[smiths] MAGAZINE

The World We Carry

For me, the idea for this theme began with a watch – one I wear every single day. It belonged to my late father, who wore it daily too. Now, having moved away from my home country and everything that once felt safe and familiar, the watch is more than just an object. It’s a reminder of home and comfort. When I feel overwhelmed, I touch it to remind myself of how far I’ve come and how proud he would be of me.

As an international student, I often think about the things we carry with us, not just physically, but emotionally. What gives us a sense of identity, of home? Sometimes it’s an object, a memory, a feeling. Sometimes it’s a person, a place, or a moment that quietly stays with us.

“The World We Carry” is a reflection of those pieces, exploring the things we hold onto that make us feel most alive. Thank you to all the contributors for your thoughtful, vulnerable, and powerful interpretations of this theme. Thank you, Alice, for editing every piece with such care and a huge thank you to Mara, for designing this entire issue by yourself and bringing it to life.
We hope this issue helps you reflect on the world you carry, too.
-Victoria Brustad, President of Smiths

Crafting the theme for this issue was an absolute delight, which I experienced even more so when reading everyone’s submissions.
Following our previous issue ‘Guilt’, which had a fairly heavy tone, our editorial team wanted to produce something more heartfelt and uplifting for the spring issue. ‘The world we carry’ is intended to be an expression of the joys of life and our relationships with the people around us.

Reading everyone’s contributions filled me with gratitude to be able to provide a platform for such enthusiastic and talented writers to showcase their work on.
-Alice Chapman, Editor

The design is meant to spark imagination, simple and open, so the stories can grow in your own mind and you can imagine your own little version of it.
There’s something truly special about the way you all bring the theme to life. Reading your submissions was a joy, each one a glimpse into how the people
around you leave their mark on your heart and story.

I had the loveliest time doing some of the photography for this issue, wandering through the streets of London, observing and capturing people, people, people.
-Mara-Sophie Molzahn, Designer

  • Acts of Kindness

    , ,

    U Smart by Phoebe Ngozi Nadorp My strong-willed cousin, Chi-Chi, is a grand 7 years of age. At a towering 100cm in height, she already has the confidence I desperately grasp at, and so seldom attain. Last Christmas, while all family members gathered around the TV–the most sanctified of Xmas activities–Chi-Chi proudly sauntered around us,…

  • Contemporary British Eco-fiction. Embracing Nature in Daisy Hildyard’s Emergency (2022)

    Contemporary British Eco-fiction. Embracing Nature in Daisy Hildyard’s Emergency (2022)

    Introduction Set in Yorkshire, this novel Emergency (2022) is a foray into life beyond the realms of what we think nature is capable of. It follows the story of an unnamed female protagonist who seeks shelter in nature amidst the chaos of village life in a lockdown. This literary masterpiece features themes of identity and…

  • ‘Algeria Unveiled’ (1959) and The Veiling of Memory

    ‘Algeria Unveiled’ (1959) and The Veiling of Memory

    ‘The phenomena of resistance observed in the colonised must be related to an attitude of counter-assimilation, of maintenance of a cultural, hence national, originality.’ (Fanon, 1959) My photographs are all based off an excerpt of Frantz Fanon’s ‘Algeria Unveiled’ (1959) – all based off the symbolism of the veil for Arab women during the Algerian…

  • Deep Cleaning Astringent

    A particularly bad specimen, erupting from Jade’s skin this early March morning: going yellow at its outer edges, white in its horrible molten core. Right cheek: dead center. Claudia has been picturing placing a finger each side of the spot and pushing in all morning.  It cleared up for everybody else (saltwater curling up off…

  • The World We Carry

    Today I am wearing my mothers opinions. A top that hides my arms but is tight around my waist.  We were on holiday, getting changed to go to the beach. I felt her eyes on my bikini-clad body before she said, ‘You are so lucky to have that waist, Isabel’, hands now skimming my curves,…

  • Enough Space

    I sometimes use my grandpa’s suitcase as a stepstool to reach the attic window. On sunny days, the light is contained in one rectangular spot in the center of the room, the sunbeams clogged by dust particles. My cat likes to lie on the floor in the sunspot. Once I lay down as well, and…

