During the last week on campus in Sever Hall, I spotted a fresh sheet of printer paper taped beside the door of a freshman expository‑writing class. In bold Helvetica, it warned: “No ChatGPT, no Claude, no Copilot—ALL work must be entirely your own.” The sign wasn’t just a classroom rule; it was proof that Harvard’s […]
There’s a place I keep returning to—not physically, but in memory. My freshman dorm room. It had a small bed crammed under a wall of movie posters I don’t relate to anymore. A portable A/C unit the school kept emailing me to remove. The carpet was that dorm-issue kind—brown and blue, the color of nothing […]
The road curves out ahead of us, the trees pulling long shadows across the asphalt. I’m driving—my dad in the passenger seat, one arm out the window, tapping his fingers on the door in rhythm with the song on the radio. The Stones are playing low, something from “Sticky Fingers” I only ever seem to […]
Each day begins the same way: a diagonal cut across Plympton Street near the Harvard Book Store, my head quickly snapping sideways to check for oncoming cars. From there, I pass beneath the iron gate by Wigglesworth C—its outline etched into muscle memory—as I make my way through the Yard. These gestures aren’t calculated, but […]
I. You don’t remember arriving. The museum breathes with a low mechanical rasp—the kind of sound that, once heard, can’t be unheard. The overhead lights buzz, a grid of harsh rectangles sunk into the ceiling. They stutter, casting a cold, exhausted glow. The floor tiles, the color of old teeth, shift slightly underfoot—almost like the […]
Earth Day feels like a funeral now. Not one with black veils or organ music—but a well-staged, well-catered wake. A jazz trio hums near the Science Center. Someone hands out succulent cuttings. There are cookies shaped like the Earth, iced in HUDS-friendly greens and blues—flavorless, but photogenic. A booth gives away bamboo forks in rice-paper […]
She wore a Miu Miu headband and carried a pastel tote bag as she stepped out of the dispensary, clutching a few 5mg hybrid gummies and a pre-roll “for later.” I passed the storefront—blush-pink shelves, botanical product cards, a wall of tastefully labeled vapes—and thought: we didn’t decriminalize weed. We domesticated it. Not repaired the […]
America has the munchies. From sea to shining sea, from Doritos Locos Tacos to Manifest Destiny, this country was built on a bottomless appetite—insatiable, indiscriminate, and utterly divorced from actual need. Expansion wasn’t just policy—it was craving. A sudden, stoned hunger for land, for oil, for more. Why stop at thirteen colonies when you could […]
I. You left early, like always. Same time you do every day. The buildings hadn’t lit yet. The sky was a pale gray, the kind that can’t commit to any particular kind of weather. You hadn’t checked the forecast before you left this morning, so you didn’t bring gloves. Your headphones were in before you […]
Every few weeks, the Independent hears a quieter kind of silence: a writer backs out. “I started drafting something, but I’m not sure I want my name on it anymore.” I feel a pang of sadness with each of these withholdings. These hesitations do not always stem from controversial exposés or radical manifestos—often, they’re thoughtful […]