3. Moon Jellies

One of the most popular stereotypes of America is that we love burgers. And french fries, and hot dogs, or other fried, oily handheld food items. Or, perhaps, fast food restaurants, McDonalds being by far the most represented. And it’s not too difficult to see why that is. Fast food restaurants are everywhere. If you’ve ever seen a Starbucks across the street from a Target with a Starbucks inside across the street from a mall with Starbucks across the street from a college campus with (can you guess the next 2 words?) a Starbucks, you probably know what I’m talking about. M. C. Escher Starbucks would be the pinnicle of American capitalism, I am requesting 5 billion United States dollars to construct this posthaste Fast food chain restaurants such as these have spread to the majority of the world’s countries, with some being more successful than others. KFC and Pizza Hut are particularly noteworthy in this aspect. KFC is the 5th largest fast food restaurant by number of locations, at ov...

 Many Ways to Be American Some people like to describe the United States as a “melting pot” of sorts. In this analogy, those who immigrate to the country shed their old identities and practices in order to adopt a more common, unified American culture. This view has faced a lot of criticism, as it completely disregards the existence of minority groups and other ethnic or cultural groups in general, and when I was celebrating Diwali with some of my extended family on Sunday evening, I could easily see why. For one thing, the fact that our family, along with so many others, was sitting there celebrating an Indian holiday that certainly did not originate in America is a clear example of how immigrants’ cultural traditions continue to thrive in America.  American as a "Melting Pot" Credits: https://classracegender.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/america-melting-pot-or-tossed-salad/ That being said, assimilation does occur to some extent. For some reason, my family’s Diwali conversat...

Having grown up in Fremont for most of my life (the two years in New York don’t count as little infant me does not remember anything), I’m definitely fond of the neighborhood I’ve grown up in over the years. However, some of my most cherished memories that I always find myself replaying in my mind have been made abroad. During my trip to Taiwan, I decided to meet with my friend who was also in the capital at the time—the far corner of Taipei City had a newly opened Lalaport Mall and we were eager to check it out. I was able to hop on the Taipei Metro, passing through a total of sixteen stations, before finally reaching my destination at the westernmost station. The new mall was ridiculously underwhelming, with a diabolical amount of overpriced luxury brands. We then headed over to another large shopping center that was more… suitable for us middle class people after going through another nine stations. Dinner at a lovely toilet-themed restaurant was eleven stations away at the Shilin N...

Death is such a complicated topic. How humans determine whether they celebrate or mourn a life doesn’t sit right with me. Typically, we carefully examine the person’s beliefs, manners, and decisions to properly feel sympathy for them. But those decisions of “choosing a side” like a yes or no question is such a complicated task to do, as ironic as it is. We even have our own court system to determine these choices for us because of its controversy. But why is the topic of death and mourning so complicated? As we all probably know by now, the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month has greatly divided America’s political parties into two sides (if they were not separated before): those who mourn Charlie and those who don’t. Most people expect left-wing supporters to celebrate Charlie’s death as a win for the Democrats and the right-wing to feel saddened by his death. But this is where complications come in. From my knowledge, Charlie Kirk spent his entire political career advocating co...

Season 2 of Severance is out now on Apple TV+ and I will get around to it. Someday. Lately, I’ve been trying to make time to watch more television. Yes, it sounds silly, but it’s true: these last few years, I’ve been so busy I haven’t had much time to unwind, and when I did, it was almost never by watching TV. I’ve heard a lot about different critically acclaimed shows I never watched. Arcane , Andor , Stranger Things …it felt like I was missing out on experiencing great pieces of art with everyone else. So when I clicked on the first episode of Severance , it was my expectation that I would breeze through Season 1 and to my great delight that I would finally, at long last, be able to discuss Season 2 with my friends and on the Internet™. Only nine episodes, right? Easy. Of course, I was very, very , wrong. Sorely mistaken. One might even say I felt tricked, backstabbed, and quite possibly bamboozled.  Severance is a complex show with a simple premise: that through a nifty brai...

The concept of America has always baffled me. To an extent, it still does. When I was much younger, America was incredible—a powerful country built from a revolutionary vision of equality for all. It was ideal. For the past few years, however, my personal perception (and it seems the global perception) of America had been steadily declining. It dipped to a point where there wasn’t a single trace left of my younger self that was so impressed with the diversity and equality that was enjoyed by everyone around me; he was instead replaced by a much more jaded self: one who hated the aggressive harm done through foreign policy, who resented the increasing number of politicians who would turn a blind eye to their very own constituents, who hated the fact that poverty was so prevalent in the richest country in the history of the world. I saw America as a country of great hypocrisy—one that loudly boasts a guarantee of freedom and opportunity yet continuously mistreats essential parts of its p...

