Category: Reflections

Freshman Year From My Childhood Bedroom

“Applying to colleges, I held one core condition: there was no way I was staying in this town.”

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60 Hours in Limbo

Twelve hours later, I AM IN AMERICA, thank Jesus and Mohammad and Buddha and all the minor religious figures I am forgetting.

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Lessons on Greatness: Reflections On “A Conversation With Patti Smith”

“For Smith, poet and painter William Blake exemplified this approach to life. She remarked: ‘Despite the fact he had no proof from the world he was worth anything—he would have gotten 4 likes [on Instagram]—he did his work.’”

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Family History

My family history as I know it starts with the kick of a grenade.

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Shades of Grades

In my pompous English private high school, the importance of excelling in yearly exams was impressed upon us from age 13. I remember on my first day of physics class in the equivalent of freshman year, the teacher stood gravely in front of us and uttered the words: “Last year, all 23 of my students received A*s. Do not be my first A.” A* was the equivalent of an A+—the highest grade you could get.

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Maria

Unpacking and reflecting on the “deep-seated racial ‘master-labor’ power dynamic between the Chinese employers and Filipino maids in Hong Kong.”

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Obituary for a Lost Boy

When I called Rachel, she answered the phone cheerfully. I should have listened more carefully to that tone, should have let it linger longer before I brought the sky crashing down over her. Last year, around this time, just as the weather was starting to turn and leaves began popping up on all the trees, our uncle died in his sleep; our grandparents were visiting for the week and found him the next morning.

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Jared Garland

Call me Moses Goldstein. You won’t be wrong. Say it and I’ll turn around, look back at you out of the corner of my eye, smile a bit and raise an eyebrow at you coyly, because I’m a coy guy, and—of course—that is my name.

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PG Teen Rebellion

“We have a report of three men running out of the forest and chasing a vehicle, one of whom was wearing a trench coat and a hat.”

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The Loaves and the Pitches

The Church of Scientology New York stands right in the center of New York’s Theatre District on West 46th Street. The building blends into the glitzy fare, as loud in its own right as its neighbors—such mainstays of the famously … Read More

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Losing, the Art

Losses are lonely. They leave you grasping at the memories of entities that may never grace your fingertips again. Friends may offer “where did you last see it?” or even briefly join your search team. But when the search team tires of trying to undo your mistake, you’re all alone. The consequences of your actions—the shame, the anxiety, the grief—are felt only by you.

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A Trip to the Orangerie

“In many ways my trip thus far had been haunted by Benjamin; every glimpse of the underground Metro lights, the carefully planned streets, the dimly lit bookstores brought some passage, some fragment of prose from his works to mind.”

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