The Great 20s Sorting: One libero, three camps and no clear winner
Around 20, the story goes, everyone gets sorted. You’re a pub person, a run club person or a café person and nobody remembers voting.
Oscar Luk didn’t get the memo.
Luk, a fourth-year psychology student, is a libero on the St. Thomas University men’s volleyball team and one of its captains for the 2026-27 season.
Asked to pick a camp, he declined.
“I think I dabble in each category,” he said. But if he had to choose, the café is where he’s most comfortable. He likes the quiet, the drinks and the snacks and it’s where he usually studies or chats through a chill morning or afternoon.
Did he choose it? Not really.
“I think it just happens,” Luk said. He wants a café, so he goes to a café.
Being a varsity athlete narrows the options. Luk said he avoids pubs the night before or the morning of practice and running clubs can be a bad idea when his body is already taking a toll.
He knows running better, having completed a marathon in Edmonton last summer. It wasn’t a phase, he said. “I just did it.” He isn’t a big runner anymore.
His team already gives him a built-in social circle, so does he still need a third place?
“Technically no,” he said, but it helps.
Too much physical activity wears you down and a place to land that isn’t the gym keeps things “at a reasonable amount.”
Cafés, for him, mean low-key company.
He’ll chat with the cashier and sometimes a stranger, but not usually when he’s there with friends. “We’re kind of like locked in in school,” he said.
Pubs have changed less than you’d think. Luk said his idea of a good night out is much the same as in his first year.
He doesn’t need a big group to enjoy himself and he’s happy to chat with people outside his circle. “Going out has always been a great time every year,” he said.
The sub-genres don’t sort him either. Asked whether he’s the Sunday-scaries pub regular, the post-run-coffee runner or the six-hours-at-a-laptop student, Luk said he sees himself in all three, depending on the day.
Doing any one all the time “would be insane,” he said.
His advice for a first-year or a transfer looking to meet people starts close to home. If you live in residence, he said, try the people on your floor. After that, go downtown, or to the University of New Brunswick's Student Union Building and talk to people.
“Everyone’s very in their own world, so if you kind of talk to them, they kind of open up,” he said. “No one’s really scary.” They may seem intimidating at first, he said, but they usually drop their guard once you start a conversation.
Following your hobbies, like the gym or studying, tends to lead you to the right people.
In a world where so much is online, Luk said in-person contact still matters.
“I feel like people need that physical aura,” he said.
If you’re slammed with school and everything is online, a video call or text will do.
His own social style shifts with his mood. Some days he’s outgoing, others he’d rather not talk to anyone, he said. When someone approaches him, he tries to make them feel welcome. “I’m very spontaneous.”
So the sorting hat may not fit everyone. For Luk, the answer to “pub, run club or café?” is “yes,” and the best place to meet people is wherever you already like to be.
Comments