It was on my first hunt, six years ago, that a bear charged me. I was pretending to be a moose. My dad and I were crossing the Secret River, deep in Yukon Territory’s wilderness, in our motorboat. It was the first evening of the hunt, and we wanted to[Read More…]
Off the Board
Putting the retro in retrospective
Every year, as winter festivities approach, an air of excitement comes around that fills most with joy. For others, however, the holiday season brings a sense of unease. Each year, I dread the onset of my mortal enemy: Spotify Wrapped. Spotify’s yearly retrospective may provide insight for some, bringing to[Read More…]
Why conservative radio is my go-to
Between driving to see friends and running errands, I often find myself in the driver’s seat trying to decide what I should listen to. My Spotify playlists get too repetitive, I’m too picky for music radio, and after a long day of classes, I’m rarely in the mood for podcasts[Read More…]
Go Club, Go
Taking pride in silly things is one of life’s little pleasures. Developing a minor god-complex over these same silly things is cautionable. Yet, as founder, captain, and president of my high school Go Club, I held a minor tyranny over a room full of my own classmates weekly—and I turned[Read More…]
Slowing down with your Sims™
The Sims™, a life-simulation video game series created by EA games in 2000, has content aplenty for dedicated players, whether you envision yourself roleplaying different lives or creating your architectural dreams (or nightmares, if that’s your vibe). But while many of the game’s various traits, hobbies, and interests reflect real[Read More…]
An ode to the hater
At the end of sixth grade—a year fraught with the kind of drama only 11-year-old girls can come up with—I made a promise to myself: No more talking shit. I do not think I ever really thought I was going to follow through with it. It was the kind of[Read More…]
Meryl Streep a god, Roger Ebert her faithful follower
There are a few moments in every person’s life that define who they become, the legacy that they leave behind. For me, this moment came when I stumbled upon a line with such RAW power that even recalling it makes me shake in my metaphorical boots. I remember it like[Read More…]
Life expectancy inequality is a moral outrage
I was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 2004. The life expectancy of babies born at that place and time is 79 years. Three kilometres away, in Washington, D.C., it’s 74 years. I’ve spent most of my life in Seattle (in a county with a life expectancy of 83 years),[Read More…]
Finding myself underwater
When I was three years old, my parents signed me up for my first non-parented swim class at my local recreation centre. They would drag me out of bed, dress me in a pink frilly swimsuit, and sit on the water’s edge watching my class for what felt like hours.[Read More…]
What to do if you can’t be an astronaut
I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut. When I was seven, I begged my mom for a telescope, convinced that the €40 plastic lens would equip me well enough to pierce through the polluted Parisian sky and uncover the secrets of the universe. I never got the telescope, and so[Read More…]