Dearest Reader,
We hope that you’ll revel in this edition's absolute SPILL of jokes, confession, and secrets that occur when we make decisions under the influence. To our understanding, “influence” can mean a plethora of things. Our writers, editors, and artists aimed to capture intoxication in all its forms—even beyond a late night at Stair House. What’s intoxicating in our lives? And what makes influences so seductive? Based on this round of submissions, and some touch-and-go talks among the editors… we still don’t have a definitive answer. Influences are tantalizing fantasies living at the edge of the night, they’re sweet delusions piled on top of grey truths, but they always drive us to dream. Our influences drag us along for a ride from where we think we are, to where we dream to be. And from the bottom of our hearts, we hope this issue invites you to cherish your own blurry-night dreams, and enjoy others from our talented writers.
When it comes to writing, it seems like the easiest route in recounting a moment of intoxication would be recalling being so drunk in the streets of Colorado Springs that you cry over breaking a pair of two dollar sunglasses from the ARC. And believe me, that is certainly present in this issue. But even more so, these pieces take on college beyond Selena Gomez’s “Spring Breakers” rendition of a bender. One piece we love formulates a sequenced list of events that marks where drunk fantasies take you, and when to acknowledge they’re just that. Logan Smith writes on the tender moments between drunk comedy and drunk tragedy, a line as old as emotion itself, which can become incredibly blurry under the influence. Married by catchphrases and undying mutual-love with the people closest to her, she yet comes back to reality. Leyla Kramarsky starts her story at 14 years old, when the allure to escape into another reality—the one known as “adulthood”—compels her to explore a New York night with her childhood best friend. Her story takes us on a coming-of-age journey, as she galivants around her hometown in search of a restaurant that doesn’t card for a lychee cosmo. One of our anonymous authors explores the dark, cavernous depths of unknown intoxication from a society all-too-quick to encourage ADHD meds for children. All of these pieces, we realize, distract us from our perceived limitations, whether it be inadequacy, puberty, boredom, or insecurity, these moments under the influence occasionally deliver us to our divine wishes.
This issue brings a lot of our stories, often unheard and relegated to dreams and our closest friends, into light—read with pleasure and care! We hope you enjoy all the juice (and gin) spilled in this grandiose mess, and keep your drunken dreams close to your heart.
Sincerely,
Joe and the Cipher Team