the fact that many students miss class it adds to the chaos because they end up messing up the assignment cause they’re in a rush to get it done but also are not equipped with the knowledge to properly execute it. For example, one of my classmates thought that they only had to watch video for the HubSpot Marketing software assignment. When in reality they had to watch the vids AND complete the final exam to get the certificate. She didn’t realize this till 4 hours before the assignment was due.
Tip #4: Please stop depending on AI for everything
Explanation: Many students in the program were extremely dependent on AI. While I do believe AI is the future and AI is very helpful in many ways I found many students to take it too far. For example, when doing the SMS presentation I had a group member put in Chatpgt “How to lay out a PowerPoint presentation discussing SMS and what to talk about.” This was insane to me because the format of what we needed to discuss was layed out in the assignment prompt and by asking that to ChatGPT you will not be able to properly learn and present on the topic because you have the AI do the thinking for you. I certainly think AI is useful for coming up with ideas when writing an essay but not to format a presentation. It’s vital to use your brain sometimes
Tip #5: Try to make time for yourself to relax and try to do something fun for yourself
Explanation: With the pressure of both school and work it’s very important to find time to relax and do something outside of school and not simply just focus on school and work all day. In my case, I decided to purse what brings happiness in my life as mentioned earlier. However, I noticed that many students only do activities in Toronto together with other students and almost never do something that is outside of their friend group. For example, many students would travel together on the weekend to Indian music events and Indian venues. I would encourage students to look at everything Toronto has to offer and focus on doing something for yourself that you enjoy that is outside of what classmates do together as a group. I promise you it will make a difference.
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Conclusion
Overall, I really enjoyed my time at the York School of continuing studies. I learned a lot about Digital Marketing and I love how liberal and open-minded people are in Toronto and I certainly plan to come back here on vacation. Right now, the way I see things, as much as I love Toronto I see myself living in the US and travelling to Belize frequently to manage my business. I really miss the weather back in California. However, if life in the US gets complicated I would happily move to Canada and find a part time job here while managing my business back home.
