Esmé Puzio / Daily Nexus

Emily Kocis 

Outgoing Managing Editor 

Despite how short it felt, these past four years are a lot to look back on. In an effort to hold onto my wavering sanity (and refusal to cry like a baby about it all) and in an ode to my time as Opinion Editor at the Nexus, here are my very last set of horoscopes. I present: “The Signs as Emily’s Best and Worst UCSB Memories (You Guess Which is Which).” Starting things off strong, Aries has got to be the time my housemate’s dog escaped our apartment and was found 20 minutes later harassing another dog on a walk. Taurus is when a guy with no shoes on sat directly in front of me in section. Gemini is getting spontaneous tattoos after Nexus training. Cancer is friends bringing me birthday flowers to fill our empty wine bottles with. Leo is live music every weekend. Virgo is collapsing on comfy office couches next to an always-full basket of candy. Libra is late nights in the library. Scorpio is hiding from the cops in a dorm bathroom. Sagittarius is movie nights filled with endless, gut-clutching, wheezing laughter. Capricorn is running my last Extravaganza. Aquarius is watching baseball on Saturday afternoons. And Pisces is picnics on the bluffs followed by sunset swims in the ocean. All things considered, I feel tremendously lucky to have had a college experience so saturated with love. I owe it to the amazing people that surround me, the one-of-a-kind professional opportunities I’ve been provided and, as always, to sunny Santa Barbara. Now it’s on to new bests and worsts, but here’s to always remembering the ones I’ve had here. 

Daniela Gomez

Outgoing Production Editor 

As an inherent catastrophizer, I came to college with the idea that everything I wanted would somehow be unachievable. I quickly realized that having such little faith in yourself and your potential is remarkably more harmful than good. Carrying a significant load of fear and doubt but the right amount of hope and desire to be a part of something, I found myself in the Daily Nexus office, curious if it would ever feel like home. Four years later, and I can tearfully say that I never imagined something could be so hard to say goodbye to. My time at the Nexus was more than a time-consuming extracurricular; it serves as a constant reminder of my growth on both a personal and professional level. The Nexus challenged me, yet was also one of my greatest sources of comfort. It is such a privilege to recurrently create a tangible product that informs our local community and an even larger privilege to work alongside such talented individuals. The people at the Daily Nexus are not only exceedingly brilliant and hardworking, but they are also kind, funny and some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. I am forever grateful and in debt to my amazing Production team: Olive for teaching me more than I could have ever envisioned and Mina for taking the initiative to lead. The Nexus couldn’t be in better hands for what’s to come. I’d also like to thank Devanshi, Atmika, and Holly for evoking such warm and unconditional support. I am reminded that love is real when I think about how strongly it exists between us. I leave the Nexus with a heavy but overwhelmingly happy heart, and I encourage readers to be kind to themselves and never doubt their ability to belong. 

Sierra Vakili

Outgoing “The Daily Stench” Editor

My first Stench article was published online before I had ever stepped foot on UCSB’s campus. I knew nothing about campus life or culture — obvious in hindsight, if you read the article — but the editor at the time took a chance on me, then a timid seventeen-year-old, and fundamentally changed the course of my time at UCSB.

A freshman is not an easy thing to be at UCSB, but I owe everything to Stench and its stinkers for smoothing out my integration into this crazy college and helping me thrive here as a result. It was a Stench writer who fed a bagel to drunken, semi-conscious me and then helped me call an Uber back to FT. It was a Stench writer who nearly took my virginity. It was a Stench editor who took me on a hike to Inspiration Point my sophomore year, where I could take in a view of all of Santa Barbara, feeling genuinely grateful for how much this beach town had given me. It was Stench that allowed me to check off all kinds of bucket list items: put expletives on the front page, put a picture of myself in the paper, photoshop and publish Chancellor Yang with a six-pack. Chancellor Yang as a ghost living in a cursed locket. Chancellor Yang with a juicy dumptruck. Chancellor Yang as a butch lesbian (okay, this one is fake, I had to leave a few ideas for the next editors). 

But more than anything, Stench let me be a confident, loud, uncensored version of myself, unafraid to take up space. That has been the greatest gift of all. To the next generation, remember: no pussies on payroll, always pee after sex, and stay fucking stanky.

A version of this article appeared on pg. 20 of the June 1, 2023 edition of the Daily Nexus. 

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Emily Kocis
Emily Kocis (she/her) is the Managing Editor for the 2022-23 school year. Previously, Kocis was the 2021-2022 Opinion Editor. She is a Political Science and English double major and bagel enthusiast, who can usually be found color-coding a Google Sheet or desperately skimming through a reading she forgot to do.