The weight I carried with me while wandering the streets of Dublin at four in the morning is difficult for me to express. The vacation had been planned months earlier—presented as a Christmas gift that my family would share. My parents wrapped a bar of Irish Spring soap and put it under the Christmas tree…
When I first started practicing Buddhism at age 11, I became the odd one out in my family of Catholics and atheists. Piles of sutras, Buddha images, and prayer beads crowded my room. I took a trip to see the Dalai Lama at Emory University during my sophomore year of high school, and I constructed…
Nearly every night I can remember from my pre-kindergarten years, my mom would read with me. It was almost always my choice what book we would dive into that evening; I had a bookshelf of stories we would rotate through. I’m sure for my mom this was a less-than-exhilarating routine of re-reading my favorite installment…
Lunch was inevitable. In the few months I’ve been rock climbing, I’ve learned to recognize the predictable rhythms of angling my foot just so, willing energy into my shoulders to grasp for the final hold, and listening to the ache in my stomach telling me it’s time to call it a day. We set off…
While studying abroad in Dublin last fall, I finished almost three seasons of Love Island. It was a source of laughter and excitement during a period of situational depression. Out of a desire not to fail all my classes, I didn’t venture back into the world of Love Island until deciding to watch the most…
On September 13, Felicity Huffman will be sentenced for her involvement in the college admissions scandal, a multimillion dollar conspiracy to gain access to the nation’s top universities. Other indicted figures, like Lori Loughlin, are awaiting trial. While these individuals have received their share of public backlash, less attention has been paid to the ways…
Sometimes politics feels like a hellhole. Whether it’s in the Twittersphere, on CNN or C-SPAN, or even just in everyday conversations, it can feel like an inescapable purgatory. This should go without saying, but politics shouldn’t be hell. Donald Trump’s presidency has shown nothing but hatred—hateful policies and hateful rhetoric—fueling this hellishness that Americans wake…
“I’m definitely coming to Georgetown!” A high school senior said this to me a few weeks ago, after I shared my study abroad experience with prospective students and families while on a panel for a Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program (GAAP) weekend. Her palpable excitement reminded me of how I felt as a prospective student, four…
I don’t know how to describe what depression and anxiety feel like. Comedian Sarah Silverman once described it as, “I’m desperately homesick, but I’m home.” Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton said, “I struggled to reconcile the facts of my life with the reality of my existence. I knew something was wrong with me, but I…
“That will go straight to your thighs,” Zoë says to Tristan as he gazes longingly at the donut grasped in his hand. “That’s why I’m eating it with my eyes and not my mouth,” he says, before discarding it. This Degrassi scene passes by in just a moment and is never revisited. But it demonstrates…