3. Asiago

Looks crunchy. How do we decide what has value? Ever since humanity discovered gold thousands of years ago, it’s been coveted as a metal that has such immense value so as to spark countless wars. Stories about gold cities—El Dorado, Cibola—and movies subsequently made that revolved around the shining metal.  The U.S. used to have something called the gold standard decades ago. Originally, the dollar could be traded in for gold. The Bretton Woods system, as it would later be called, anchored the American dollar in tangible gold. It was abolished in 1971 by the 37th president, Richard Nixon, though it did not lose its value even then. The power of gold is possibly best demonstrated in times of economic depression. It is globally recognized as a sign of wealth, and tends to have the highest value in times of economic downturn. But why do we even value gold so much? It’s nothing more than a shiny rock. What differentiates gold from a geode, for example? It’s hard to answer those questi...

Its not about negligence. Its not failure. It's about facing your fears. Life is about making mistakes. What truly defines you is the way you extract your AirPods from the murky depths of a toilet.  I take a seat, as my legs burn after the agony that is badminton conditioning. I squeeze my eyes shut and exhale a breath as I try to force my legs to bend in ways my body does not wish them to. I essentially try to sit down, and lactic acid makes it incredibly difficult for me. Oddly enough lacitic acid is never effective in my skincare, but is very effective in making my physical movement rather difficult.  Regardless, I persevere; I do the impossible. The unthinkable. I Squat!  But I get too confident, and the universe comes to reclaim its power. To tell me that I have not and should never believe that I will triumph over the demon that is lactic acid generation. As if this could not get any more cruel, the universe waits to deliver this horrid news to me.  I stand up...

J.R.R Tolkien , the author of Lord of Rings and The Hobbit , offers what I believe to be one of the most profound interpretations of power in literature. In Lord of the Rings, power is symbolized by the One Ring–a powerful artifact that grants the wearer immense power, however slowly corrupting them the longer they hold it.  Tolkien’s skepticism of power was born in his participation in the first world war. He watched as the great powers of Europe destroyed lands and corrupted men. We can see this reflected in his work, as the One Ring cannot be used for good, no matter your intentions–it only leads to destruction, death, and pain. Even Frodo Baggins, as we read through three books of his extreme resilience, determination, and perseverance, inevitably loses to the corruptive power of the One Ring. In Tolkien's world, the question is not “if it will corrupt” but “when it will corrupt.” Tolkien also shows the visceral nature of power, through the tale of Smeagol, or more commonly kn...

Imagine that you were just told that you’ve been exposed to something extremely toxic.  At first, you feel fine. More than fine, really, because those words are just words to you. They could never be reality. But then, you start to notice small things and little changes in yourself. You start to notice that your breathing has become slightly uneven, and a bit shallow, without you realizing it. Suddenly your chest has become constricted and much tighter than it felt a couple of minutes ago. Maybe your head has started to ache, in a dull, distant way, until now it is pounding and pounding and there is quite literally not a single thing you could possibly do to make it stop.  These symptoms have appeared out of nowhere, and they definitely were not there a few minutes ago. You’re sure of that. But then once they have started, they are absolutely impossible to ignore. Which is also problematic, because the more you pay attention to them, the stronger they become until they consume...

I did not know what it meant to truly care for something with my entire heart until my family got a dog. While I obviously cared for my family, that was an innate feeling that I was never necessarily aware of; this was something else entirely. From the moment we brought her home, she trusted us and within days, I knew there was little that I wouldn’t do for her.  Dogs feel empathy at a level that we as humans should aspire to reach. Without even a single word, they can communicate so much love and comfort. Feeling Tashi dig her face under my arm to see what food I am holding in my hand has never failed to make me laugh. Hearing her sigh as if she has been working hard all day has never failed to bring a smile to my face. Opening my door every day after school to see her running up to greet me as if it has been days has never failed to remind me that I always have her on my side. Tashi is now a necessary part of my family. The house feels empty whenever she is not home. The sound of...

