When I thought my sleep schedule in high school couldn’t get worse, I was wrong. As a junior, I could easily run on five hours of sleep like a champ. My average day in high school looked something like this… 7:45 a.m.: get ready 9 a.m.-4 p.m.: school 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: sports practice 7:30 a.m.-12:30 […]
It’s time we fix the time. Each year, on the first Sunday of November, most Americans turn back the clock and relish an extra hour of sleep as we “fall back” to Standard Time, marking the end of Daylight Saving Time until March rolls around. Though our Halloweekends were blessed with an extra hour of […]
Students in Hollis Hall once received a chilling ultimatum: they had 36 hours to evacuate their rooms, or face a supernatural punishment. The message, purportedly from the ghost of a Revolutionary War soldier, appeared in the winter of 1940 and claimed that the spirit was tired of living in the attic and wanted the entire […]
I imagine the first Halloween night in college feels different. You pass clusters of students covered in glitter and fake blood, music spilling from a random location, and for a moment, you can’t help but think of the years spent running through quiet neighborhoods with a pillowcase full of candy. Among college students, there’s an […]
In third grade, I strutted through hallways and across the playground on the most exciting day of the school year, dressed in a pinstripe suit, bowler hat, and sunglasses —finished off with a bright red lip. In my full ensemble, I was more than ready for the Halloween parade as 1920s gangster Al Capone. My […]
Each morning this summer, I passed the same wall on my way to work. Behind me, the brakes of a bus hissed, and a gust of warm air carried the smell of exhaust and garbage. The wall changed constantly—first a movie poster, then a perfume ad, then a mural commissioned by a sneaker brand. Each […]
At Harvard, you don’t need ghosts to make the place feel haunted—stress is enough to fill the halls with the unease of ambition that never sleeps. It’s hiding within busy comp schedules and crowded day-to-day schedules, breathing through the walls of dorms that never quite feel “homey” enough, and slipping into the quiet. It’s a […]
Every Sunday night, my suitemates and I crowd onto one of our twin XL beds, blankets in hand and worries from the week forgotten, to watch the latest episode of “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” The snacks laid out on the bed perfectly encapsulate Harvard’s global community: maple sea salt popcorn from Trader Joe’s, licorice […]
On Friday, Oct. 10, Widener’s steps were packed with sophomores posing with concentration banners beneath the cloudy sky, trying to get a photo before their flag disappeared into the crowd. Along with most life sciences concentrators, I went straight from Chem 17 lecture to snap a photo with my roommates holding the “Concentration Declaration Day” […]
“Do I look Indian?” I interject into our conversation with a hint of eagerness. It’s the middle of June, and my friends and I are sitting around the kitchen table, eating the dinner we had just cooked together. The stove is a mess with dishes out everywhere, as penne alla vodka and steak elegantly rest […]