American High School’s Science Olympiad team during the 2023-2024 school year had an ethnic makeup of 29.5/30 Asian students. The following school year, it was 44.5/45. It is on track to be the exact same this year. No, we don’t own one arm, one leg, and half of a torso and head of a White person. That would be weird. And very illegal. And I’m not illegal, just weird. Similar circumstances plague every congregation of academic-weapon tryhard high schoolers at this so-called “American” High School. In fact, one of the reasons 3rd period AP Lang is such a standout class to me this year is not just because of our incredible teacher (hi Mrs. Smith!) or the courseload, but because there are more than two—or should I say one and a half—non-Asian students in the classroom. This wasn’t a super big issue in elementary school. In fact, I don’t think I really registered the fact that I was half-White back then. The extent to which I considered race and ethnicity was in witty little quips at the d...

Sometimes I feel bad for Voldemort because he's probably perpetually congested. Have you thought about your nose at all lately? Smell has the strongest association with memory and emotion because smells, according to Harvard Medicine , travel “to key areas of the brain involved in learning, emotion, and memory,” and connects directly to the amygdala (in charge of emotions) and the hippocampus (which stores memories). I recently read a study called “The scent of attraction and the smell of success: crossmodal influences on person perception” published on the National Library of Medicine (NIH), which asserted that “the presence of odour can indeed influence person perception through a range of mechanisms from mood-induction to crossmodal affective/semantic priming, and changes in arousal.” In other words, the way you smell has a strong impact on your perception of others. This conclusion checks out: when I drive past Dumbarton Bridge on my way to the Stanford shopping center, the pun...

Ctrl Is More Than a Key “That is my greatest fear that if, if I lost control, or did not have control, things would just, you know, I would be fatal.” (SZA, “Supermodel”) Ctrl   by SZA Image Credits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctrl_%28SZA_album%29 I consider music to be my lifeline. I have listened to a wide variety of music over the course of my life, and yet, I don’t think that I have ever listened to anything more relatable. I first listened to SZA’s debut album Ctrl around 2019, when I was about 11 or 12, and I immediately loved it. However, I took to the album more because I liked the way it sounded, and not because the message of it deeply resonated with me. As I got a little bit older, I began to revisit the album on a deeper level, finally beginning to understand the layers of emotion and experiences that each song conveys. Moreover, I began to see myself in almost every word, and I had truly never felt so seen.  One of my favorite songs in particular is “Anyt...

Last weekend, I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram reels when I came across sad edits of Geto Suguru and Gojo Satoru. Nothing out of the ordinary. Even though they did fulfill my daily dose of romance ships for the day, I couldn’t help but think about a particular phrase that Gojo emphasized: “my six eyes tell me you’re Suguru Geto but my soul knows otherwise.” For some context to those who haven’t watched Jujutsu Kaisen yet (I highly recommend it!), two sorcerers named Gojo and Geto were best friends in high school, and some people including me believe that they were transitioning into an intimate relationship. Gojo telling Geto that he was “his one and only” didn’t help the allegations either. Anyways, the boys had a big conflict over their idea of becoming the “strongest,” and they had ignored one another for years until they were forced to face each other. As an adult, Geto was considered a “villain” because he was seemingly killing innocent people, and Gojo was put in a si...

Another drawing tossed. Something felt off; maybe it was the balance of the colors? Another photo deleted. Something looked off; maybe it was the composition of elements? Another composition never played again. Something sounded off; maybe it was the harmony of notes?            It’s all just so… ugly. Whatever, let’s try again tomorrow. Or the day after… And it’s just a shame. You start to lose the familiar touch of drawing with a pencil, replaced by the firm grip of your calloused hands used to take notes. Your pieces of cloth and needles are nowhere to be found, buried under piles of papers and notebooks. Your worn-out sketchbooks are falling apart, your once cherished guitar is dusty, and your beloved camera's out of battery. Your ideas, once ripe and ready to manifest into the real world, are now forever lost into your consciousness, never to exist again.    Again and again you tell yourself the same phrase. “But I’m busy!” An excuse tha...

I think I want to study chemistry when I grow up. I love both the conceptual aspects, such as analyzing the structure of atoms and the nature of bonds, as well as the practical applications it has in the real world—such as in medical technology. Even this year, AP Chemistry is one of the most interesting classes I’ve ever taken. I told myself that I specifically wouldn’t take AP Chemistry for almost the entirety of my sophomore year. Now, this isn’t that strange. Interests change over time, and it just so happened that mine shifted right before diving headfirst into one of the hardest courses at our school. But the issue stems from the fact that I had to dive headfirst. With the college application process getting closer every year, junior year seems to be when everyone pushes forward in an area to which they’ve already committed. Everyone should already begin to specialize in something to prove to colleges that they are indeed qualified to study at a higher level. Despite being suitab...