Coming to Washington, D.C., for college, I looked forward to my first Women’s March. In the weeks leading up to the event, I ordered red bandanas from Amazon to resemble Rosie the Riveter and scrolled through Pinterest for poster inspiration. When the day finally came, my roommate and I trekked across the Francis Scott Key…
Pope Francis’ announcement that Catholic youth from around the world would convene in Panama City for World Youth Day 2019 provoked an expected enthusiasm in many Panamanians. For a small, very Catholic country, receiving the Pope would be an incredible experience. Together with hosting the large number of people who would share in this huge…
A few weeks into my first semester at Georgetown, I noticed an open music room—a rare sight in the perpetually busy student center—and made a mad dash to claim it. I sat down at the piano, giddy with the excitement of securing a room and relieved to be alone for the first time in weeks….
“Do you speak Korean?” asked my friend, sitting on the floor of my freshman year dorm room. “No…” “Well, have you ever been to the country?” “No,” I responded, “but—” “Well, then, you’re not Korean. So stop pretending to be.” *** When my dad moved to the United States at four years old, he didn’t…
One journal is striped, slightly water-stained, and held together with a hair tie. Another is sturdy and black with “Carpe Fucking Diem” printed on the front. One is covered in bright orange bunnies, and another is thick, college-ruled, green, and filled with graphite threatening to disappear. On the occasional lazy day when I’m back home…
Content Warning: Sexual Assault and Abuse In 2005, MadTV parodied R. Kelly’s urban opera, “Trapped in the Closet,” in a skit called “Trapped in the Cupboard.” Within the first minute of the skit, Jordan Peele, playing Kelly, sings, “A voice calls out ‘hey baby’ / My woman comes in the scene / I think ‘oh,…
The World Wide Web is a beautifully bizarre land where a Kickstarter for a man making potato salad can raise $55,000. At the same time, the 2017 Women’s March, the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history, can become a reality through a grassroots Facebook campaign. “Weird” doesn’t even begin to cover the stupidly influential amalgamations…
Content Warning: Physical and sexual violence, harassment “Would you be opposed to undressing me and smothering my naked body in peanut butter?” I’m the Tinder girl most Tinder boys seem to hate. You know, the one who carries on a basic conversation but suddenly stops responding out of nowhere? How annoying, right? I’m the silent…
When I was in fifth grade, I had seven boyfriends. All of them were tall, dark, handsome, and entirely fictional. I’ve had a complicated love affair with Young Adult (YA) fiction. While its page-turning plots and fantastical worlds have stretched my imagination, its utter lack of protagonist diversity and problematic depiction of romance made me…
On a given day, one-fifth to two-thirds of conversation is dedicated to gossip. On the higher end, that is around three hours per day, 21 hours per week, and 156 hours per year. Just to put that into perspective, if you spent 15 minutes of your day defecating, that is only 91.25 hours per year….