WAT is Zine? Issue 11: Beginnings

ISSUE 11 — Beginnings Editor-in-Chief

TEAM LEADS

Submissions/Editing Layout Design Art Marketing

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

Cover art

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Hey Folks, 2021 is now in full swing, with Winter Term started and snow finally arriving (for those of you that do get snow). This semester WAT is Zine? is focused a lot on our audience and our members, especially in finding ways to engage more with the creative community at UW. Aptly so, our theme for this month’s issue is Beginnings. We wanted to get away from the whole “new year, new me” mentality of January, and broaden it instead. To me, Beginnings is all about creating a starting point to figuring out what you want to do and creating a plan to get there. Even if it's just bit by bit. As I begin my final term at UW and graduating soon, it certainly feels like there is something new around the corner, I’m just not sure what it is yet.

We’ve also welcomed many new faces over the past few weeks and are still receiving more. It’s always refreshing to have new perspectives and ideas, and we are working hard to find better ways to feature the artists and entertainers here at UW and provide a platform that can be shared with all students, regardless of their skills, backgrounds or faculties. In many ways, WAT is Zine? is a start for some, and a stepping stone for others.

If you are interested at all in what we do or want to submit your work. Feel free to email or DM us. We also accept pigeons and the occasional telegram.

May the start of 2021 be brighter than all of 2020.

See you next issue, Matt Comeau Editor-in-Chief

WAT is Zine?

04: SUDDENLY SEE MORE 06: [UNTITLED] 07: OUR FIRST YEAR (FOR MADDY) 08: DAYLIGHT 10: VALENTINE 3

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Giggling, Shoes slide through slush, Toes turning inwards.

I am wet, Having already fallen Checking directions, Tipping sideways Into soggy snowbanks.

We are laughably lost.

Thick snowflakes – uphill and under streetlamps – Make random roads look familiar Until we are already halfway down them.

One day I will miss Squinting for street signs, Counting green traffic lights, Feeling safe in the dark.

I will miss Our room, photos, posters.

I will miss PJs, late night chats, toe-to-toe single beds; So much of our life together.

But in this slushy moment, It has barely been lived yet.

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This is all temporary.

I hear her whisper. like all illusions of crushing tides, the wave only subsides as I anchor myself to the rhythms of my exhalation again.

There are a multitude of mountains behind me: Accumulated from a myriad of infinitesimal steps, a miraculous unfolding of the butterfly effect I am here, somehow against all Odds.

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stay for another day.

I hear her whisper.

There will be sunlight pouring in over the windowsill; reminding me that what I currently see will not be the extent of all that I see.

No matter how strenuous the next breath feels I have always found it Again.

What does hope mean to you?

She asks and I respond: the luminescence of sunrise, penetrating through the wintress night. the way shadows collapse into dawn, a sunlight-drenched hour not previously seen the remedy at daybreak.

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Cassie Lim | @cassietheartsyfart2, @cassiethecoolio Cassie is a second year biology student at the University of Waterloo. With her goal to make the importance of creativity in today’s world evidently loud, she aspires to contribute to local art communities with the hopes of inspiring other young artists to follow suit.

Emma Schuster | @e.mmaschuster Emma Schuster is an Environment, Resources, and Sustainability student with a Joint Honours in Biology. She first started writing when she was ten years old and hasn't stopped since. Emma also enjoys reading, running, and bothering her roommate.

Kun Zhu | @zzikunnie Kun is a first year mathematics student who finds herself immersed in creativity when she is not surrounded by algorithms and equations. She loves the colour yellow and probably drinks more than 10 cups of tea per day.

Mikey Vibal | @caramelmikeyato

CONTRIBUTORS

Issue 11 January 2021