As winter rolls in, my gait has begun to resemble the shuffle of a dejected penguin. Head permanently bowed for fear that one poorly planned step will result in death by slippage, my walks to campus now provoke a deep sense of mourning for warmer, and more posturally vertical, days[Read More…]
Off the Board
The art of enjoying your hobbies
A lot of my hobbies are ones that I am mediocre at. On the guitar, I can only play a few chords. I run at a very average pace, and not as consistently as I would like. I can probably draw better than the average person, but I am completely[Read More…]
Learning to go slow
This past summer was a summer of long drives. I would put on a podcast, occasionally find a passenger, and hit the road in my beat-up blue Subaru. Ironically, at some point, while speeding on long stretches of Route 175, I also came to embrace moving slowly. I have always[Read More…]
How to take a Mattwalk
I’ve never been a great sleeper. If left alone, my brain will run a marathon’s worth of circles, especially when it has something to chew on. The problem came to a head during my first year. The more I contorted myself on my residence-supplied mattress, the more tightly constricted I[Read More…]
Birds: My mortal enemies
I didn’t see a single bird during the U.S. government shutdown between Dec. 22, 2018, and Jan. 25, 2019. While the feathery fiends in British Columbia may have just been taking the month off from antagonizing my fellow high schoolers on the frosty coast of Vancouver Island, I choose to[Read More…]
Green spaces tend the roots of ecological justice
This summer, I had the privilege of visiting my family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the first time. We stayed in Kinshasa for the duration of our trip, but part of me wished to see what was beyond the capital city. Deep down, my true desire was[Read More…]
Diary of a Dad Friend
Sometimes I wonder if I was destined to become the “Dad Friend.” The label attached itself to me well before my friends bought me “#1 Dad” socks for Christmas. It became almost certain when my roommate began saying “Thanks, Dad” as they slid over their leftover dinner for me to[Read More…]
Having it all: How to be a singer, journalist, and barista
For a large part of my adolescence, I was sure that I wanted to be a professional singer. For nearly a decade, I participated in competitive choirs, took voice lessons, and performed in more musicals than I could count. I dreamed of Broadway and worked toward it earnestly. If someone[Read More…]
All That Jas
My name is Jasjot. In Punjabi, Jasjot—pronounced “Jus-joth”—has a beautiful meaning: Light, radiance, fame, glory. In English, however, the name Jasjot—pronounced “Jazz-jot”—bears no significance. Growing up, I hated hearing my name. It was a blaring symbol of my Indian identity that excluded me from the dominance of whiteness. From the[Read More…]
Filling the massive hole in my life left by 15 years of competitive sports
There are many different ways to cope with anxiety. Some go for runs, others meditate––I tryout for sports teams. Until the fall of 2020, I was never an anxious person. Between the baseball diamond, the hockey rink, the gym, and the classroom, my day provided no break to dwell on[Read More…]
