After a year and a half of running on the same hamster wheel of a pandemic, it can be hard to imagine change. Yet there is change all around us, accompanied by new beginnings. Forging new friendships with strangers, leaving behind old ones that have grown stale, discovering the shape of your own identity—these are just some of the themes explored within this issue that encapsulate this idea: shedding the skin of the past and looking forward into new and untracked territory.