Nighttime sighs her last goodbyes,
Sweet sunlight trickles in.
I've never moved my arm so fast,
This alarm makes such a din.
My muscles ache, my eyelids burn,
Don't ask about my head.
If I must do this every day–
I wish that I were dead.
Why, oh why, I moan, I cry,
As stumbling steps I take,
On violent crimes my mind doth dwell.
On yawns my jaw doth break.
As water boils and grain-bread toasts,
I contemplate my fate.
Another morning has come 'round,
Another one to hate.
Curious about a counsellor’s perspective on your problems? VIU students are invited to submit questions about mental health and well-being for response in a new column in The Nav. Maybe you’re wondering how to build healthy habits, cultivate calm and confidence, better manage a stressful situation, cope with anxiety or depression, tackle a challenge in a relationship, or support a friend going through a hard time. On a biweekly basis, a VIU Counsellor will respond to one question for publishing in The Nav online and/or in print issues. Please submit questions to ask@thenav.ca.
The ...
The start of the school year finds students once again facing the cost of textbooks required for their education. With an average cost of $200 per book, students are struggling with how to pay the high costs for mandatory materials.
“As if record-high tuition fees weren’t bad enough, publishing companies are gouging students with unreasonable textbook prices,” said Aran Armutlu, Chairperson of the British Columbia Federation of Students. “These days it’s common to pay $200 to $300 per textbook—but it doesn’t have to be that way.”
The sticker shock of textbook prices is a ...
Last school year, VIU student Sarah Packwood pitched the idea for a disability-focused anthology during a class presentation from local publishing house Rebel Mountain Press. Lori Shwydky and Cheryl Ann Kelly of Rebel Mountain Press showed immediate interest, and plans for the anthology were set in motion.
Packwood was willing to answer The Nav’s questions about the forthcoming Disabled Voices anthology.
What is the drive behind having an anthology based around disabled voices?
Initially, I was inspired by Rebel Mountain Press’ work in providing platforms for voices of ...
The Vancouver International Film Festival, (VIFF) is gearing up for its 2018 run and is looking for volunteers to help with events. VIFF runs for 16 days in various locations around Vancouver, and the event boasts a yearly team of over 1200 volunteers.
With 21 volunteer teams there’s something for everyone. Tasks range from handling virtual reality kits, to working the hospitality lounge, to helping set up festival equipment. This year, VIFF is also accepting high school students for select volunteer positions.
VIFF hosts films from around the world, from Bulgaria to Egypt to ...
The 2018 Mariners Fall sports season is underway as student-athletes arrive on campus for the preseason.
The men's and women's soccer programs will see the biggest change this season as long-time men’s head coach Bill Merriman stepped down last spring after nine years at the helm of the program. Taking on Merriman’s responsibilities is Larry Stefanek, who most recently had been the associate head coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Upper Island Academy squad.
The men's team, which finished 9-1-2 in PACWEST play, hosted and won the CCAA national championship last year. With a new ...
I hope your summer was spent in a wake of freedom, bright with the knowledge that after a few short sun-filled (and briefly, smoke-filled) days you would be trudging up the good ol’ VIU stairs.
If you are new to VIU—maybe fresh out of high school, or maybe this is your first time seeing the ocean—then welcome! Hello! If you’re a returning student, nostalgic for the Land of Rabbits and Stairs, then welcome back, we missed you.
Compiled here is a list of off-campus locations for new and returning students. Nanaimo is filled with resources for work and play, and hopefully this will ...
Being at VIU is more than just going to class, eating, sleeping, repeating.
It seems, however, as though some of us are scared to leave our comfort zone and take the leap into something that would actually benefit us. The “something” that we are referring to in this instance is getting involved on campus.
Getting involved is the best thing you can do for yourself and for your future.
University is not about leaving your dorm room to go to classes and then leaving classes to go to your dorm room where you stay all day; it’s about having experiences and meeting like-minded people ...
