Leditors

Trigger Warnings: mentions of death/suicide, violence

When the staff of Jabberwocky chose the theme “Metamorphosis” for this year’s issue back in September, we didn’t expect it to reach such a level of meta that our 2020 edition would be online instead of in print and our staff would have to finish this journey not only apart, but also with significant losses in the work we’d already done, and electronic work only just beginning; with all this drama, perhaps Jabberwocky has become a work of literary art before page one.

This year, Strath Haven has become an endurance performance of uncomfortable change--and everyone is immersed. Haven’s students, parents, teachers, administrators, and staff members have had to shift our mindsets, our expectations, our strengths, and (perhaps most importantly) our kindnesses towards each other.

When a classmate suddenly and tragically died this Fall, we coped by supporting each other in ways we hadn’t guessed our friends would need, by questioning what the school district can and should do to take care of everyone’s mental health, and by releasing the stories and emotions that had been weighing us down (some of which you will find expressed in this magazine).

When a bomb threat arrived at Haven just two days later, we spent two hours packed into a middle school gym that none of us had hoped to ever see again and we found ways to laugh with our friends, comfort people we hadn’t talked to in months, and accept the unpredictability of our current reality.

When our own good-hearted Dr. Kris Brown stepped down from his position as Haven principal and out of our morning arrival routines, we began forging new, wider connections between staff and students as a new administration formed to create new events and enrich those that we have. And, there were puppies!!!

And when a global pandemic reached our district (is this an apocalypse novel? a political cartoon?), we continued to work and learn to the best of our abilities while also finding time to reach out through social media, prolonged Zoom conversations, and some very creative face masks, making us still very much a school and a community.

Whether you’re an editor, a contributor, or a reader, you have endured throughout the entire, extremely difficult 2019-2020 school year; you’ve had your personal struggles in and out of school, and that makes it all the more remarkable that you’ve been here all year to enrich the Haven community. It’s a show and a story worth telling.

So, although Jabberwocky is always an outlet for the talents and passion of our students, and although it always ends up reflecting what the past year has meant, this year has been especially difficult with a set of adversities that no teenager should have to contend with--and yet, this year’s collection of raw, beautiful, clever, and above all powerful art and writing shows that we have become stronger because of it, even if we don’t all see it in ourselves yet. Read this magazine, and you will see it in your classmates--and maybe even begin to suspect that you’re all that, too.

Take a bow, everyone--you should be proud of yourselves.

Best,

Fran Kenney, Literature Editor-in-Chief

Lilian Liu, Art Editor-in-Chief

Brief Notes from the Editors

Cover Illustrated by Lauren St. Clair