A Letter from the Editors
Co-written by Aisyah & Snow
Hey readers!
How have you been? Please take a moment to reflect on the current stage.
Aisyah: I am not quite sure every time I have to write a letter. A simple thing but a big decision what to write and what not to write. In sooth, I always faced these options in every step, whether by personal agency or by force. Messiness of paths, excessive options, overinformations, and forth animates us, or at least me, in the continuing everyday lives. This always makes me overthink, what if I get stuck in this situation? How can I get through these shifts? How do I adulting? How will my life be after graduation? But I also reflect, how have I gotten through the transitions in my life so far?
Snow: When I was younger, I imagined rites of passage as big, clear moments, like flipping a switch and suddenly knowing how to be an adult. In reality, it feels more like moving slowly through small changes, with some stops and surprises here and there, like little pauses to reset and unexpected turns you didn’t see coming. Adulting, as people like to call it, isn’t one big test. It’s more about learning how to handle the everyday things like paying bills, making choices, and figuring out what matters, while still feeling like you’re improvising half the time. Maybe chaos isn’t always a problem to solve. Sometimes it’s just the background noise of moving from one stage of life to another. Perhaps that’s what makes these transitions meaningful. They’re not perfect or finished, but they keep us moving forward.
Aisyah and Snow: Transitions often leave us in a kind of in-between space, where it’s not always easy to tell what counts as “before” and what counts as “after.” Rites of passage don’t always feel like clean breaks. They can be messy, slow, and uncertain. That’s why in Polyphony Issue 6, we chose to focus on “Rites of Passage,” a theme that touches on so many of our lives: from birth to coming of age, from death to the smaller everyday shifts that shape who we are. But these passages aren’t just personal. They also connect to larger political, social, and cultural changes, which feel especially present in our global and often unpredictable times.
We hope that as you read, you’ll recognize moments of transition in your own life and perhaps find some reassurance that we’re all learning our way through them together. Here’s to all of us still figuring it out, one step at a time.
These celebrations would not be possible without Polyphony members, Jia Xuan Chok, Hana Nagatani, Hanami Enshoiwa, Shan Min Kha, Puspadewi Adiseputra, Mori Kento, and all of the contributors to harmonize our collaborations to tell narratives.
Let this bundle be a table for feasts!
Aisyah & Snow
