Photo by Macy Green

Letter from the Editors

Way back this past October, our AP English Literature class read “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. Miss Byers launched into a diatribe about the simultaneous value and overuse of spring as a literary motif. In some ways, it represents new beginnings and new hope. Yet, Miss Byers argued, its literary overuse meant that characters experienced the same hopes and desires, but ultimately failed to enact change. Then, how is one to use spring as an appropriate metaphor for renaissance in such a bleak reality?

In this season’s issue, students from around the globe interact with spring in the same way as Chopin and other authors of times past. We asked them to share their own hopes for the future through poetry, prose, and art. Few of the struggles you see on these pages are completely new. Derek Moore of Yorba Linda High School in southern California writes about his hopes for a greener method of transportation, public rail travel. Sachi Mehta of KC School in Mumbai describes the feeling of a rebirthed love. Macy Green from Bournemouth shares photographs of delicate spring life, addressing the necessity to protect nature against increasing climatic threats. These are well-worn topics—yes—but today’s students have addressed them in unique ways from artists past. Their words and visions have the capacity to resonate with other members of our generation to spark change.

These students continue to creatively and intellectually revive discussions of old problems for a new generation. Miss Byers may have been correct in arguing that spring has been diluted as a literary metaphor, but in the way we see it, our creative “spring”—as its applications pertain to the world at large—has never ended. As a testament to this seasonal revelation, this issue’s theme is “Time-Traveler’s Almanac,” about students’ visions for our constantly-evolving world.

On the topic of growth, Through Our Eyes has grown in (we think) impressive ways since we last met. We’ve doubled our number of magazine editors and even have submissions and international editors in Canada, the UK, India, Romania, South Korea. We hope to create opportunities for intercultural exchange—Through “Each Others’” Eyes, if you’ll indulge me—and continue to teach Through Our Eyes writing curriculum abroad. We’ve also gotten over 5,000 social media impressions through the hard work of our advertising board, including co-president Tiana Zhang and new team member Tammy Tran. Finally, we were awarded $250 in literary grants from the Hershey Heartwarming Project and MLK III’s Realize the Dream Foundation and were able to share our magazine with teens at MOCA’s LA Teen Night.

Once again, many thanks for reading and supporting.