Trying to find the right way to write this has proven to be extremely difficult. How do you capture a community, a whole year, and a role that is so important to you in just three hundred words? And how do I not make it corny? It feels impossible. However, I do know this: joining The Varsity has been one of the most rewarding and chaotic experiences of my time at U of T. 

When I found this role, I was struggling to find an outlet that would allow me to create without my work being taken advantage of. This year, I’ve had many opportunities to physically feel the weight of creating in dark times. Existing in a world that can feel cold, uncertain, and unwelcoming, this did not feel abstract. This is especially true for Black artists like myself, trying to find safe creative circles and navigate dominant systems and institutions. 

And yet, we continue to create. We continue to pick up pens, paintbrushes, microphones, and cameras, and capture moments of joy, pain, resilience, and grief. There is something deeply profound in the refusal to be quiet, even when the world finds new ways to censor you. 

For me, that power is inseparable from my identity. Being Black in creative spaces has always meant navigating exposure and invisibility at the same time. A constant battle between being heard, but never fully understood, or seen but never embraced. It has meant overthinking whether there is room for my perspective, or my eye. 

This role and this team have allowed me to take up space and prove our voices belong in these categories: space to experiment, to fail, to grow, and to support other artists in finding their voice and trusting it. In a time where creativity and originality feel rare, creative spaces like this are necessary for growth. It’s necessary for us to move away from the artificial and stand on the fact that we cannot be replaced. 

To everyone who contributed to photos this year, who trusted me with visuals for your article, who stood for hours on end in front of a camera for me, thank you. You made this feel like so much more than a publication — you made it a canvas for me to keep painting, even when the colours felt dull. 

As the year draws to a close, I continually return to a simple idea: be the change you want to see. The arts teach us how to think critically through alternate lenses, challenge injustice, and build community with each other. Keep creating, keep growing, and keep taking up all the space you want. 

I have faith in what all of you will continue to create and how it will shape our world. 

In solidarity, 

— Erika Ozols, Photo Editor, Volume CXLVI