Two beers with Simon Bakkejord
Two beers with Simon Bakkejord
Journalist: Marie Tjelta
Fotograf: Thale Jensen Hevrøy
Translator: Rebekka Berg
Web distributør: Martha Ingeborg Evensen
Like any good story, this one begins with the interviewee, Simon, sharing tales of spending the night naked and intoxicated on gin at Samfunnet or holding an inhuman number of positions at both Samfunnet and the annual student festival (UKA). Simon has, in many ways, circled the life of Ås. He is an established character among the students, whether seen as a party chief, “lærke”, UKA writer, Head of Revue, security guard, or simply Simon. The probability of encountering Simon in some form, size, or perhaps even in dreams during your time in Ås is quite high. He wears many hats and medals - literally - and we can’t help but wonder: who is the man, the legend, the student behind the character Simon Bakkejord?
I meet Simon at the student society in the club. The sly smile he gets when he’s about to say something witty spreads across his face. “My whole life isn’t just about being naked at Samfunnet,” he emphasizes before we dive into Simon’s wild Ås adventures, each of us with a cold drink in hand.
It happened in the days when “a cute little Sámi boy” was born.
Let’s start from the beginning. Simon is, as he nicely puts it, “a cute little Sámi boy from far up north.” It was a dark and stormy night when the world was enriched with Simon Bakkejord’s existence - literally, it was a snowstorm, and it was snowing unusually heavy. So much so that the plane destined for Hammerfest, where the hospital was, had to land in Tromsø, much to Simon’s dismay. “It didn’t leave me with lasting injuries; I quickly made my way back to Finnmark and grew up in Alta.”
With a Sámi mother and a Norwegian father, he felt a delicate line between who he was. “In my childhood, I saw myself as very Norwegian, but it was only when I moved that I began to take more ownership of the Sámi part.” Simon is very proud to be Sámi and considers himself Sámi even though he doesn’t speak the language. “But I can blame the Norwegians.”
Class clown
Simon is in many ways Ås students’ answer to the “class clown.” A role that has followed him since elementary school. Ironically, this was somewhat reluctantly. “I hated being the center of attention and getting a lot of attention, while I also loved being the center of attention and getting a lot of attention,” Simon says, describing himself as an introvert with a great need to be seen. However, if you look past the absurdity, he boils it down to being someone who simply wants to make people smile. “I want people around me to be happy, and when people laugh, I know they’re happy.”
“I’ve always been unsure of myself, which makes you want to create a character.” He explains that it’s not a desire to be dishonest, but rather to wrap himself in a package that may seem more accessible to people. “The easiest thing is just not to lie because then you don’t have to remember what you said.” You can joke about anything, but you have to be honest that you’re joking. “My intention when I joke or create sketches is always to make people happy.”
When Ås was bigger
“When I started, Ås was bigger, the campus was bigger, the students who were older than me were bigger, scarier - almost like they glowed as they walked around.” In recent years, Simon thinks Ås has shrunk more and more. “I don’t know if anyone else has noticed?” At the same time, he
thinks it has become cozier and more enjoyable; it has become a home. Simon reminisces about the time when campus was larger, and he had just started studying Environmental Physics at NMBU. It was the student environment that kept him there and made him continue studying in Ås, compared to other universities he had tried before. He remembers finding it intense to witness how much the students cared about the place he studied in. “The spirit of voluntarism I encountered in 2018 was awesome!” Already back then, he became a volunteer during UKA 2018 and, by the New Year, joined the bodega block, which was just the beginning of a series of volunteer positions Simon would have the opportunity to take on.
Then came the damn UKErevue
If there’s one thing you should know about Simon, it’s that he loves to be witty and creative, which naturally led him to be involved in revues. Revue has been a significant part of Simon’s time in Ås. He became the head writer for UKErevyen 2020 and warmly describes the writer meetings where they sat, brainstormed, talked about everything and nothing one or two times a week. That was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the revue for Simon. The process of creating something, being able to throw an idea into the air and see it become a finished product.
“So then there was that damn UKErevue that I had suddenly become the head writer for,” Simon laughs. “It was a mini UKErevue that was getting closer, and you prayed to higher powers for help... and God answered by throwing a global pandemic.” So, to Simon’s great disappointment, the mini UKErevue 2020 was cancelled. However, this pandemic-affected part of Simon’s life did not turn out to be so bad. Simon has a knack for finding humour in almost everything, and even though a global pandemic came that placed restrictions on all parts of society, Ås students’ engagement did not stop. “We fired all the cannons, did everything we could; it was tragic, but we managed to create fun even with the limitations, which made it almost more enjoyable.”
Simon was eager for more, so when UKErevyen 2022 was approaching, he joined as a regular writer. “People are unique and create completely unique things; it’s so different from year to year.” Now, as UKErevyen 2024 is on the doorstep, Simon admits that he is a bit jealous and that it will be difficult to sit and watch without being able to join the fun this time.
A bouquet of wonderful people
Through his time as a volunteer, Simon has met many inspiring enthusiasts. He describes it as a beautiful bouquet of people that he has picked over the years in Ås. He says that these are people who give so much of themselves to the community while being students. “There is a reason they are in the positions they are in; they have proven themselves to be skilled and engaged.” In addition to the Head of the Revue, many associations have shown new sides of themselves when they have let loose and played with revue. “Anyone can create a revue as long as you go into it with your whole self!”
