Dear Reader,
It’s official! It’s over! We can finally say goodbye to 2021!
Given that we were saying this exact same thing two years ago now, when 2020 was ending, I feel like I shouldn’t express hope for 2022. I mean look at 2021 after all. In a way, I feel like I will personally jinx it. That by looking forward to things happening this year, I will somehow be responsible for the Covid crisis extending or getting worse.
But I am excited about things this year, in the same way, that I am incredibly anxious about them. I think that’s a common feeling with a lot of people at the moment or at least one that I’ve been hearing from the people I know. “I’m excited for my life to get back to normal, but I don’t want to get sick.”
I think it’s a good thing in fact to feel both of these emotions. To be excited for the New Year, while also keeping in place everything we’ve learnt over the past two years, so we can continue to keep everyone safe, is the best course of action I think.
Don’t let this pandemic completely consume you. Do stay safe. Do stay home if you’re unwell. Follow guidelines, get tested when you need to, get vaccinated if you can (I’m in no way ashamed to state my pro-vaccine stance here). But don’t let this pandemic take over your life, or your brain, and please reach out when it’s all getting too much.
For a while, I thought that I should have everything handled by now. We’ve been in a pandemic for years now, surely you know how to handle it. In truth, no one knows how to handle this. It’s all so new, even still. Three years is a spec in the span of existence, and to expect yourself to know everything is impossible.
In honour of saying goodbye to 2021, we decided that our first issue of the New Year was going to be a “best of” collection.
We’ve had people from all over the world contribute to Spineless over the past six months, a fact that both amazes me and humbles me greatly. To think that, even with our small viewership, we are able to reach an audience across oceans really is astounding.
So I wanted to say thank you to everyone, by showcasing, unfortunately only, some of the incredible work people have done this year. I wish I could put everyone’s writing in this issue, but that zine would truly be impossible to staple. It has been an honour to watch writers contribute monthly and grow into their voice, to workshop ideas with people and hear their excitement, to read a multiple-page story that someone just couldn’t stop writing.
I hope I have been able to do justice to all of your incredible work this year, and for as long as Spineless continues. I hope you all continue to create, improve, and challenge yourself. And I hope that you keep making for Spineless.
As always thank you, readers and contributors, alike, and I hope you enjoy everything we have to show this year.
Love,
Lottie
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