Jordyn Haukaas, student editor
1. I watched my niece turn one this year. She’s a fiery redhead who’s simultaneously the most stubborn and most sweet baby I have ever met. I love you, Savannah. Thank you for turning me into the cool aunt I was always destined to be.
2. I’m the new student editor of Nexus. That’s fun. I also got a story published in the Capital Daily; still freaking out about that one.
3. Two of my best friends got engaged this year. I can’t wait to be a bridesmaid. Congratulations to Laura and Vanessa! Please, no one get in my way at the bouquet toss, I will football tackle you.
4. I was anxious upon starting the Digital Production, Writing and Design program at Camosun. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life; thankfully, I had a great journalism class that pointed me in this direction.
5. As someone who is about to get a Lord of the Rings tattoo, I was super excited for The Rings of Power. Thank you to my ex-boyfriend for his Amazon Prime account. No one tell him that I’m still on it.
One bad thing I experienced:
My cat sliced my eyeball open and sent me to the hospital. It’s okay, though—if there was any doubt before, I found out that I look really cool with an eye patch.
One thing I want to see in 2023:
Listen, I know it’s going to be bad, but I’m so excited to see Cocaine Bear in theatres. I can’t wait to see the world’s deadliest predator.
AJ Aiken, features writer
1. Getting the features writer position at Nexus
I wanted to go into journalism straight out of high school; for better or worse, my mom convinced me otherwise. Now, after a career as a paralegal and homeschooling my son for six and a half years, I’m finally living the dream.
2.The return of Ska Fest and discovering the VIP section
I know that’s two, but they’re related. I love Ska Fest, and my birthday lands during Ska Fest. I splurged on a VIP pass and it was totally worth it.
3. The end of lesson planning
My son switched to an online school in September, which meant I no longer had to find curriculum or write lesson plans. Oh, how I don’t miss the paperwork.
4. Taking my son crabbing
For my son’s birthday he wanted to try crab; he’d tried other seafood and liked it. So my friends and I took him to Sidney Pier for a fun day of crabbing, ending with a wonderful feast of crab, plus leftovers.
5. Taking DIME 115 – Digital Production 1
Despite the stress of how long I took to edit work, I had a lot of fun. A lot of unforgettable short films were made. Some of my classmates’ humour was priceless, resulting in dialogue that was complete nonsense.
Worst thing of 2022:
Going to school full time. Hands down the worst decision I’ve ever made, and I’ve made a lot of bad decisions. For the first time ever, I failed an exam. I went from getting straight As to worrying about passing.
One thing I want to see in 2023:
An end to violence toward journalists. Since the Ottawa occupation there’s been increased hostility toward mainstream media from all sides. Unfortunately, some people have become emboldened to cross the line of common decency.
Lane Chevrier, staff writer
Best film: Elvis
Austin Butler does a breathtaking job portraying the original king of rock and roll in this autobiographical tale of a boy who loved to sing, and the fame and fortune that gradually darkened and deteriorated his life over the course of decades. While I’m not sure just how historically accurate it is, the film is an amazing, tightly portrayed story with beautiful cinematography and stellar acting.
Best pop culture event: Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard
This domestic abuse case was a landmark achievement for gender equality in the legal system, since men are usually assumed to be the de facto abusers in domestic cases. Fortunately, Heard is such a terrible actor that the whole world got to see just how incorrect this gender stereotype can be.
Best Canadian health development: Reduced COVID lethality, and easing of public restrictions.
Need I say more?
Best and worst humanitarian event: Global support for Ukraine
As a species, humans seem to be evolutionarily predisposed to compartmentalize tragedy to what affects our own personal bubbles. “Thank God that isn’t happening to me,” we say as we get on with our morning coffee. However, when a small country in Europe was invaded by a malevolent dictator with great harm to human life, the world was reminded of another malevolent dictator of the recent past, and we couldn’t overlook this one. The whole world rallied together to help Ukraine and punish Russia, even if it meant rising fuel and food prices, and rampant inflation. Faith in humanity restored?
