It’s 9 p.m. I’m sitting on the balcony. Outside, I can hear the lively voices of children enthusiastically playing football and jumping rope late into the night. It takes me back to my childhood.

When we were kids, we were always eager to grow up. We looked up to our older brothers and sisters. As children, our imagination was so much wider, and the way we saw the world around us was much more unfiltered. Now we’ve grown up. We’ve become young adults. Maybe growing up is about learning not to lose that unfiltered way of seeing the world, that sense of wonder, love, and willingness to reach out to one another that we had as children, even as we build upon the years and experiences we’ve accumulated along the way. 

When we’re young and trying to figure out who we are, we find our way to one another. We come from different cities, stories, walks of life; sometimes, we may think we could never truly understand each other. And then, a small smile, a song we both know, or a conversation at midnight reminds us of how much alike we really are.

Empathy, love, a little smile… All these things make each breath we take a little more meaningful. I believe this magazine exists exactly for that: to see the common ground within our differences, to rediscover the sincerity we thought we had lost as we grew up, and to listen a little more closely to one another’s voices. Here, everyone has a story to tell, an idea to share, and something to say. Because just as we did when we were children, even as we grow older, we still have stories to tell each other, lessons to learn from one another, and dreams we can build together. We just need to remind each other of that once again.

Cansu Ertuğ