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 […]
I wandered too long,a stranger in my own life,watching laughter through glass,close enough to see, too far to touch. I lived at the edge of things, where streets stretched into silence, where each step away felt like exile, where the night ended not in sleep, but in the long breath before loneliness. It was waiting—always […]
Ask any student rushing from their dorm to a morning lecture, clutching a cup of Blank Street coffee, about their day ahead, and you’ll hear a whirlwind of commitments: guest speakers, club meetings, and networking events. At Harvard, everything—friends, food, a library shelf with your name on it—feels just a few steps away. The proximity […]
My Harvard career began with failure. Feeling unmoored as I arrived on campus, I threw myself into trying out for the College’s varsity squash. In high school, squash wasn’t just a sport—it was a defining part of my identity, and within weeks of arriving on campus I was training relentlessly—running sub‐five‐minute miles, working out tirelessly, […]