  • A Magpie’s Collection

    My mother used to drive a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Bodacious, it bounced over the dual carriageway, as she sped to Sainsbury’s. “There’s nothing new under the sun” she’d say. As a matter of fact, my mother reserved these phrases for moments she deemed just right. We’re all mosaics of the people we’ve loved, admired, resented,…

  • We breathe with…

    We breathe with…

    During our life, there are a lot of small and big moments every single day, every single second. I always have hoped that I could carry all of them with me. Sometimes, there are moments I want to remember forever, so I cry. This soon becomes the driving force behind my life. While writing this,…

  • If the Chair Could Talk: Lifetime Support

    If the Chair Could Talk: Lifetime Support

    Every day I am crying out in silent dissent.  After years of ergonomical backside support, I am slapped, swiped and drenched in a limp decomposing nylon lily pad found floating in a contaminated quagmire, where broken fleshy unidentified food stuffs lurk and patrol the murky estuary’s abyss.  The wretched smell of wet dog clings to…

  • Lessons from Mike Kelley’s Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions

    Lessons from Mike Kelley’s Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions

    I was not the kind of person who was ever really meant to be a child. I was born geriatric with the sensibilities of a grouchy sluggish man and for a long time I stood out, often in a negative light. I was essentially a loser. Each morning, regardless of whether it’s a sunny and…

  • Please Love Me 

    Please Love Me 

    I was trying so hard to look pretty, That I stopped wearing my glasses, even though I couldn’t see. I stopped getting excited about small things, Only because you thought they were cheesy. I loved you so much, even if you couldn’t see, That I posted the things you liked on social media, Just so…

  • Nostalgic Souvenirs

    I have only memories,  frozen from the day you perished. I cannot accrue any more laughter, love, or warmth with you. My memory is carefully archived, selecting only the most significant records. Sometimes, my due diligence wanes. Unwarranted, idiosyncrasies unearth recollections so unexpectedly, my heart shatters. Corrosive tears burn my face, further eroding the chronic…

  • Aren’t I Lucky?

    When does it sink in? Atoms don’t have free will, otherwise – Why would brussel sprouts  taste like poverty and sourdough like gentrified neighbourhoods. G-strings and adidas sambas, blue collar cruisers, queer culture and foreskin restoration surgery Call me sensitive.  Speak to me in power lines call me with the possessive my air tag.  around…

  • Warping and Wefting

    Warping and Wefting

    Muscle memory is a weird thing, I thought to myself while plugging in my laptop on a study table I’m using after six months. I’m back home in India for the Easter holidays. The clocks in London go forward but my wristwatch still follows IST-5:30. I’ve never understood daylight savings time, not that I don’t…

  • Wicked Wisps

    Wicked wisps tangle between The strands of tall grass Tangling them into braids and bows The way my mother used to do In the living room With the waltz of daytime tv Spinning in the background Smoothing her thumb across A strip of pale pink ribbon On my grandmothers’ birthday Present Untangling my tangled hair…

  • The Importance of Treasured Items

    The Importance of Treasured Items

    I’ve never been one for sentimentality. I’ve taken no interest in collecting trinkets or preserving family heirlooms. But I know this lack of sentimental attachment isn’t specific to me. We live in an overwhelmingly consumerist society, so it seems ridiculous to darn a sock or mend a strap when you can replace your most beloved…

  • 01 The Serenity I Carry

    01 The Serenity I Carry

    I carry her with me. See her closer, her movement could be told as the tulle fluttered in the wind, whispering a story I can almost hear—one of waves rolling over embedded shells, of silence deep enough to hold the sky.  There are many dots of green, white, red, and gold in her face, which…

  • 02 The Taste That I Carry

    “Aw, dried lychee, I haven’t eaten it for a long time!” I was surprised and opened the package of dried lychee quickly, picked up one, and used two fingers with a pinch, “Ka-chow.” A dry sound bloomed between the fingers, and the pulp was dried and wrinkled shell sticking, it was brown and translucent, like…

  • There at my Earliest Memory

    At around two years old, maybe younger, at an age where I understood that I was small with brown, curly hair, I have a memory of going down the stairs. As I made my way I turned around and I saw myself, a small person with brown curls, toddling down the stairs two steps behind.…

  • Next Stop

    Next Stop

    we are in the tube sitting next to each other as if we were childhood friends and we did not meet each other four months ago “what are your dreams?” we are travelling the subsoil of this massive city “my dreams?” I ask “yes, for the future” you always ask me this question what are…