by Justin Teoh
We have come full circle with a calendar year’s worth of pandemic trials and tribulations, optimisms and pessimisms, learning (and re-learning) what rolls forward and what does not. We are confronted with our true inclinations and core values. We have offered our lending hands and solidarity to the communities around us so that we can better navigate the ebbs and flows of the giant sphere we call Earth.
While 2021 has been marked by many of us—at Getting It Strait and beyond—as a pivotal transition towards tertiary education worldwide, the universality of art and literature rightfully connects us all to our domestic purposes, including you, with what it does best: bearing witness to life, even in times of strife. New worldly challenges warrant that we make our own luck rather than to solely count on it all, to nurture our newfound selves and inform others of what can no longer be overlooked. With each cycle, we hope that our ring-around-a-rosie’s can be wider and more impactful than before.
The title To Bowl An 8-Ball circulates around this inclusive universality that we try to maintain within our community of readers and writers. With artistic manifestations on pushing against systemic barriers, argumentative essays tackling deceivingly simple problems, explorations in psychology, and an impressively representative survey of post-COVID hopes and dreams, it is evident in this issue that Malaysian youth writing has never been more alive and all-encompassing.
But writing is a two-way interaction, so we hope that we can share these efforts with you and your friends because that is how we all link across the world, beyond geographical straits. The future is young, as it will always be. As you read this issue and bookend the year, ask yourself these questions: do you look for chances to take, or do you count on possibilities? Do you leave with a takeaway from reflections of what has been done, or do you still hand the reins to the powers that be? What is the future you want, if not the past persevering? We ask: what is in your metaphorical Magic 8-Ball, and what side do you want it to land on?
Special thanks to you for making it through; you’ll need it for the next chapter.
Best,
Getting It Strait.