During the stay-at-home orders, I’ve developed a semi-addiction to solitaire. While I was celebrating a win, lining the cards up ace through king by suit, I stopped short at one of the queens, lying just below the king of opposite color. In a measure of protest, I decided to put the queen on top of... Continue Reading →
The Power of Introspection
Throughout my life, I have struggled with the amount of time I take to process my feelings and the feelings in my surrounding environment. That isn’t to say that I dislike this aspect of my personality. In fact, I choose to use my time in this manner. Moreover, I admire the way in which this... Continue Reading →
A Borderline Society
I have recently become an active social media user. And in the countless hours a day that I spend online building an audience for these essays, I have realized something quite stark about the nature of the world today: the lack of emotional depth in our daily lives has left us with a borderline society.... Continue Reading →
Jennelle Eliana- An Overnight Success or the result of Dedicated Preparation?
I want to spend a moment to discuss Jennelle Eliana, a YouTuber that has recently risen to fame by amassing over 1.3 million subscribers in a three-week span, and with only two published videos. Due to the anomaly of this, news sources outside of YouTube commentators have covered her fast track to success, the majority... Continue Reading →
We are Punishing the Wrong People
A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary about the HSBC money laundering scandal. For those of you as unfamiliar with this scandal as I was, essentially the powerful international bank, HSBC, was knowingly manipulating regulations to funnel drug cartel money from Mexico and Colombia through the U.S. financial system. Being a bank that is... Continue Reading →
The Core of Privilege
It can be difficult to understand the privileged mindset. And for many of us, it can be hard to relate to. But I recently came across a video[i] depicting extreme animal cruelty at one of the nation’s biggest dairy farms, and it make me consider this: as humans, we are all privileged; and we all... Continue Reading →
Is Modern News too Surface-Level to Promote Change?
A New York Times[i] article from last month inspired me to write about a global issue with a pernicious impact: the lack of comprehensive reportage and the passive reaction modern society has towards hard news. I believe that an essential component of effective journalism is the reporter’s ability probe beyond the superficial particulars of critical... Continue Reading →
The Cult of the Individual
The United States is a culture that idealizes the individual. On a daily basis, we are bombarded with depictions of the successful persona; of the idea that a single individual can build a multinational corporation, form a successful start-up, become a famous musician, an inspiring influencer, or a multimillionaire solely from personal talent, grit, and... Continue Reading →
Reconsidering the Modern Help Model
I have been contemplating the negative conditioning that the majority of us have in regards to help. In general, it is difficult to receive help from a primarily empathetic standpoint, where the individual helping is assessing the person-in-need’s capabilities, passions, past history, fears, emotional attachments, and the base requirements that they may lack. Instead of... Continue Reading →