On the outside, the walls are a washed-out grey. Angel-hair strands of ivy roots sneak up them, cautious, even though anyone who would’ve bothered scraping them off has long stopped looking. There’s an old oak tree in the yard, and a firepit, and an endless forest which only some can find. No, not quite find, rather—have the patience to wait for it to come to them, sniff their hand and curl up by their side. The kind of patience only a child, set aside out of sight and out of mind, could learn. The children in Mariam Petrosyan’s Дом в Котором 1 are nothing if not that: disabled, disregarded, locked away from the structure of regular society; off in their own world with its own rules contained within a half-boarding school, half-orphanage on the outskirts of the city. Each child, left largely to their own devices, becomes half-adult: smoking, drinking, getting into fights, all the while telling stories and making up superstitions the likes of which could only come from a child’s imagin...

Memories are honestly what we base everything on. Whether it's answering questions on a test, recalling facts for an interview, thinking about what to say after doing research, or even having those “remember when” conversations with a friend, we always rely on one thing: our memory.  But they may not be as reliable as we think, and may be much more biased than we initially thought.  Our brain doesn't actually store memories the way some of us think that it does, every single “i dotted and t crossed.” Instead, it stores pieces of information, such as emotions, sounds, and images, to shape the memories we recall.  After we remember it, it will get stored again based on that perception, and may even change a little again. This process is reconsolidation. Especially as we learn more, this can distort it even further.  To explain in simpler terms, each time we recall something, we're just recalling how we remembered it the previous time, so when it gets modified, we don't...

I think sometimes we just take life for granted.  Especially being in the midst of junior year, and with the only things keeping us going being solely for college, like stacking up extracurricular activities, ensuring an A in every class, finishing volunteering hours, and honestly, that’s it. Recently, this has been getting to me, leaving me drained and exhausted all the time. But this isn’t what life is only about.  My dad always tells me to “enjoy life to the fullest” and how his “high school days were one of the best.” Everyone also tells me to soak in my teenage years, as you won’t get them back.  And honestly, that put this into perspective: Yes, junior year is one of the most important years of our lives to solidify our futures. And yes, at this moment, grades may be “everything.”  But it's also important to look around us and realize how much more there is.  You don’t get time back. Every second, every moment, it's gone in the blink of an eye. You can’t d...

There are thousands and thousands of things happening around you right now, at this very moment. There are so many things moving and existing, and so many sounds. But, you hear almost none of them. That is, until I mention them, and now of course they are all you can focus on. Everything that you don’t notice, however, doesn’t cease to exist just because you don’t acknowledge it.  No, it continues on, but only on the very edge of your mind. And then, once you decide to divert your attention to these distant occurrences, the more that other things take their place, and everything else proceeds to disappear from your experience.  That one clock you have, the one on the wall of that one bedroom in the corner, that clock is going to keep ticking, because time does not ever stop, no matter how much we sometimes wish it would.  Certain plants in a garden will grow more or less due to the amount of attention they receive from their owners. Our pain, our emotions, and our very th...

It must be comfortable, not having to get your feet dirty. Standing there, labeled with stripes, a warm whistle in hand hanging like a gavel. What gives you the power?  The power to put unassuming groups one against the other on the faux-grass field, to wave the red card, to cast such weighty judgement…they run after the ball, crashing into one another, breaking bones, and you get paid to watch it closely.  So watch.  Watch and hope the ball won’t get kicked astray and bounce off your skull, toppling the stadium walls. Oh, what a delicate tightrope the powerful must walk! Made of the richest, flimsiest silk, floating between disappointed investors and rioting workers. They’re always protesting , my mother says, like they don’t have anything better to do.  Meanwhile those with the means, the funding, are playing Jenga. How many pieces can you take out before the tower topples? Before they notice? Before a knife clatters to the floor when you open the door and you hea...