Part 1
July came faster than I wanted it to this year. I had spent the entire semester eating the types of unhealthy foods that usually involved my debit card. Gradually, my activity level dropped into the category of “lethargic house-cat.”
Like many others, I’ve always been skeptical of “fad” diets. Calorie restriction, fitness regimens, and the elimination of entire food groups always sounded exhausting to me. I could never find a diet that seemed sustainable—and the magic quick fix cleanses and detoxes I read about seemed more like torture tactics designed to elicit confessions ...
On September 28, drumming instructor Hans Verhoeven will take faculty and students into the musical world of composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) by discussing and performing a Xenakis composition called Rebonds.
“It is arguably one of the most difficult and demanding pieces in the repertoire for solo percussion,” Verhoeven says.
The talk and performance, entitled Drummer Brain: The Percussionist’s Approach to Music, Learning, and Remembering, will take place in the Malaspina Theatre, beginning at 10 am. It’s the first presentation in the 2018-2019 Arts and Humanities Colloquium ...
Waiting on that student loan to come in? Wallet feeling a little light? Here are a bunch of things you can do for free—or at least, on the cheap—in the Nanaimo area until your bank account hits the quadruple digits again.
The Cultural Couch Series
The Cultural Couch Series is a student-led weekly event. Each week is different, often consisting of sampling traditional foods, sharing music, and engaging in conversation. Students can look forward to A Taste of Iraq on September 18, and A Trip to Nigeria on September 25. The event is free to attend, and is held on Tuesdays (Fall and ...
As a child I grew up in garden tearooms. I was sure that my grandmother, an immigrant from Holland, lived in a large house with glass walls and flowers creeping up to the roof. When we would visit her, she would take my little sister and I up to the wooden veranda on the second floor and serve us tea and biscuits. To a little girl in ripped overalls and crooked pigtails, those teacups made me feel like a princess.
Even when we moved to the opposite side of Alberta, my parents always made a point to visit the tearooms. There was the one in the old train station that served us blue ...
Nanaimo hip-hop has grown over the years. What began as a few kids rhyming over instrumentals has transcended into a close-knit community, artists like Sirreal, Jinx TK, Konfidential, and many others elevating hip-hop in the harbour city by showing what they can do.
Sirreal, aka Matt Dunae, recently raised over $20k for BC Children’s Hospital through charity shows. Konfidential recently shot a music video at Nanaimo’s Discontent City, spotlighting the topical issue—it received over 45,000 views on Facebook.
For the past five years Jinx TK, aka Tyler Barnes, has run a Toys for ...
On the corner where Commercial Street connects with Terminal Avenue stands the A&B Sound building. Year after year, it would take a beating from the elements each season, since its closure in 2008. What once turned heads from the highway by its vibrant purple paint job was left vacant and greyish-green. People would drive by without a single glance.
This summer the aging building underwent a transformation. Not the usual primer and another coat of grey-green, but a complete revival by the creative hands of several artists. It received a 360-degree coat of murals ranging from Bob’s ...
In a west-facing, rugged coastal mill town, two ferries away from Vancouver, Powell River VIU campus is lucky to attract Dr. Frederick Guerin to its compliment of instructors.
Guerin teaches philosophy and brings years of experience to the classroom. He has worked in harassment investigation, workplace mediation, arbitration, and consulting during his career. These jobs used his ability to ask the right questions at the right times and think through the ethical issues.
He enjoys teaching too and says he often uses literature to provide an access point to what is extraordinary in ...
If we are what we eat, then we are the Earth. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, this is something that many of may forget, which makes it even more significant to take time when we can to honour the Earth, the land, ourselves, and the responsibilities we hold for each other.
This Earth Day, April 21, just such an opportunity is available. John Barsby Community School in Nanaimo will be hosting the event this year with a range of activities that ask participants to not only celebrate the Earth, but to also remember it is our responsibility to take action in our daily lives. ...
