EDITOR'S STATEMENT
by Ana Chen, founder and Editor-in-Chief
by Ana Chen, founder and Editor-in-Chief
It’s been rough.
I messaged that to a friend, three days after my first day of college. I felt disorientated and discombobulated, thrown from open houses to classes to parties to presentations. Despite how much I value vulnerability, it was hard to admit how difficult my first week had been. I felt as if I were letting myself down, somehow failing to attain the college experience of which I’d dreamed. And although my friends talked me out of that, I'm still kind of struggling. And I think that's okay.
Vulnerability is the most powerful way to bond a community. Vulnerability means provoking and probing; it may mean opening wounds. But the act of opening wounds implies an opening of space, too - space to confess and communicate, space to discover and uncover.
It is hardest to be vulnerable to yourself, to stare at and challenge your beliefs and experiences. Humans are fragile in their constructions of selves, strong in their ability to hold that fragility at bay. They are also good at reconstructing vulnerability to suit their own narratives or ends - I am guilty of that. But to be honest with oneself, to admit to weakness and help even when doing so doesn’t make a pretty essay or an eloquent story - that requires (at the risk of cliche) an entirely different kind of strength.
It’s been rough, and it will be rough - and it will be even rougher if none of us are willing to admit it.
So happy reading! We hope the stunning work in our September issue will inspire you to be vulnerable - if not to anyone else, then to yourself.
- Ana Chen, Founder + Editor-in-Chief
I messaged that to a friend, three days after my first day of college. I felt disorientated and discombobulated, thrown from open houses to classes to parties to presentations. Despite how much I value vulnerability, it was hard to admit how difficult my first week had been. I felt as if I were letting myself down, somehow failing to attain the college experience of which I’d dreamed. And although my friends talked me out of that, I'm still kind of struggling. And I think that's okay.
Vulnerability is the most powerful way to bond a community. Vulnerability means provoking and probing; it may mean opening wounds. But the act of opening wounds implies an opening of space, too - space to confess and communicate, space to discover and uncover.
It is hardest to be vulnerable to yourself, to stare at and challenge your beliefs and experiences. Humans are fragile in their constructions of selves, strong in their ability to hold that fragility at bay. They are also good at reconstructing vulnerability to suit their own narratives or ends - I am guilty of that. But to be honest with oneself, to admit to weakness and help even when doing so doesn’t make a pretty essay or an eloquent story - that requires (at the risk of cliche) an entirely different kind of strength.
It’s been rough, and it will be rough - and it will be even rougher if none of us are willing to admit it.
So happy reading! We hope the stunning work in our September issue will inspire you to be vulnerable - if not to anyone else, then to yourself.
- Ana Chen, Founder + Editor-in-Chief