Dear Readers,
There comes a point at the end of each year when we are forced to deal with the inevitability of incoming change. I’m not sure exactly when it happens, but in one great collective shift, society decides to finally accept the fact that time is a constant, and eventually winter will start, the holidays will end, and a new year will begin.
Whether conscious or subconscious, these moments of awareness are crucial — they pose an ultimatum that will dictate just how much change will occur come January. Either you charge full speed ahead and hope for the best, or you take time to stop and think.
To reflect.
Reflect on the year that you’ve had, and the ups and the downs and greats and not-so-greats that you’ve gone through. Reflect on the growth you’ve made, or haven’t made, and what about the world around you has grown, or shrunk, with you.
When you deliberately take time to do this, you allow yourself the headspace to deal with the bad and recognize the good. It is in this headspace that you can prioritize what you want to work on when the clock resets and we are gifted a whole new year to try and make it all work better.
So, now that December’s here, we at the magazine are taking time to reflect, and to change. We’re writing in order to ponder over the music and media that meant the most to us, the people we’ve lost who have touched us, and the places that have recently legalized w**d (in hopes that one day, we too, can remove those stars and 420blaze freely). And we’re publishing it all in order to inspire you to do your own reflecting on these things and others.
So, without further hesitation, we bring you our first monthly, online-only issue of The Rutgers Review — 2017 Reflections.
We’ll be posting one article a week from each of our four sections — Culture, Arts & Entertainment, Music and Potpourri — for the next four weeks. Take a look over what we’re reflecting on, and if it interests you, give it a like and a share.
For now, however, I wish you well in your chariot towards change.
See you in 2018.
—
Eric Weck
Editor-in-Chief