Cross Sound Ferry

Mirrors

Kalkidan Shiferaw ’24

Pathways to ourselves

Portals to our insecurities

You can’t look away, ‘cause it’s always staring back

Mirrors show us who we are

Our true selves in plain sight

You can try to hide, but you can’t fight

One moment, you like yourself

The next, you don’t

That’s the hex of mirrors, they’re always playing games

You may not like it, but there always there

Looking back at you here and there

Do you stop and take a look or do you continue and never look again

Objects in a Mirror Are Closer than They Appear

Perin Fine ’23

Winter 2022 and Spring 2023 Contributors

Lucy Walther … I was inspired to write this poem by how many influencers and media stars there are in today’s world, and how people are always ‘following the trends’, and are on social media all the time. I think the only time you should follow a trend is if you genuinely like it.

Gabriel Burd I made this piece of digital art using Google Drawings. I created this artwork to demonstrate how it is important to set goals for your future self, even if you might think those goals are impossible to achieve.

Olivia Garrity … This photo was taken for photography class. The image shows a flower’s shadow cast on the wall which reminds me of a dark reflection.

Sophie Jean … I made this piece with pencil. Because the theme is mirrors, I thought of a mirror reflecting something. So I created my masterpiece.

Kalkidan Shiferaw This poem is about how mirrors cause insecurities in ourselves. Even though most of us see mirrors everyday, they can make us feel less than we actually are. I wanted to capture that feeling in my poem.

Maraki Shiferaw The reason I chose to write this poem is, this poem expresses self love, confidence, and how you should not care about your appearance. It also talks about if you’re short, tall, big, small, none of that matters because the most beautiful part of everyone is their heart. Do you want others to think of you as someone who judges everybody? Ask your friends and peers what they think, and if most of them say that you often judge other people, then it’s time to stop being judgmental. When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Grace Sullivan … I chose to submit this piece I created because water resembles nature’s mirror. The reflections you may find in it open up a new portal to a calmer place, as well as a more chaotic one, and in turn, water creates a balance between all living things.

Eike Kiecza … I have loved chess for a long time, and when I heard that the theme was going to be mirrors, I realized that this could be easily represented with chess pieces. This also shows that even though two pawns can be completely different, they still move in the same ways.

Annika Vittal … Throughout my poetry pieces I found myself in everyday objects such as paint and chocolate. But most of all I wrote what I couldn’t say, I rhymed when I couldn’t scream, and I typed when I couldn’t speak. Thank you for reading my pieces, the pieces that create me.

Sahana Miduturu … My piece is an acrostic poem about mirrors. I love writing acrostic poems because although they are simple, many ideas and perspectives can come from them. In my poem, I wanted to touch upon many different types and functions of mirrors. Many people think of mirrors as just literal objects, but I wanted to portray mirrors in different ways. Hope you enjoy it.

Leilani Dorilas … I wrote “Cleaner” because I wanted to express how I feel whenever there is a tough experience I go through, and all of those things eventually pile up, and become too much. But if I learn to find ways that work for me to get help, I can get those things off my chest. And others can learn too! This connects to the theme (Mirrors) because mirrors in general reflect, and that could be interpreted into how your inner self or personality reflects onto other people.

Nina Cohen-Perlmutter My pieces throughout this magazine showcase all the different aspects of my life. Often, I get inspired by being outside in nature which prompts me to write a poem or take a picture. My favorite piece is “finally free” which is especially meaningful to me because it represents my appreciation for the little wonders in life. I hope you enjoyed reading through this magazine.

Julia Popa I thought of using this as I had drawn a picture before that seemed to be perfect for the topic mirrors. I wanted it to be warm yet scary in some way.

Perin Fine … I really love taking pictures of the sky and sunsets, and I’ve been taking these pictures out of my car window for a while. I wrote this poem for English class and I really like how it turned out. It’s about my childhood and memories that I have growing up.

Lydia Scharer … I have always loved to draw and paint, for these pieces I really just wanted to mess around and have fun. I experimented during the process of all of these and I have learned a lot from it. In the future I aspire to be a well known artist.

Madeleine Wu … I was inspired by my life and the things around me. I wanted to capture moments of our youth.

Alex Kadnar I choose to include this piece because it shows a reflection of the egg on a mirror. I took it during photography class last year and decided to include it in this magazine because it follows the theme of mirrors.

Ilana Brauner One of my favorite photography pieces I submitted to Echo is “Blossom.” This piece shows a tree blossoming at the beginning of spring. The piece was meant to demonstrate how everyone blossoms into their own self. I hope this photo inspires a reader to try something new or express themself in a new way.

Kesariya Nallari-Jhala … This photograph symbolizes the difference in how someone is seen or displays themself to the world and who they are fully. My favorite aspect of this photo is the background reflected from the water as it brings dimension to the image.

Editorial Staff

Nina Cohen-Perlmutter

Faculty Advisor

Susan Dempsey

Design and Production

Koreen McQuilton