Editors’ Note - Issue I

Trisha Khattar | Vivien Song | Angela Chen | Ester Tsai | Caroline Gersich

Dear readers,

It is a pleasure to present to you Pleasanton’s very first city-wide high school literary magazine, a collaboration between Amador Valley and Foothill high schools. As this year has been rife with tension and uncertainty, we hope that the pieces in this first issue will provide you with a space to cradle, interrogate, and inhabit the daily joys that life presents. 

The power of writing lies in how it allows us to illuminate each others’ unique experiences and to explore the intersection of past and present, self and nation, isolation and hope. Even in these terrifying and uncertain days, the words of our contributors brim with vitality and light, carrying us past the tide that seems to be, at times, insurmountable. Ada Limon writes: “enough of the pointing to the world, weary / and desperate, enough of the brutal and the border/ ... enough sorrow, enough of the air and its ease, / I am asking you to touch me.” When done right, art touches its audience, reminding us of the beauty that exists in the world. 

Whether it is art with a pen or a paintbrush, we ask you to approach every work with an open mind and a curious soul. From the haunting loneliness of aspen y.’s “mirror/speak,” to the lighthearted spirit of K.T.’s “Toward Home,” to the strength in j.h.’s “You are Not Descended From Gods,” our first issue highlights the diverse range of emotion and expression in our Pleasanton students, reflective of human life for all. It’s present in the exploration of maturity in Soumya Sahay’s “Soft Silent Strokes Scare Me To Sleep,” in the wistful nostalgia of Amy Wang’s “Dear Monsters of Our Childhood.” Through every word written with passion and purpose, our writers long for you to hear their stories and step, for just a few moments, into their minds. In every stroke of color, there is meaning, be it a criticism of our modern society in Will Liang’s “Invisible Strings,” or a tribute to lives lost in a four-part project by S.P. depicting the consequences of drinking and driving in “Every Fifteen Minutes.” 

We invite you to wander through the sun-dappled corridors of each work in this issue. It’s a reclamation, a renewal, and a rebirth— the first chords that strike at daybreak. So be comfortable with introspection. Find the magic in the dissonance. Allow yourself to rediscover the feeling of feeling again. Enter Issue 1.