Letter from the Editors
by Wendy Gao & Jasmine Wang
Dear beloved reader,
Welcome back to Grounds, and welcome back to {in}Visible Magazine! As we return to our shared home of Charlottesville in waves, nostalgia and longing beg us to reflect on the places we have journeyed back to, visited, and departed. We swam after that tide in this issue, a chronicle of the travels—literal or metaphorical—that we revisited and relived before our roads intersected back here on Grounds for another year. This issue explores returning to familiar shores as foreign people, creating new meaning and toeing the line between the known and unknown. Returning to the old can often feel like stagnation or recession, but oftentimes visits to the past—though possibly painful or bittersweet—can be the greatest source of growth and an essential part in forging a new path forward.
Returns manifest the imagined and the remembered into real living, breathing flesh. They remind us of all that we have left behind or perhaps all that we never had. Our creative staff teach us that returning can mean recovery, reconciliation, and reclamation of pasts, families, homes, and ourselves. Unearthing the secrets preserved only between ourselves and time reveal all that we are capable of, flinging open new doors of possibility.
This issue takes off with Bhavyasri Suggula’s poem “airplane thoughts” that flies us across the world as she searches for a place to call home, ultimately redefining what home means to her. Aliza Susatijo’s photo poem series, “A Place to Return,” also transports us from destination to destination with her poetic snapshots of picturesque views, reminding us to slow down and appreciate our shared cinematic skies.
Patrick Yuson charts a new course in his acrostic “Umuwi” as we sail along as passengers on his summer pilgrimage to the Philippines. Like any good sea captain, despite anxieties of his own, Yuson skillfully navigates us through the tumultuous storms of reconnecting with cultural heritage and oneself. In her personal collection of short stories “Lessons from Returns,” Wendy Gao also writes of pilgrimage and home, and together, we learn what it means to return and leave things behind.
Evelyn Pak carries on this theme of exploration of self and heritage in her poem “middle name” that is heavy with wistful lamentations of the bright star she once was, wondering if that part of her will ever return. In her poem “Recipe for the Future,” Scarlet M builds on that theme of loss, rebelling against the idea of lost culture by building new avenues of sharing culture and community through mouth watering Filipino feasts.
In a series of vignettes aptly named “Pignettes,” Gordon Shi explores our theme of return by journeying back to rural Communist China, where his father finds friendship with a joyfully chubby not-so-little pig. His portrayal of his father’s childhood and his relationship to the village’s pigs convey that human mirth will always prevail despite hardship.
Two of our other writers also made a return to their youth like Melanie Chuh who takes a stroll down memory lane in her intimate crossword puzzle “Answers Lie at the Intersections.” We encourage you to try to fill out her crossword as she revists the joyful emblems of her own coming-of-age story. Jasmine Wang’s love letter to her sister, “The Stamp of Sisterhood,” overflows with nostalgia for a shared childhood as she revists the pains of growing up, the joys of sisterhood, and the desires she has for her own older sister and older sisters everywhere.
Finally, Cayla Celis leaves us with a hauntingly eerie ending with her fictional horror short story “Can you keep up?” The story follows an arcade worker, Alex, who rents out the arcade for the night to celebrate with his girlfriend, until they waltz straight into a dark and horrific secret from Alex’s past. Try to keep up with this issue. ;)
As always, we extend our deepest thanks to our hardworking staff who gave their time and creative talent, even during the quiet summer months. Returning to you all—our writers and artists—is what inspires us to push forward; you all make this worthwhile. And thank you to our new managing editors, Evelyn Pak and Mariam Seshan, for breathing new life into this publication! Please also take a peek at our playlist “Return.” This is a collection of songs inspired by our theme and our pieces, curated by our very own writers and artists just for you—our dear beloved reader—to listen to as you read.
Behind every journey forward is the journey back—to our homes, families, past lives, people, and places we love and have loved. Returning grounds us in a stronger sense of self and identity, a refuge to rest in so that we may live to fight another day with renewed vigor. Returning can also launch us to new heights, a signal to end a chapter but keep writing the story. Both can be true, reminding us of all the love and loss that we have endured—all the love and loss that we are capable of.
As a final note, we are ever grateful for your readership. We hope that after reading this issue and returning with us to all these moments in time, you will turn the page and continue reading the next chapter of our story.
With all our love,
Jasmine and Wendy <3
