We almost completely whiffed Mother’s Day this year. As I’m looking through the magazine, it suddenly struck me that we had plenty of easy opportunities to tie this week’s issue to Mother’s Day (which is on Sunday, in case you’d forgotten. You’re welcome). We could have done a feature interview with a student who’s a mother, like we did last week. We could have had a Women of Interest column that looked at a remarkable woman who was also known as a mother.
The Fly on the Wall could have been one examining the parallels between fostering your own knowledge and child-rearing, because there’s so many AU students who are doing both. Our course exam could have been on one of the child psychology courses at AU, there are just a wealth of opportunities we could have taken advantage of.
But we didn’t. (Although the Vintage Voice has a couple of past articles that do.)
Such is the peril of running a magazine comprised almost entirely of freelance content. I publish what’s on the mind of the AU students and community, and, at least this year, it seems, Mother’s day wasn’t up there. I don’t think this is something limited to just AU students, however. It seems to me that, lately, the entire notion of days to celebrate specific classes of people aren’t as relevant as they once were. Whether that’s from over-saturation as card companies continue to seek ways to remain relevant in the days of instant electronic communication, or because, as a society, we’re being increasingly made aware that people are individuals. Even as our political lines harden, or perhaps because of how they’re hardening, we are forced to acknowledge that certain people in that “other” group are not the same as all the rest.
Instead, what we do have is our feature interview in Minds We Meet with an amazing student who is making the time to take courses while keeping us safe, we have a look at a Woman of Interest who is one of the drivers behind why a degree in nursing exists, and we have the first of I’m sure will be a number of articles on convocation—because June is fast approaching, and one thing I know is on students’ mind is the idea of graduation.
This week, Barbara Lehtiniemi gives some tips for if you’re in the planning stages of going to Athabasca for your convocation. This is experience talking, so well worth the read. We also have an initial entry from a Masters of Nursing student, who has taken the time to reflect on just what it means to be a learner, both in general, and at AU in specific. She points out why, perhaps once in a while, we should stop just being a student, and actually look at what that means.
If there is a theme in this issue, now that I think of it, it does seem to be one of a search for individual meaning, whether that’s why we search, the tools we use, the lies that hinder, or other factors. You’ll find all of that, plus reviews, news, events, scholarships and more in this issue of The Voice Magazine.
So, have a happy mother’s day, and enjoy the read! 
