So long and thanks for all the headaches

A goddamn idiot
by Peter Greenall

Happy to move on, sad to “leave”

As of the twenty-fourth page of this issue, I will no longer be an editor or writer at this paper. It’s been fun and I’ve met a bunch of funny, interesting, and intelligent people – those whom I’ve worked with and interviewed over the last two years. While I won’t be writing and editing anymore, I have accepted a position on the paper’s board of directors. If you attended our AGM last week, you would already be aware of this.

So, I’m no longer legally allowed to write at the paper as of the end of this volume. What am I going to do with my time? I was hoping to finish my bachelor’s and move on to begin my master’s of history, studying action-packed goings-on of the twentieth century.

I am still most proud of my first major story at the paper. A group on campus was organizing against a program being cooked up by Vianne and the business school’s Andrew Gaudes (who still has me blocked on Twitter). The prospective program was to be launched in cooperation with Hebrew University of Israel and would involve Israeli security forces teaching potential police officers how to do minority policing. A local group organized against it and, between their feet on the ground and us writing a few good articles, the deal was scuttled.

Last winter, I wrote an article on the Residential School survivors’ Witness Blanket – a collection of items salvaged from the now-defunct genocidal schools and part of the TRC recommendations. I was able to participate in my first smudging ceremony and was hopefully able to contribute to the discussions of settler colonialism’s role in shaping the country we live in and may take for granted.

Over the past year, contributors have shaped arts and culture into the beast it is today. One year ago, there were no People and Places or Buttonmashing with Butterfield. These columns would be nothing without Ed and Ethan to make them what they are – some of our most popular pieces week-to-week. Arts and culture is about telling the stories that may not make it into the news, but are still very important to some people. I hope we have helped the people of Regina get to know one another, even if just a little bit better.

This past year, I have picked up a whole new set of skills I never even knew existed. Last year, I learned how to write fast and somewhat well. This year, I learned to write and edit, fast and somewhat well. I never could have done this without the infinite patience and good humour of our copy editor, Michelle, and our editor-in-chief, Matt.

I hope the next writer and editor team at arts and culture continues our tradition of shedding light on otherwise largely unseen or unheard-of individuals. Am I sad to say goodbye? Of course, but at a place like this goodbye is rarely forever. Hell, it rarely lasts ‘til the next day.