every year when valentine’s day rolls around, i find myself questioning my current understanding of love. sure, this holiday is conventionally focused on secret admirers and forever soulmates. however, my upbringing, shaped by trauma rather than tenderness, leaves me wondering if i can recognize, let alone celebrate, such a loaded emotion. a few weeks ago, […]
Two Januaries ago, on the top floor of a Chicago skyscraper, I fiddled with the gold, engraved buttons of my cardigan as my Harvard interviewer and I swapped stories about Harvard’s craziest classes and Chicago’s hidden gems. In a pause in conversation, she jumped at the opportunity to ask what I was most excited to […]
Three summers spent in the Cambridge sun, chasing kids on the playground, teaching chemistry, running through sprinklers, peering into museum cases, dancing with parents, serving food, sitting quietly, directing loudly. Three summers spent working at the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) Summer Urban Program. The best three summers of my life. *** It’s a classic […]
On Jan. 14 and 21, four Boston-area collegiate women’s ice hockey teams competed in their biggest tournament of the season: the Beanpot. Bringing together students from Boston University, Boston College, Harvard, and Northeastern, this renowned athletic event has been occurring annually since 1952. However, while the Men’s Beanpot around two weeks later is accompanied by […]
As I sat on my flight back to school last weekend, I found myself immersed in a spectacle of violence and eroticism radiating from the screens around me. A man two rows ahead of me was engrossed in a brutal shootout, while another nearby watched two men fight to the death with their bare knuckles. […]
From December through February, the first thing I did when I got home from middle school was whip up a big pot of hot chocolate to thaw myself after braving the cold of Midwestern winters. Save for an uncharacteristic cold spell the first week I was here, Paris has thankfully proven milder than Cleveland, Ohio, […]
It’s 11:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night. I have a 10:30 a.m. class on Wednesday, and I have just finished most of my readings for tomorrow’s classes. Satisfied with this work, I decide it’s time to hit the hay. I brush my teeth, put my retainer in, and crawl into bed. I put my blue […]
Joan Didion begins her 1979 book The White Album with a striking assertion: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” In journalism, op-eds—short for “opposite the editorial page”—are where these stories take shape. Such narratives aren’t neutral reports on events but a fusion of arguments, perspectives, and deeply felt convictions. The most salient narratives […]
Boston is a world-class city. Each year, the city receives around 23 million tourists, along with people moving from all over the world to Boston to get an education, advance their careers, and build their lives. Yet, for years, the city has struggled with a subpar transit system—the MBTA, or simply “the T.” Don’t get […]
I had a plan before arriving on campus. I had read the horror stories about joining too many clubs or getting caught up in the Harvard “bubble.” In my notes app, I kept a list of the organizations I was eager to join after hours of research—Expressions Dance Company, the Institute of Politics, and WHRB […]