Upon entering my go-to cafe last week, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. Christmas music was playing and a familiar thought crept back into my mind: Christmas has not felt like Christmas to me for a while now. When familiar tunes about reindeers and Santa Claus chime from[Read More…]
Off the Board
The price of popularity
In late September, my mom and I were chatting during one of our routine Facetime calls. An avid TV-watcher, she excitedly asked me if I had heard of Squid Game. The show had just come out, and my mom binged the series in a matter of days. As the semester[Read More…]
Roll for initiative
The door squeaks on its hinge, and a child, freshly orphaned, emerges from her room and pads toward the cusp of the ornate staircase. Tiny fingers thread through the balusters as she surveys the manor’s foyer. Our party—seven of us, a rag-tag bunch bound by circumstance and fate—freezes. Waits with[Read More…]
Maybe I was always playing myself
In elementary school, I spent most of my Saturdays attending Young People’s Concerts at the New York Philharmonic. My memories of those days are scattered and somewhat fleeting—I was far more enthralled by post-concert trips for hotdogs at Grey’s Papaya and Revson Fountain’s extravagant water jets than the actual performances.[Read More…]
Me and my board: Penny-boarding through Montreal
I have always been a cautious person. Though I can bring myself to take risks in many areas of my life, when it comes to physical activities I am usually the one who stays behind, choosing instead to sit inside with a good book. It is for this reason that[Read More…]
Made with love
Growing up, I never had chicken nuggets or frozen pizza for dinner. Instead, there was a fresh, home-cooked Persian meal in front of me each night––and looking back, I was extremely unappreciative of it. As I have gotten older, I have grown to appreciate that the love of somebody labouring[Read More…]
God, it’s brutal out here
As a third-year student, I feel like I should have this whole “university lifestyle” thing figured out. This year, however, I am living on my own for the very first time and at times feel as lost as I did in my first. I am someone who needs personal space[Read More…]
Grappling with my love for misogynistic rap
On the train home a few weeks ago, I was about to pop on my headphones and listen to Kendrick Lamar when I overheard a conversation between two young white girls discussing their music taste. “I don’t understand how you can listen to rap,” one of the girls said. “All[Read More…]
Let your unconscious dance
I often wake up and wholeheartedly believe I am still dreaming. The scenes in my slumber world and my reality meet and intertwine, carrying the affect of my dream into the start of my day. Sometimes, I am 50 feet tall and walking for miles down unrecognizable roads; other times,[Read More…]
Finding new words for my identity
It took me until I was 12 to realize that my father’s English was accented. Before that, it was just my father’s voice: Familiar and melodic, a vestige of his first, tonal language. Like many mixed kids, I was hyper-aware of the racial categories I fit into from a young[Read More…]
