ISSUE 2 — Wellness Editor-in-Chief Matt Comeau
TEAM LEADS
Submissions/Editing Lily Roth Layout Design Clara Xi Art Diana Tran, Nevedha Ravi Marketing Diya Dadlani, Grace Benjaminsen Treasurer Irsah Choudhury Secretary Jasmeet Chahal
FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Anonymous Absalom Abalone Clara Xi Jasmeet Chahal Martha Merrall Tiffany Griffith
Cover art Diana Tran @watiszine | watiszine@gmail.com
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- letter from the editor This issue’s theme is Wellness, which means a lot of things to a lot of different people. I find at times the latter end of this term is the hardest for a lot of students, due to the anxiety around co-op positions, the looming pressure of exams, the nights that get darker and ever longer, and the way the wind whips around branches and bites into the bones of the folks who walk outside. The transition from the strands of summer to autumn, to the early wisps of winter, can have a profound impact on us. We address our wellness from a variety of different angles. For some it is seeing friends, engaging in a shared space, or making the effort to be present. To others it is getting out of bed, making that coffee, doing those dishes. Maybe it is taking your meds, pushing yourself to go to that counselling session, or acknowledging that you need to seek support; even when you insist that you don’t. One of the many ways we try to elevate our wellness is through self-care, which is one of the most important but overlooked ways to help yourself. As the term begins to slowly set, much like our sunlight, remember to take the time to pause. There is no rulebook for self-care, or what makes you happy, so find the opportunity to do that in between the work you do, the content you study and the success you want to achieve. We’re defined by our victories, but we learn a lot from our failures. Reflect on what you’ve accomplished so far, so you can have something to look forward to on the road ahead. I, along with our team this year, want to thank you for taking the time to enjoy this while you can. This issue is really a combination of the peaks and troughs of what Wellness means. And without you clicking on our posts, sharing our content, sending your emails and being engaged, we wouldn’t be able to share this with you. Count this issue among your successes, as we at WAT is Zine do so often. Good luck on the rest of the term, and I hope you find the wellness that you seek.
- Matt Comeau 3
table of contents 5
Achieving Wellness
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A Harsh Reality
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Silence
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The Little Things in Life
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Come Back To Me, Symphonica, Symphonica
4 Credits: p. 4 — Background image by Wengang Zhai on Unsplash p. 5 — Background image by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash p. 13 — Image by Openclipart on Publicdomainvectors p. 14 — Image by Openclipart on Publicdomainvectors
Achieving Wellness by Tiffany Griffith
Hello, are you well? What does it mean to be well? Wellness is more than feeling healthier or being happy. Wellness is the ability to make choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life—it’s a process of change and growth. Am I well? Not quite. There are some hardships in life that can create ‘speed bumps’ on the journey towards wellness. Think of life as ocean waves—waves constantly flow, moving towards land and then they disappear. Things in life come toward us as the waves do to the shore, but they always seem to pass. This is why wellness is an active process. That’s not to say someone cannot be well. A person can be well one moment, and not well in another. It all depends on what helps us achieve wellness. There are eight different dimensions of wellness: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual wellness. Wellness encompasses all eight dimensions. So, are you well? Are you spiritually well? Financially well? For one person meditation may help them achieve spiritual wellness and exercise may help another achieve physical and emotional wellness. Personally, both meditation and exercise help me move towards wellness. Exercise helps me release happy and healthy hormones to my body making me feel better both physically and mentally. I find mental clarity in fitness. My anxiety levels are much lower after completing some kind of exercise. Meditation allows me to let my thoughts freely flow between my conscious and subconscious. It allows you to process your thoughts in a way that is calm, peaceful and accepting. Your thoughts can flow and be released so they do not cloud your mind. So the key is to find something that moves you closer towards complete wellness. Making this a priority will help you achieve much more than wellness in your lifetime. Be well.
