Working for BTSB magazine has been an unforgettable experience. From the moment I heard about it in an introductory presentation at Metsätalo, I knew I wanted to be part of something as engaging as a student magazine that hears all voices that want to be heard. I guess that as a Latin American living in a welfare country I just couldn’t let it slip off my fingers. That’s why I’d like to retell some of my favorite stories and takeaways so that future potential writers take the leap and join us in making an impact in the world by empowering our voices. Here are some aspects I’ve loved about these two years of BTSB-ing.

Connecting with Others

It’s true; as an international student, the spaces to connect with Finnish natives are rather limited to parties and, with some good amount of luck, to courses. BTSB came to bridge this divide of alienation through various gatherings, friendly and funny people with VERY different personalities. I remember that the first time we met was in Thirsty Scholar, and there was something about the atmosphere that made me feel very welcomed, like when you finally find your crew who is fascinated by the same things as you: bookworms, critical thinkers, great artists, literary-obsessed-with-a-particular-author English majors, extroverts, introverts… in short, internationals with a love for a language that is not our mother tongue, yet that doesn’t ever stop us from advocating what we firmly believe in. Trust me, connecting with these peeps was one of the best highlights of my time in Finland!

Opportunity for Peer Feedback

Despite being one of the most praised skills for our century (a century that demands collaborations of all kinds), there isn’t much room for peer feedback or emotion management elsewhere at the university. Of course, that is the case if you also wisely choose not to count the frustrating hours of group projects that unfairly turn into one person doing all the job, another one putting a last-minute PPP., and risking the rest of the members not showing up to tell their part. You know, like the hungover meme? Exactly! Nonetheless, BTSB has not been like that at all; in fact, it has been a pleasant experience because of how easy it is to communicate what you believe a piece of writing should look like: what works and what doesn’t, what additions you consider necessary, what enhancements you can do to certain sentences or to the structure of the piece so that it has the desired effect… In brief, in BTST you don’t just get your article published, but also, you get it analyzed by people who come from different backgrounds and have also a voice, an insight, a word to give you. That right there is collaboration.

Safe Zone to Try New Things

Although I consider myself a poet mostly, I’ve ventured to write new pieces in various genres here. Hence, BTSB became the safe space for me to test writing creative nonfiction, philosophical excursions, and poetry workshop reports. In the same way, I’ve seen other colleagues wax eloquently and beautifully about their own relationship with literature, what bothers them about society, and others infuse those same messages in pieces of fiction, poetry, articles… I think that what works the best is that, despite not being an expert on the genre, you are always welcomed to try new things. Your work will be respected and treated with dignity and you will get both positive and constructive feedback on anything you try.

A Magazine for Growth

Here, you don’t just grow as a writer in the sense that you learn to take different perspectives into account, think of the structure, cohesion, and cohesiveness of your argumentation, and throw one or two cool words you picked from words-of-the-day email. Complementary, you can grow into an editor, social media assistant/director, webmaster, and even editor-in-chief. I believe you could even bring your own approach to merging these roles and you’d be heard! My point being, being a writer for BTSB has never just been about having a piece of something ready for revision twice a semester. Rather, it’s about one’s (and other’s) growth, which occurs both individually and collaboratively.

Space for a Spontaneous Laugh

Yes, I’ll say it too. It’s been the case that I have been “too busy” to attend the meetings, but I have done my best to show my face to them, and there hasn’t been a time when I’ve done this and I’ve regretted it. Being a part of this magazine is also understanding that the lovely people in it can truly shake you out of your ordinariness and everyday monotonous rhythm. They can spark a smile in your face, a shimmer in your eyes, and a good amount of dopamine will run through you after you’ve seen them. I’ve loved this time with you!

On that last note, I’ll miss walking into a coffee shop with multiple ideas and scattering them around the table to see what we turn this issue into. I’ll miss collaborating with others in their work and in the communication of an idea and/or concept. Though I doubted it initially, I will also admit that I’ll miss laughing over the commentaries and massive digressions of our dear, rambling editor-in-chief. Lastly, I’ll miss having such an organized community of writers that make one’s afternoon, week, or day with their literary input in my life. I hope I continue to hear from you and your progress as the years go by.

As for future plans, BTSB has definitely filled me in with more motivation and energy to continue a project I had started before coming to Finland: the first literary magazine for students of the University of Costa Rica called “The Maze.” Thanks to my experiences with other editors, webmasters, artists, and collaborators, I have no doubt that I will make The Maze reemerge and survive during my time in Costa Rica and possibly make it outlast my time in this institution and in this country.

Here is a list of my publications for BTSB during these two years of sedulous and rewarding work:

“My Static Self by One of Earth’s Ends” (Poem)
“A Leaf, Falling in the Cold Pavement of a Late Afternoon” (CNF)
“This is My Letter to the World” (Poem)
“It’s On Us: Education Review” (Article)
“From Third World-Life to First-World Life: Education, Time & Quantity” (Article)
“How to Write Poetry During Coronavirus” (Article and Poem)
“About Painting and Artistring” (Poem)
“Instagram Deprivation: How is that going?” (Article)
“Poetry Workshop at Helsinki Upper Secondary of Visual Arts” (Article and Poems by students)
“Searching for the Light” (CNF)
“Let Go” (Poem)
“Oh, A Sun-fading!” (CNF)

Till I take on the skies again,

Leonardo Chinchilla Mora

Photo by Vesper