Lærke antics
Seeing Simon with a captain’s hat, dressed in the most beautiful costume of the Lærke choir, is not an uncommon sight, being one of his many roles. Better known by the name HyperraskbestemoriutforBakkejord or Bestemor, he participates in the many antics of Lærken in Ås, whether it be singing Stentor at Bodega or dancing at Bohemen until the morning light. Lærken has been a unique arena for Simon. Little did he know what he was getting into when he joined the choir in his first year in Ås. “I don’t even remember applying; like many others, I was tricked.” And suddenly, he joined a choir where he “got free access to fantastic people!”
The last chapter in Ås
“Those who kept track will notice that in the spring of 2022, I should have written my master’s... I didn’t.” When Simon came to Ås, his professor in his first lecture encouraged him not to finish on the standard schedule. “Take fun, daring subjects, get involved, and make the most of your study time.” After not five but six years in Ås, Simon has done just that. In many ways, he has rounded off his Ås life with his commitment to volunteer work and fun antics. Simon thinks that taking a master’s in five years is, of course, the best, but the most important thing is that you’ve had fun and contributed to making Ås a better place.
Simon looks forward to the road ahead and will be ready to leave Ås after six fantastic years come spring. “I have filled this chapter to the brim with fun things.” He describes it as special to say “good morning” to fresh students who have just entered the door. When he looks back, he knows that they are embarking on an incredibly fun journey. He especially looks forward to visiting and being the bitter hunchback claiming that everything was better before. “The microphones were turned up a bit higher before, things blinked a bit brighter before, the coffee at Samfunnet was a bit stronger before,” he says, looking thoughtful as if he has gone back to that time. “You feel that what you did was one of the most important things... there’s probably a Stentor song that describes what I feel now,” he laughs. So when the snow melts in May, adorned with medals, Simon Bakkejord will be ready to leave shrinking Ås behind and embark on new adventures.
Greetings
Dear Gokk’s Official Leader of Outdoor Areas, Trash Bin, and the Citizen Kane Room in the Basement!
You hardly need an introduction, as people have just read seven (!?) whole pages about you. What is surely forgotten, however, is the prolonged election campaign you’ve run here in Gokk. And by election campaign, we mean an undisputed willingness to become the unofficial leader of the collective, in other words, to take on responsibilities that no one else wants. This rarely means that you actually do what the job entails, for a title speaks louder than a thousand pictures! But with your vision, a pool appeared in Gokk! And one use later, the biggest mosquito slayer south of Moer nursing home disappeared. Thanks to your stubbornness, we also pay 6.30 NOK less in rent today. Thank you for that. When you’re not leading sing-alongs in the bodega, you often prefer to play video games or scold others who are playing. Probably in these moments, you realize that life is more exciting if you just play a few more roles. For you are a person it is impossible to trust in some situations, but you are still someone to lean on if you need help mastering life’s challenges. You are a man who often doesn’t know when to stop, so your jokes are in the roughest of manners, but at the same time, it gives you an execution ability that gets many projects completed. And even when we feel bullied, we can always trust that you don’t take it into account.
Gokk regards bonk from all of us!”
Dear wonderful Simon,
Sharing everyday life with you is a true joy! You fill the lives of everyone around you with laughter, mischief, and spicy comments. You’re the type who sacrifices your hair and beard to dress up as Ken, and I must admit: no one rocks sock ties and agricultural supply store caps better than you. As a true revue personality, you shine on the stage of life! Even though you’re a prankster, there’s also a hidden 70-yearold inside you - you increasingly resemble the Old Man in “The Old Man and the Cat.” After spending last summer alone in a mountain cabin, you came home with a smile from ear to ear, dreaming of a small farm with two pigs. “Imagine being able to make your very own pork roast!” (It’s clear that good food is a big motivation here...) I look forward to experiencing the dream life with you, but before we settle down completely, let’s dream a bit more about hiking the length of Norway or learning to sail! Thank you for filling our lives with adventure, love, laughter, and most importantly: with sushi<3
Love from Bjørk, Kittil, and Solveig
“Simon is not just an ordinary Congolese uranium miner; he is enriched ‘I am become death’ Los Alamos uranium.
I have had the immense pleasure of standing alongside Simon, through thick and thin, long and short, parallel and orthogonal, delicate and shameless, humorous and serious. One of the first moments where I noticed his humor was in DnD. A triviality led to the gnome played by Simon lying on the ground sulking, rather than helping his friends being slaughtered in battle. A true companion. Together, we wrote some of the most absurd sketches in both UKErevyen and Lærkerevyen’s history (king crab anyone?). One of Simon’s best qualities is his ability to remember all sorts of references, from all over the place, and bring them out just when needed. Sometimes it felt like he did it just for me. If I were to describe Simon in Latin, it would be: ‘Semper Fidelis.’ Always Loyal. Whether it’s singing, sketching, baptizing at Realtek, improvising, revelry, and/or mischief, one can simply mute the Geiger counter and know that Simon is going to deliver.
-Tylle
