In the words of WSU President Kyla Campbell-Kamariera, “We’re back!” There is a 50/50 chance that if you are reading this then you are on campus and that is something that shouldn’t be exciting and controversial for a student magazine to say. When lockdown hit, we took stock of what we wanted to do for the last few issues. It didn’t seem right to just do the standard issues.
So last week we produced the first of what we are calling our ‘COVID Trilogy’ with the online Life After Lockdown issue. In the next issue, we will be producing a nostalgia-themed magazine that was born out of a desire to be anywhere but in 2021. And for our final issue of 2021, we will be returning to last years viral success with an issue called ‘2021 Can Go Fuck Itself!’ featuring our now annualised and contentious 50 Worst People of 2021.
This week though, we decided to change the pace a little. While we have all been grasping with issues of isolation and mental health associated with lockdown and trying our best to be positive about what the future holds we have been failing fuckin’ miserably. So we “contracted out” a little. We produced an issue we like to think of as a conceptual mullet. The first two-thirds of which are large sections of the WSU State of Union for 2021. Is it lazy? Yeah. Is it on-brand for us this week? Also yes. But the truth is that it is also a perfectly constructed time capsule of what the year has been like on campus. It is a metaphor for well-intentioned people who approached the world with a little trepidation after last year and were ultimately justified in seeing that the world doesn’t really make sense at the moment. We also attached the published list of candidates for the WSU Board of Directors and we’ll let you know when and how to vote soon.
The reason it is a conceptual mullet is that the back of the magazine is all your Nexus favourites – except Blind Date. We know if we printed our first physical issues on campus in two months and it didn’t feature SNAPPED, horoscopes, and puzzles there would be a better than even chance you would riot! So, if you have come to campus to pick up a mag, thank you.
This time out of print has given us all some time to think about what we want to do next year. We are really interested in doing something different with Nexus but it is going to start with more students contributing their voices to the discussion so if you have ever thought about writing, podcasting or making videos for us, email editor@nexusmag.co.nz.
We started this editorial with a shout out to Kyla and it’s only fair that is where we end it. In a little over two weeks, she will see who will replace her. But for us, she will always be irreplaceable. She has been a contributor, a Guest Editor of the outstanding Nukutawhiti, a two-term President, but most of all a friend to all of us down the hall. Last week she was elected Tumaki Taki Rua of Te Mana Ākonga (The National Māori Students’ Association). We couldn’t think of a better person to lead that or bigger shoes to fill here.
Two issues to go!
