One more trip around the sun complete, we again take a moment to take a look at our lives, see our many faults, and vow to do better. It seems odd that we’d reserve such behavior for a single day each year, in the depths of winter when the nights are near their longest. Maybe It’s because we don’t want anybody else to see us as we do so. That would also explain the drinking.
And even though most of those resolutions don’t make it through the year–or even the week?It’s a bit of hopefulness in the face of the realization of what’s gone before. Personally, I resolved to spend more time with creative writing each day. I promised myself that I would start small, seeking to write only five hundred words of creative writing each day. It’s now the 6th of January, and as I look at my total, I’m already a thousand words short. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be hopeful that maybe tomorrow, over the weekend, I’ll catch up with my total and perhaps even get a bit ahead.
This is also the time of year where you’ll find a lot of retrospectives, as we all try to make sense of what just happened, so that we’ll be better prepared for the future. That’s where this issue of The Voice Magazine comes in. Not only does it let us feature some of the best writing from AU students over the past year, it works as a great primer for the kind of material that we like to feature here in The Voice Magazine.
Almost every article in this issue was nominated by a student very much like you. There were also a lot more that were nominated that I didn’t put in, usually because another nomination covered the same area of what we do here at The Voice Magazine in a slightly better fashion. There are also one or two that I chose myself, just to make sure that our “Best Of” issue is one that exemplifies the full range of the kinds of things we published over the past year, and, if you ask me, it looks like it was a pretty good year. If we ever get around to doing a “Best of the ?Best Of issues?”, I think this one will be a strong contender. I’ve tried to add a little insight to each article included here, giving some background on why it was selected. If you disagree, think that something else would have been a better example, or just think there was something I missed, let me know. After all, to be a better magazine for you, we need to know what you like ? and don’t.
However, doing this issue reminds me of some of the writers that have moved on. Whether they graduated and have gone on to other things, or simply became too busy to be able to put together a new article, it means that The Voice Magazine is always looking for fresh material, or even just a fresh look at an old column. In particular, I realized that we haven’t had a Course Exam in quite a while, nor an interview with AU staff, or a music review. All of these are, I think, important aspects of The Voice Magazine, so if You’re a person who’s interested in doing the work to put something like this together, get in touch with me at voice@voicemagazine.org and I’ll be happy to see if we can work something out.
Beyond that, next week we’re back to normal, with all original material for AU students by AU students. Until then, however, enjoy the read!
P.S. If you didn’t already know, The Voice Magazine has a Facebook page and a twitter feed if You’re into that kind of thing!