My own personal best and worst: Moving out of a literal cesspool
For nearly four months, a sloppy error by a negligent plumber caused raw sewage to pump into the dirt crawl space directly below my apartment floor. After months of methane and ammonia fume poisoning, and a horrific stench, the problem was identified, only for the property management company who runs the building to value their bottom line over the health of their residents and refuse to clean it out. Eventually I just had to sell my soul to a different greedy property manager, but the upside is, I’ve left behind a literally toxic environment.
Worst film of the year: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
This was supposed to be something else entirely before the untimely death of its lead actor, Chadwick Boseman. In keeping with Marvel’s insistence on producing films as quickly and bombastically as possible, the movie was hastily (and badly) rewritten, and the end result is three hours of tedious dialogue punctuated by sadly vacuous action sequences. This film deserved to be shelved indefinitely, or at least given an extra year to carry out competent rewrites and reshoots. Instead we got a bloated mess that is more of an insult rather than an homage to the actor it’s supposed to be commemorating.
What I want to see in 2023:
I’d really like to see the rental-market bubble burst so housing corporations aren’t made lavishly wealthy on the backs of lower-middle-class citizens forced into ruination because they have to choose either to eat or to have a home.
Nicolas Ihmels, staff writer
5. First camping trip since COVID
After a two-year break, the Ihmels family trip made a heroic return this summer. This year’s destination was Nanaimo. It was a super week full of sun, sand, and fun. It was a great time and I enjoyed myself. I even hear rumblings of next year going to Mexico… or at least Edmonton.
4. Getting into a course I’ve been trying to get into for a long time
I love film so I was really excited when I got into Screenwriting 101. The course was one of the best I’ve been in. The teacher was amazing, the assignments were fun and rewarding, and I met a lot of great friends and future collaborators. This was a super class and I’ve learned a lot about my craft from it.
3. First screenplay drafted
This year I also finally got a couple of projects up and ready. My first screenplay—for I Am Special, a biopic of yours truly—was drafted this year. Another year and I may be able to pitch it to a major studio, so I’m really happy about that.
2. Number-one most read story
My story about the play Ride the Cyclone was the most-read story at nexusnewspaper.com in 2022. That was really thrilling, and is a huge boost for my profile as a writer, so I’m super psyched about that.
1. Top Gun: Maverick being released
Ever since the first trailer premiered during the previews before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker I’ve been super excited to see this flick, and It did not disappoint. Everything about it was pure movie magic; I loved every frame.
Worst thing of 2022:
My friend’s son passing away from drug addiction
This happened in September, and although I never knew him, it’s still having a very negative effect on me. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one: we’re in the mist of a drug crisis that’s taking thousands of lives in BC.
One thing I want to see in 2023:
I just wish we would get out of this drug crisis soon because it’s costing people their kids.
Zoe Mathers, outgoing student editor
1. An amazing eight months at the best job with the best co-workers at Nexus has definitely been the highlight of my year. I’m sad to move on but grateful for everything I learned and experienced during my time here.
2. I can go full-time with my freelance social media and writing business, finally. This is something I’ve been working on for a couple of years, since I first entered post-secondary, and all my hard work is finally paying off.
3. After over two years of the pandemic raging the world, things have slowed down a bit and this felt like the first real semester back at school. It’s nice to step back into a bit of normalcy.
4. I finally finished reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which is over 800 pages. Now, it’s time to conquer the other several books in the series that are equally as long, if not longer. Totally worth it, though.
5. I got to end the year off in Mexico visiting my family, who I haven’t seen in a while. I also hadn’t been to Mexico in a while, so I was excited to enjoy the warm sun and days by the beach.
One bad thing:
The housing crisis is one thing I want to leave behind in 2022. A nice one-bedroom apartment does not need to be $2,400. Come on, Victoria.
