by Allison Lee
Ah, fresh beginnings. The alluring prospect of a clean slate. The blossoming of new hope. The shedding of previous baggage. Except, these things never really come promised with a new year, do they?
We have collectively made it through the first month of a new year (all while crying to Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo), but has the grass turned greener? Have we truly sowed the seeds of change we wish to reap? Though the news has been fairly quieter through what has been a long January, it’s just as poet Amanda Gorman recited at now-President Joe Biden’s inauguration:
“We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,
and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn’t always justice.”
What we’ve seen unfold in Malaysia and overseas within the past thirty-one days has been incited by faulty beliefs and ideologies. While I dare not pointedly accuse another’s faith to be completely false or baseless, what I can say is that certain tenets and ideas will hold us back as a species and stunt our growth as a community: The belief that an insurrection could delay democracy, the belief that the LGBT community deserves a harsher lashing, the belief that the death penalty should continue to punish innocent black lives, the belief that changing the details of a traditional game to suit one’s aesthetic is acceptable, and the belief that traveling across the globe during a pandemic is reasonable as long as one constantly gets tested.
It seems that human’s fatal flaw is being overly rooted in traditional beliefs that we are too blind to find fault with. But, ask yourselves this: What use is clinging onto tradition when it might be the ultimate cause of our downfall?
Times change. People change. In order to move forward as a civilization, we have to constantly reflect on our beliefs and traditions, and ask ourselves: Is it time for a personal change? After all, social change can only take place as the result of compounded personal change.
This is what we strive to do at GIS—to question every choice and evaluate alternatives so we might uncover light in the darkness, and hopefully we inspire you to do the same. We cannot afford to be too clouded by the past to not see the brighter tomorrows that await if we are willing to make changes.
At GIS, we have just made our own new beginning. From this issue onward, our logo now has a life of its own. Pencil Face is more than a representative of our content; it is a blank canvas to which we can color our personalities on. Pencil Face does not have a rigid form: flexible as to encompass all genders, races, ethnicities, cultures, and identities. GIS ultimately aims to be a platform where writers, artists, and activists can tinker with their craft and broadcast their narratives out to an audience. Perhaps you have a story to tell from your childhood in Malaysia, or that you just had a realization while at work or at school. Whichever the case, we hope that when you see Pencil Face, you see yourself and your place in the world.