Social Sciences valedictorian Eric Hynes found the community that gave him space to “mess up”

Eric Hynes says taking risks and accepting imperfection helped him grow, connect and find his voice.

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If there’s one phrase that sums up Eric Hynes’ experience at McMaster, it would be “it’s okay to mess up.”

For the graduating Anthropology student, that means putting yourself out there, even when it doesn’t go perfectly.

“You’ll find that regardless of the result, you’ll learn something new, and even find a community who is there to help you succeed,” said Hynes.

Hynes admits that he wasn’t the most driven at high school.

“I goofed off a lot,” he said. “I wasn’t the most focused. I’m autistic and I really struggled to learn a lot of things, especially socially. But what it really came down to was the fact that I wasn’t driven by anything at school. I hadn’t found my passion.”

But now, Hynes is ready to cross the stage at convocation, graduating with a degree in Anthropology, before giving a valedictory address.

So what changed in the years since school?

“I found Anthropology,” he said. “I found such a beautiful community that thinks like me, but also challenges how I think. It cares about me, and I’m safe to do the same thing for them, too.”

It wasn’t the most straightforward path to graduation. After completing Mohawk College’s general arts and sciences program, Hynes still didn’t know exactly what his dream future was.

“I didn’t have the perfect idea of a career,” he said.

But with some motivation from family, he opted to pursue a burgeoning interest in anthropology.

“I remember taking an anthropology course at Mohawk with instructor Lauren Charman, who is a grad student at McMaster, and I sent her so many questions about anthropology,” he said. “I realized that I found the field really cool.”

Hynes applied to McMaster’s Social Sciences program in order to study anthropology, and was accepted.

“It was a risk,” he said. “Going back to college could have been safer, but I think making that decision for Mac purely out of passion and throwing your hands in the air and saying, ‘let’s just try something new and see how it goes’, was clearly the right decision.”

At McMaster, he threw himself into anthropology, starting with an introduction course with Basit Iqbal, who talked about different cultural views of witchcraft.

“I went to his office hours and I sat with him and just picked his brain and just went along with questions and the fire started to grow more and more,” said Hynes. “It started to feel like this hunger and I had to keep going and learn more!”

Hynes began attending all of the talks run by the department, learning more and making connections. Even if, as he admits, he may have ‘messed up’ once or twice.

“I was going to these events at the Phoenix with all of these professors and grad students, but I didn’t quite recognize everyone,” he said. “I definitely mistook some professors for students!

“I felt like it was a bit of a trial by fire experience, and I was definitely stumbling over myself, but then I realized that was part of the fun! I could tell that I wasn’t being judged, that the department was really kind and I could really be myself,” he said.

Soon, Hynes felt himself welcomed in the department.

“I felt part of a community,” he said. “Part of a team who all have the same mutual goals of learning, accepting and growing.”

That sentiment was on full display for Hynes after a class he felt hadn’t gone well. He felt like he hadn’t articulated himself properly, that he paused too much when he was talking. He went to apologize to the professor, Yana Stainova.

“I remember that she said ‘the very fact that you don’t have everything perfectly ready to say when you’re called on in class is evidence that you’re forming new ideas.’

“And I realized that’s what I’m here to do. To put my hand up and stumble. Because that’s learning.”

Taken together, those small, often messy moments became something bigger: a way of learning, connecting, and building a place where he felt he belonged.

“Throughout all of these experiences, the kindness and support from my fellow students and professors taught me to accept the actions of others and open myself more to their ideas as well.

“It should be our passion as academics to bring the voices of those around us to light and empower those who experience fear of failure, because all mistakes are opportunities to connect and learn mutually as a community.”