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janna abbas rion levy janus kwong victoria allder adam lam max lees abi akinlade sam rosati martin kieran guimond sarah abernethy faith wershba ishika rishi roensa salija chloe loung kelsey phung shelley yao vacant isha rizwan riya uxa romina emtyazi sakura armstrong opinions kalliopé anvar mccall science yuna lee stranded celena ho design wendy wan poetry emma mackenzie

Coming to you from the stacks of Robarts: Janna and Rion, dishevelled and stressed students, and The Strand EICs, desperately trying to figure out how they’re supposed to finish all their readings and assignments on time, without completely losing their minds and sense of purpose. The brutalist architecture of Robarts and ambiguous nature of the student commons (like seriously, are they for quiet studying or chit-chatting with the besties??) is certainly not helping…

Lucy, of course, doesn’t care too much about it being the end of the year. If anything, she’s blissfully unaware that she is about to lose her status as The Strand’s mascot. At the very least, she still has one more issue to shine in. In the meantime though, we wanted to thank her for all the hard work she has completed on her four little paws this past year. We can’t remember the last time a Vic association had a mascot, and we were so honoured to welcome her into the role.

In this unthemed (and frantically put together) issue, you’ll find articles on topics ranging from “hot girl” books and Prince Harry (derogatory), to a reminder that your therapist… was definitely right. In Features, learn all about Black nightlife in Toronto. In Science, Claudia Leung discusses the recent catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. There is also a special treat in Arts and Culture as our Managing Web Editor brings you a collaboration between The Strand and La Mosaic.

Though this is not our last issue, it is our last “regular” one, and so, we feel we must end this editorial with some sappiness. We’d like to start this off by saying, that as much as we’ve loved being your Vol. 65 Editors-in-Chief, we simply cannot wait until we don’t have to write any more editorials (*they said lovingly*). We will, however, miss the comfort of our lovely Strand office. As for our phenomenal masthead, we wouldn’t have been able to make this volume possible without you. It’s been a truly tumultuous ride, full of tears, unnecessary meetings, a new computer, and a whole lot of chocolate and tea to drown out the laughter from down the hall in Goldring. To our graduating masthead members, we hope we’ve made your last year at The Strand worthwhile <3. If you had told us two years ago, when we were bright-eyed freshmen who joined The Strand as Editorial Assistants, that we’d be Editorsin-Chief, we likely would have laughed in your face. And yet, now that we both have one full year left at Vic to survive without The Strand being there to support us, we have to say that we’ll miss it… deep down… probably.

Stay tuned for our final issue of Vol. 65—all we can say is that it’s going to be a real good time.

Sending you lots of good luck on your final assignments,

Janna & Rion

janna abbas, janus kwong cover illustration shelley yao

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