Dear Readers,
I just turned 21, an event that has brought with it much existential dread. When I get asked my age, I still default to 18, or even 16 some days. Slow, creeping Father Time keeps breathing down my neck, so I search for ways to distract myself. The best method so far has involved a little pain, been a little permanent. I’m now on my second year of gifting myself a tattoo.
It’s fascinating, the things we choose to permanently put on our body, the ways we mark ourselves and our lives. At the moment, I only have two tattoos: a black iris (in honor of Hozier’s “Jackie and Wilson”) and a pair of sanderlings (a bird I saw all the time growing up in Florida). Now when I walk around, I’m making a visible statement about me, in ink and blood. It’s simple right now, but I imagine it will only get more complicated as I plaster more artwork on my skin, as I broadcast more ways to interpret my life.
In this issue of post-, our writers also think about the ways we frame not only our own stories, but the stories of others. In Feature, Ivy looks at her and her grandmother’s relationship to art, told through the lens of a migrating warbler. Also in Feature, Katya wonders about why we are so drawn to tales of revenge. AnnaLise examines the velocity of her relationships (and longboards!) for Narrative. Meanwhile Coco slows down and people-watches in Paris. In A&C, Chelsea thinks about the power of the simile, and Ann fights back against the Labubu hate. Lifestyle writer Merissa tells us about attending college in her 30s, and April reflects on the meaning held within our names. Finally, Alayna gamifies our Brown experience with a bingo board for post-pourri and takes us to a new galaxy with an out-of-this-world crossword!
There’s something so sweet about our desire to tell stories in everything we do, to curate our aesthetics and our media towards some coherent persona. We want to be seen and understood. Or maybe we want to be deliberately confusing. I hope this issue of post- inspires you to start crafting your own story—I’ll be listening!
Making it up as I go,
Elaina Bayard
Feature Managing Editor
Elaina Bayard is Feature Managing Editor at post- Magazine. When she's not buried under a mountain of readings from her English concentration, she's probably buried under a mountain of yarn from her crochet addiction.