One thing I want to see in 2023:
I want to see more people going after what they want, whether that’s career-wise or in their personal life. No more sitting back and waiting, people. Time to take some action.
Grace Miller, outgoing features writer
Five good things:
1. In-person activities started to come back to Victoria, and everything from roller derby to Rifflandia got up and running again. This brought with it a sense of community, jobs, and movement within Victoria’s economy. And as Victorians recover from isolation, the levels of personal connection have also risen dramatically with the return of these events.
2. In January of this year, Canada officially banned conversion therapy. David Lametti, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, and Marci Ien, minister for women and gender equality and youth, introduced the bill in November 2021. The bill makes enforcing, promoting, or benefitting from conversion therapy illegal.
3. History was made when Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to serve as a justice of the US Supreme Court. America has faultered greatly in terms of gender and race equality over the past few years, but with Jackson’s appointment the country is setting a precedent for empowering women and people of colour globally.
4. People around the world joined together in protest and support of Mahsa Amini. Amini was a 22-year-old Iranian woman who was tragically killed while in custody for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s modesty laws. Since then, several world leaders have condemned the actions of the Iranian government, which allowed Amini’s death. As a global community re-ignites the fight for women’s rights, hopefully, moving forward, influential change will be enacted as a result.
5. The three murderers of Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty of their actions and sentenced to life in prison. The federal jury concluded that the men targeted him because of their racist beliefs and committed federal hate crimes. The conviction shows the active change the Black Lives Matter protests created to a judicial system that has long perpetuated institutional racism.
Worst thing of 2022:
As I write this, we’re on day 285 of the Russian-Ukraine war. Every day, innocent mothers, fathers, and children have died and are suffering because of where they lived. And the fate of the world as affected by this war continues to be unknown, with no end in sight.
What I want to see in 2023:
I want to see Roe v. Wade reinstated. And if it isn’t reinstated, I’d like to see the death toll of women attempting to get an illegal abortion less than it was prior to Roe v. Wade. The fall of this US Supreme Court decision has an effect on women everywhere. Since it had such a positive impact on gender equality globally, its undoing is expected to weaken the fight for women’s rights.
Celina Lessard, contributing writer
1. Getting SPAN 205 to run for the first time ever at Camosun. My class was hopeful but doubtful that all our campaigning would result in getting this class, but, to our delight, the School of Arts & Science approved it. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to grow my Spanish skills, and writing a children’s book completely in Spanish (that was sent to real kids in another country!) was extremely cool to do.
2. I started kickboxing in February, and have had a great time with it so far. I don’t know that I’ll ever get all the way to a black belt, but a green belt (which is the fourth belt) ain’t bad for a year’s work. My grandpa (a taekwondo black belt) is proud, even though he calls it “that jungle sport” every time we talk.
3. I got to watch some awesome new movies and TV shows this past year. I don’t typically watch a lot, so it was kind of nice to see what the past year had to offer film-wise. A few highlights include: The Sandman, Stranger Things season 4, Heartstopper, Tick, Tick… Boom!, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Bullet Train.
4. Seeing the Victoria Pride Parade after two years was such a great thing to experience. So much happiness that day, even if it was way hotter than it was supposed to be. I saw multiple people handing out water and sunscreen to those who didn’t bring any. Faith in humanity restored.
5. The Cheese Toad Cult. I worked as a camp instructor this past summer, and made a cheese-themed Mario game for my in-class demo. The kids absolutely loved my cheese Toad character (think Toad from the Mario games, but made out of cheese) and ended up forming a cult around him. Sorry, “alternative spiritual group” is what they called it. It was hilarious to hear about all their spinoff characters and see them bow to “the cheese god.”
Worst thing of 2022: The war in Ukraine. This terrible tragedy is still in progress, and still without resolve. Please do your research on this topic and do what you can to help if that option is available to you.
What I want to see in 2023: …Is world peace an option?