Barbara Lehtiniemi is a writer and photographer from Ontario. She’s a graduate of Athabasca University, having completed her Bachelor of General Studies degree in 2018.
A regular contributor to The Voice Magazine for over ten years, Barbara has also contributed to other publications including Chicken Soup for the Soul and Maclean’s. Barbara writes in several genres, including non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. She’s eternally grateful to The Voice Magazine for providing the opportunity to explore an array of topics and writing styles.
Barbara has a fondness for travel, used bookstores, everyday absurdities, and oversized wine glasses. Originally from urban Southwestern Ontario, she now lives on a windswept rural road in Eastern Ontario.
The switch to Daylight Saving Time begins in three weeks. Remember last year? If you want to avoid the sudden lurch in your circadian rhythm, you need to start preparing now. Every March the majority of Canadians make the switch to Daylight Saving Time (DST.) Although “springing forward” sounds energetic, the days that follow are… Read more »
“Next Valentine’s Day, forget the chocolates, forget the flowers, show up with a We-Vibe, and you will be the best guy.” – Dr. Lauren Streicher, author of Love Sex Again. Orgasms—perhaps especially female ones—have long been a taboo topic. In “Let’s Talk About Female Orgasms,” a frank but funny video from The Atlantic magazine, Dr…. Read more »
AUSU’s General Election kicks off February 10 with the call for nominations. Unlike last summer’s By-election, the General Election will see all nine council seats up for grabs. Will you be filling a council seat for the next two-year term? There are many reasons to run for AUSU Council. The most obvious reason is to… Read more »
When I was in elementary school years?okay, decades?ago, there was one sure way teachers could persuade students to stay quiet for an extended period: show a film. Since it was school, the films we saw were educational and relevant to whatever subject we were studying. We did not watch feature-length movies?except for Shakespeare’s Romeo and… Read more »
When writer Ann Morgan examined the contents of her bookshelf a few years ago, she made what she calls an “alarming discovery.” The books on her shelves were mostly English works written by British and North American authors. Considering that Morgan is British and English is her mother tongue, her reading material isn’t that surprising…. Read more »
It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while somebody posts something interesting on Facebook. A month ago, while I scrolled through the ho-hum personal updates, endless cat videos, and anti-whatever rants, I saw something that made me stop scrolling and start thinking. It was a simple poster that read, “This January, why not… Read more »
In a puzzling move last week, AUSU Student Council announced it would seek to replace The Voice Magazine with a “Writer in Residence.” Without notice and with minimal fanfare, AUSU placed an upcoming event listing on its website, and on the AUSU Update page in April 3rd’s The Voice, for the seemingly hastily-organized 2015 Annual… Read more »
I used to feel like running away for the holidays. Perhaps go somewhere distant, warm and unChristmas-y. It wasn’t Christmas itself I wanted to run away from but all the work that precedes it. The Christmas season, despite its many endearing attributes, sometimes feels like a seasonal sprint: a short span of time prompting an… Read more »
As an AU student, do you ever find yourself apologizing for your choice of university? After explaining that you go to AU, do you brace yourself for puzzled looks and dumb-ass questions? (My favourite is, “Where is Athabasca University?”) Perhaps anticipating awkward questions or the need to explain, some AU students keep their student status… Read more »
Want to explore the world of universities? Would you like to know what’s it like to learn in Lisbon or study in Seoul? Just as many travellers rely on TripAdvisor to guide them to the best?and help them avoid the worst?of hotels and restaurants worldwide, now students can use the new Study Advisory website to… Read more »