Category: Reflections

Midpoints

I spend this most recent Passover with my mother’s closest friend from high school and her family for the first time.

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We Are The Walrus

My father and John Lennon.

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Revelations

The spirituality of sightseeing.

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Of the Northeast Corridor

Reflections on the stops between Princeton and Penn Station.

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On Potential

When I was growing up, my mother believed I was a prodigy; the only problem was, she didn’t yet know at what.

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Clouds

A blushing cloud: 縉雲 (jìn yún). Every time I explain to someone that my name essentially means “a red cloud,” I am reminded of a line from a poem by the 9th century Chinese poet Li Shang Yin.

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Sis Visit

On the night before Valentine’s Day, I ran to the Dinky in the frigid February air, wondering for the hundredth time how life would be different if my sister had gone to Princeton.

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It Could Happen Here

How do I explain to my Chilean family that I come from a place where prison statistics, police records, and newspaper headlines all fervently declare that I am not wanted? How do I explain to them what I tell my mother— that I never want to have children, because I know that their skin will be as black as mine?

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Scars

I am rolling down my aunt’s driveway in Colorado on a razor scooter.

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Starseeds

I first met AJ over Honey-Nut Cheerios in the cluttered kitchen of my aunt’s So-Cal home.

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Losing It

You come to his house after practice having carefully showered and shaved in the girls’ locker room. You wear a green cotton dress he can pull over your head. Has, in fact.

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Sunset in Sachsenhausen

I had not heard of Sachsenhausen before my trip to Berlin. Located in Oranienburg, just outside the city, it was the first iteration of Nazi design—the early concentration camp was shaped as a triangle to enable the guards to have … Read More

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