In my first year at McGill, my academic naiveté made me anxious and self-centred. I was convinced that good writing was a product of genius forged in solitude. When tasked with an essay, a tinge of shame came in reiterating the ideas of other scholars and writers. Citation in those[Read More…]
Off the Board
Two minutes till dawn
Every morning, my phone tells me the sun is setting two minutes later than the day before. Most students would be warmed by the thought of another winter ending and brighter days coming soon to wash away the snow. Yet, every morning, I cannot help but feel a slight anxiety[Read More…]
The sound of silence
Velvet and corduroy, tags on turtlenecks, a gaze sustained solely by counting. An unusually large fraction of my life is spent perceiving more sensory information than the average person or, perhaps, in the typical amount of time for a neurodivergent person. I thought everyone experienced life uncomfortably—I froze when hugged[Read More…]
Long live Herbert
Herbert came into my life sometime around 2018, a short, wilting thing from the reject corner at Home Depot. He led an unfortunate existence right from the start: About half of the people I told about him misheard me and thought I had named him “Pervert,” which… no. After some[Read More…]
Stop skirting around the clitoris
Content Warning: Mention of sexual violence Against a red background, my mobile browser welcomes a vibrating text box that reads “clit-me.” Clicking on the arrows to view the next page, I see a fluffy white avatar that I’m instructed to customize: A clitoris. I choose a wide-eyed smiley face, a[Read More…]
Keith from Bell, you have my heart
Last summer, at four in the morning, I found myself on a beautiful Aegean island, in the dark bedroom of an Ionian villa, with moonlight fluttering in through sheer curtains that generously ushered a gentle, cooling wind towards me. I lay sprawled on the bed, head propped up, phone in[Read More…]
Blindsided by Rational Irrationality
I’ve always found a sense of comfort in routines. Even if they are sometimes dull, the structures that construct my daily life add an extra layer of padding to my occasionally rocky university experience. This extends from my regular breakfast of two years—fried egg on top of avocado toast, slathered[Read More…]
Escaping into the city
As much as I would like to pretend that I am a Romantic-era poet, lingering in vast fields and haunting pastoral landscapes, I have always been more comfortable in the city. Whether it’s the steady hum of car engines or the distant chatter of people on their daily commute, I[Read More…]
When memories lie in Soviet apartment blocks
As a kid, I remember driving back from the Moscow airport with my family, preparing for another summer in Russia, and refamiliarizing myself with the city after being away for a year. Looking out the window, my childish, curious gaze was often confused by the differences between architectural styles across[Read More…]
The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math
In middle school, I spent objectively too much time reading dystopian Young Adult fiction novels and watching rom-coms from the 1990s and 2000s, which have now left me with a questionable repertoire of references and an insatiable taste for casual insurgency. I’ve never considered my attempts at nonconformity as dangerous[Read More…]
