Note from the Editor

By Neima Nour

For the past twenty-three years, ELM has flourished due to the brilliant writing and art produced by the students of EMS, and this year is certainly no different. Each year the ELM staff explores a different theme and then debates how the tone of a particular piece of writing aligns with a category within that theme. The theme this year is inspired by clouds. And not any ordinary kind, but the kind that draws you in and creates feelings of catastrophe, unsolicited passion, and a drizzle of normality. 

Cumulus clouds are perceived to be quite ordinary, but for many it’s a calm, more serious, and more down-to-earth, change of scenery after the possible occurrence of a storm or the continuous reality of gloomy days. Cumulonimbus clouds harbor a lot of feelings, seeking any possible way of release. Their large size contrasts with how having so much locked up can make you feel small. Nimbostratus clouds are dark blankets hanging over the sky that let in no light. But that doesn't guarantee that it will be like that forever. Last but certainly not least the cirrus cloud is the stuff of legends literally. The cirrus cloud is the dream you are rudely interrupted from, the one that you only remember only a fraction of but still desperately yearn to finish. It's not just a cloud, it's “the” cloud, the kind where you sit under the sun to experience. 

Although the range of cloud types is often overlooked, their many forms serve as a metaphor for the diversity of writing of Edmunds students. However, in our attempt to categorize these pieces, we want to be clear that they do not fit into neat little boxes; they are their own stories. And I hope you enjoy them as much as we did reading them.

 

The ELM

VT

YWP Instructor

More by The ELM