School hasn’t started but Marhaba 2016 is in full swing at NYU Abu Dhabi. The feeling of getting caught up in a new endeavor is one that we should all cherish, and for many of us, the fresh faces, the bright Marhaba flags, the purple lanyards and the first weeks of a new semester can remind us of what it felt like to be part of that initial rush. New friendships were formed, new places were discovered, a new city was explored and the whole world seemed to have opened its doors to us.

However, this feeling of newfound independence and the idea that the entire world is at our feet can be blinding, and in the rush to take up everything that is on offer, we can miss the structures and dynamics that shape what goes on around us. The Gazelle, now approaching its fourth year, hopes to be a place where the bigger questions can be asked — questions that will encourage us, as a student body, to pause and look at what’s going on around us, what impacts us and what we do. And moreover, ask why.

These questions can range from Supriya’s questioning of the academic plan to Annie’s queries about how a barely built Saadiyat Island can feel like home to Krushika’s explanation of the sudden end to college and what follows next. We hope that you, the freshmen — and the disorientated returning upperclassmen — can take a step back and start to wonder at all the things that Abu Dhabi has to offer, consequently turning these questions into a productive conversation from which we can all learn.

In this overwhelming period of Marhaba activities — which includes everything from IKEA trips to intercultural educational sessions and from laundry workshops to sessions aimed at resolving major-related dilemmas — The Gazelle hopes to bring to the forefront some of the thoughts and opinions of the multifaceted NYUAD student body. We hope that by bringing a fraction of our collective experiences and dilemmas into the limelight, perhaps you — the incoming class — might be able to view NYUAD, our city and perhaps even the world, through other paradigms and perspectives. To the rest of our student body and community, we wish you a spectacular end to your break, wherever that was. The Gazelle will be back in action starting Sept. 4.

Your Editors-in-Chief, Connor and Khadeeja.