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A Harsh Reality By Jasmeet Chahal
Being given advice that you are already aware of hurts the most Maybe because we know the truth of the matter, We are aware of the toxic reality, But we have convinced ourselves to reject it accepting it entirely because it is much more comfortable to live in a delusional state of mind So when somebody else conďŹ rms these already existing beliefs that we have not yet conďŹ ded in, These beliefs that hurt to confront, The knife is pulled out a little further We are pushed to do what we do not want to do, even if it is the best thing to do We are pushed to sweat, to quiver, to feel lonely, To hear what hurts us and to contradict our hopes and desires, And most importantly, we are pushed out of our comfort zone The pain is not hidden, we are aware it is there But we have hidden it safely in our chambers so that it cannot speak to us Its volumes have been muted, the voices have been silenced and the truths have been neglected We have not yet confronted this pain Because keeping the knife there
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Is much less painful Than pulling it out And pushing it a little deeper may harm us in the long-term, But we choose to ignore the signs, just to be a little more comfortable temporarily, Rather than confronting reality,
Because the truth will always hurt more And we like to believe that this world is good, that it is fair But it is not, However, The greatest of lessons are learned from the harshest of experiences And sometimes, the knife needs to be pulled out, For all the poison that has been growing inside, all the ignorance, all the false realities and truths, to ďŹ nally empty out To start fresh and come to terms with that pain The deepest pain results in the most rewarding form of healing-growth And it is much better to break free of the shackles of delusion, Than remain where you are, cuffed to unrealistic expectations
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Silence -Anonymous
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clara xi
in Life s g in h T le t The Lit
tiffany griffith
Ever have those days when you feel like there's nothing to be happy about? Then this post is for you. There will be days where everything goes wrong—that's life. But if you constantly focus on everything going wrong, you will have a really hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. You may be thinking that I am just one person who may not even understand what you're going through—but hear me out. There was a time in my life where I was sick, and I mean sick! Infection after infection. Going from 110lbs to 86lbs. I couldn't bowl, I couldn't leave my house, I couldn't eat, I couldn't even leave my bed. Why am I telling you this? My anxiety, panic disorder, and fear was SO BAD, I didn't think it was going to get any better. I finally said enough was enough. I decided that something needed to be done. I couldn't spend every day like this. I wanted to talk to someone—my Grandma in particular. So, I picked up my phone to call her, forgetting that she had passed away a couple weeks previous (hope you're still resting in paradise my angel). Losing someone who would talk to me and make the bad things better and the great things greater was tough, but I knew she wouldn't want me to be this way. And this brings me to the title of this post. I started to look for the little things in life to make me happy. I would watch my favourite movie over and over again. Soul Surfer—the movie about Bethany Hamilton. She lost her arm in a shark attack and still went on to be a professional surfer. 12
This movie taught me what it means to have hope. And—not to preach as it's not my intent—but it reminded me of my faith in God. It reminded me of how powerful his love is! “For I know the plans I have for you,” Declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope, and a future.” - Jeremiah 29:11 This verse spoke to me, and still does to this day. I didn't believe staying in bed was in his plans for me. So every day from that day forth, I looked for the little things and I thanked him when I could find them. Day by day I would count my wins— something I had accomplished that pushed me and made me stronger and better than the day before. When I got out of bed, I won. When I was able to eat, I won. Every tiny win grew and grew and gave me more and more hope. Y'know what they say is true: even on your weakest days, you get stronger. My hopes for you? I want you to know that YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK! Count your wins. Even if you don't think something as simple as getting up out of bed is a win—trust me it is. Little gains go a long way, and it's the little things in life that can make a world of difference.
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Come Back To Me, Symphonica, Symphonica by Absalom Abalone "Symphonica?" "Yeah?" "How did you solve question three in the linear algebra assignment?" She looked up from her laptop. "Want me to show you how I did it?" I nodded. She got up from the other side of the table and stood to my left. "This question took me a while to get, but"—she flashed a grin—"there's a little trick to it that makes it really easy..." Symphonica's laptop was covered in stickers. It was impossible to see the surface of the laptop lid under them all. There was a new sticker on it that I hadn't seen since the first time I saw her. It was in the bottom-left corner: a sparkly little crescent moon the size of my thumbnail.
☾ I always think of her when I hear this song. I used to love listening to it, but now I hate it. I hate it and I love it. How does one hate and love something at the same time? Memories of Symphonica come flooding back in waves, and I am helpless against the tide.
