In this issue of the First Year Journal, we embrace, even celebrate, mixups and mishaps–the perplexing, daunting, bemusing misunderstandings that catch us off guard.
Students share how life’s most perplexing experiences can be contemplated, embraced, and overcome. In this edition, we
weave together different understandings of the mixup: from the surrealism of getting lost as a child, to the pleasure of people watching, to the disorienting experience of mourning. In some cases, an artist realizes the failure of their own perceptions; elsewhere, it is the writer who is deeply misunderstood. The contributors to this edition have also mined the strangeness of the creative process which uncovers mysteries unknown even to ourselves.
In art as in life, the mixup has been a great source of inspiration. The screwball comedies of yesteryear, chaotic accounts of city life, a sense of serendipity–each share the
unpredictable encounter as their source. We invite you to embrace the tenuous uncertainty in these pages, and f
