Opening Letter
Happy late new years.
2021. Hearing the news breaks my heart every day. The onslaught of crises in both my home country and all other parts of the world has wreaked emotional havoc within me. Glimmers of hope are a rarity these days. I’m just extremely grateful I’m still alive, but I can’t help but feel that numbing feeling throb inside me. I wonder if you do too.
Throughout these nine excruciating months, my brain unleashed its hidden superpowers and hit pause on the present, and I find myself living in the past. Needless to say, sentimentality has become a primary emotion of mine during the pandemic.
But what do you do when your only source of bliss are bygone scraps you want to purge so badly but can’t let go?
I read a quote the other day, which says: “Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.” — Rebecca Solnit
For the last two to three months, the MIND OVER MATTER team has been working hard to knit together a collection of your nostalgia thoughts and emotions, capturing it on a mini-zine.
#NostalgiaNow is not about relinquishing your past. It’s about reconnecting with the wounds that left you scarred for years. Reconnecting with a lost inner child. Giving the deepest caverns of your mind a little cleanse. Acknowledging how your past has served you in becoming who you are today.
I genuinely hope you all found this campaign reflective just as much as I did looking through your letters and submissions.
Let this be a mark of our youth, our hope, during these trying times.
P.S —To all the casualties of COVID-19, the people they left behind, others who have fallen victim to natural disasters, those who were unjustly murdered, and those who are going through difficult times in general.
My heart goes out to you.
With tender love and care,
Keshya V.
Editor-in-Chief