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"I don't have any more classes today either," Symphonica said, plopping down in front of the piano in the Rock Garden. It was warm and sunny outside, but not too hot. Summer had yet to become unbearable. "Are you going to play something?" I asked. "Maybe." She was smiling coyly. "You have any requests? I know all the hits. Für Elise, Pachelbel's Canon, even City of Stars from La La Land." I laughed. "I didn't know you could play so much. Or that you could play at all." "I used to play a lot more before I university. I'm out of practice now," she said, not looking at me but at her outstretched hands. "But I don't think I could've forgotten everything already." She looked back up at me and beckoned me to sit down beside her on the piano bench. "So, any requests?" "Actually, do you know anything by Debussy? He's my favourite," I said bashfully, taking my seat beside her. "Debussy, huh? I think I remember how to play that one piece of his that everybody knows..."
☾ I'm trying to decide if I should skip the song in the study playlist I'm listening to. Of all places it would show up! My thumb hovers over the skip button for a long time before I pull it away. Things like this remind me I'm not really over her. I want to get over her. But what if I can't? What if I have to live with this for the rest of my life? It's terrifying. I'm trapped and no one knows it. I'll never, ever be free of her.
☾ "Symphonica?" "Yeah?" "Let's go home. It's late." 15
"Alright, alright," she said. "Guess I lost track of the time there." She got up and threw the tarp over the piano. It was another one of those evenings where Symphonica and I would sit together in front of one of the outdoor pianos for hours, talking and laughing and revelling in each other's company. I loved to tell her about all the little stories I had in my head that I wanted to write down someday; she loved to play at the keys for me and other passersby to hear. "It's so dark now," I said. It must have been almost eleven o'clock. "How do you see the keys when you play?" She pointed upwards. The moon was full in the cloudless sky. Large and whole and milky white. I gasped. "I've never seen it so big and full before. It's so big tonight." "Beautiful, isn't it?" "It is." "A sight like this... it's sad and beautiful." She was looking away from me, her expression inscrutable in the dark. Crickets were chirping all around us. "That song you like, the one you always ask me to play... it's a sad song. Why do you like it so much?" "Because it's not sad. It's..." I struggled for words. "It's beautiful. And you play it so beautifully. I always hate when it comes to an end. I never want your playing to stop." I saw a trace of her smile in the dim moonlight. "Well, all good things must come to an end. Hey, how did we get to talking about this? Let's hurry up and go home. Oh man, I've got a calc quiz tomorrow and I haven't studied for it yet..."
☞ The song is short, and it crawls to its sleepy end after only ďŹ ve minutes. I still don't know if I miss Symphonica or not, but I know I miss the way she used to play this song. No recording could ever compare to the memories of sitting beside her on warm summer evenings.
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Snow falls gently against the library windows. It's 7 PM and the sun set long ago. I decide that I'm done with studying and start to pack up.
☾ Symphonica's contorted face was bathed in the harsh, orange light of the streetlamp above us. "Symphonica, I'm sorry, I'm sorry—" "You're abandoning me. How am I supposed to forgive you for something like that? You're just like everyone, everyone else." The rain was falling on us hard. "Symphonica, I only wanted to help you." "No, you never did. I was always just your toy. Now you've grown tired of trying to fix me. I know how selfish you are." Her words stung like poison. "Symphonica, I'm sorry," I blubbered hysterically, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She stood there in the rain, silent as stone. "I wish I had never met you..."
☾ I trudge through the Rock Garden on the way back to my apartment. The piano that used to be there is long gone. It was ruined after someone forgot to put the tarp over it before a rainy night a few months ago. It is cold and I dig my hands deeper into my pockets. Snow continues to fall gently from the sky; the moon is nowhere to be seen.
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clara xi
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CONTRIBUTORS
ABSALOM ABALONE Absalom is a second-year student in the Faculty of Mathematics. Has a soft spot for Clair de Lune.
CLARA XI 2A Computer Science. Fall '19 editor for mathNEWS. Layout designer for WAT is Zine. C-List cryptid.
MARTHA MERRALL Martha Merrall is an artist from small town Ontario, currently studying Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. In her practice she explores the themes of identity, our habits, and the space we occupy. She works across a variety of media, gravitating towards sculpture and text art, but always ďŹ nds a home in printmaking. An emphasis on the care we give is present in her works.
TIFFANY GRIFFITH My name is Tiffany Griffith. I am an undergraduate student in Psychology at the University of Waterloo. I am an athlete and have been a Team Canada member for 10-Pin Bowling. I am a big advocate for mental health, ďŹ tness and nutrition, which my blog and Instagram consists of. Hope you enjoy my work and follow my journey!
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Issue 2 November 2019