Disabled students share their experiences with inaccessibility and discrimination at VIU
Ableism, like many other systems of oppression and marginalization, is a complex and nuanced concept. A simple way to understand ableism is to think of it as discrimination against disabled people, whether intentional or not. As I take the time to educate myself on ableism and deconstruct my own internalized ableism, I notice things like microaggressions and accessibility issues more often and more clearly. There have been many ableist issues popping up at VIU this year which have angered me more ...
As the semester comes to an end, the Mariners Dance Team hosts its second annual Dance Showcase.
On March 20, the VIU Mariners Dance Team nearly filled the Malaspina theatre for 15 routines, all of which were unique in cast, choreography, style, and costume.
The performances varied from gameday sets, to festival pieces, and even award-winning numbers—creating a stylistic mash up of pieces ranging from small group hip-hop, to large group contemporary.
The squad was accompanied by a tech-savvy stage operator who coordinated music and lighting for each piece, crafting a pleasing ...
When VIU’s basketball team emerges from timeouts, the last person to speak to players isn’t always Head Coach Matt Kuzminski, but Avneet Brar, his assistant. As the huddle breaks up, Brar grabs as many players as he can and shows them a diagram of the court on a whiteboard, walking them through what is about to happen one more time.
Brar is hands-on before games, too. He sits and watches both teams warm up. He takes copious notes on his clipboard. He converses with boys and girls from the youth basketball program, Hub-City Hoops. It’s evident within a few minutes of being in his ...
If your childhood was anything like mine, you heard the phrase, “the early bird gets the worm” constantly. You may have also heard, “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” And, if you’re anything like me, you rolled your eyes mightily at this advice.
But recently, after seeing chipper “early morning routines” vlogs on YouTube, as well as dozens of articles on successful people who always wake up early, I decided to give early mornings a shot. 5:00 am seemed, to me, pretty freakishly early—so naturally I chose 5:00 am as my new wake up time. Some CEOs ...
Now that the school year is coming to a close, you may be looking for things to do in Nanaimo and beyond—especially if this is your first summer on Vancouver Island. Here’s a list of activities to keep you occupied on your days off.
Kayaking
You can kayak almost anywhere there’s a source of water on Vancouver Island—which is, essentially, everywhere. Kayak lessons and/or guided kayak tours are located in Nanaimo, Parksville, Ladysmith, Victoria, Tofino, Maple Bay, Cowichan Bay, Lake Cowichan, and more. Kayak rentals are also available in the above locations, for those with prior ...
This hummus tastes even better than the store-bought version—and it won’t give you garlic breath.
Ingredients
1/2 of a medium onion, thinly sliced
vegetable oil of your choice, for frying
juice of one lemon
3 tbsp tahini
1 tsp salt, or to taste
3/4 vegetable oil of your choice, or water for a lighter version—a half oil and half water mix is also good
2 cups cooked chickpeas
Directions
Caramelize the onions by sauteing them with oil over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Saute for another 10 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off ...
For the most part, the idea of adding reading to a study-fatigued brain is oversaturation at its worst. Imagine though: the epic reads that could fill your bus commute to work this summer—bonus, they’re not assigned. Here at the Navigator, we’ve compiled a list of titles we’re determined to be excited to read.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
A YA Novel, but perfectly acceptable for grown-ups—in fact I encourage it—following a 16-year-old suffering a tragic loss, forcing readers to address the issues of police brutality. It speaks to modern racial tensions, need for justice, and ...
November Rose
Your friend cried because she was too busy to get sick,
you dropped everything and crossed the room to kiss her forehead.
I longed to catch her cold
and wished I knew how to cry.
Your taxi never came because I got the address wrong.
I hated that I made you wait in the rain,
yet was thrilled there was nowhere to stand
but under my tiny umbrella with me.
When I met you, I wanted to drop the indifferent façade
I put on around most people.
Around you, I didn’t want to lie,
I wanted to curl up at your feet.
When you said you didn’t want to put down roots ...
