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(04/25/24 10:00am)
I studied abroad in Paris last spring and it still comes up frequently. Naturally, when people learn that I studied abroad, they ask me about it. Not wanting to kill the mood, I usually find myself lying, or, at least, oversimplifying the situation. Typically I’ll admit that I didn’t love Paris, but that I appreciated the chance to travel and my great trip to Poland. I’ll say I made friends from other colleges that I’m still in touch with, and I’m lucky to have them in my life. I won’t say that I regretted going, much less explain why.
(02/22/24 5:00pm)
At the end of 2023, I felt very burnt out with writing. I love writing, but I felt as though I had spent the fall semester writing excessively as I drafted, edited and often scrapped one short story after the next. To combat this, I decided it was time to seek out new inspiration. I often pull from my own life in my work (and I will continue to do so), but I wanted to work to make sure that I always had material, even if there was nothing in my personal life currently interesting to me as a writer.
(10/18/23 4:00am)
Going into this summer, I knew it wouldn’t be about writing, but I told myself it would be — as if saying it could make it true. Honestly, I had hardly written in the winter and spring of 2023. At first, it was because I was busy adjusting to my life in a foreign country. As winter faded into spring, it was because I was grieving the loss of my cousin to leukemia. I had wanted to write about Paris, but I instead found myself blaming Paris for my misery, though it was merely the setting. I had this big idea about how I could write an incredible poem in my cousin’s honor, but I couldn’t do it. I still want to write that poem, but I still haven’t found the right words.
(11/09/23 8:59pm)
When I think of Taylor Swift’s album Red, a few things come to mind. Structurally, I think of how the album demonstrated Swift’s potential to segue from country to pop, offering hits like “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” Beyond this, though, I think of the personal memories I have associated with Red: a November run on Cape Cod with leaves crunching under my feet and “Starlight” blasting from my headphones, listening to “Holy Ground” with the distance to finally look back fondly on a relationship, playing “Begin Again” after a promising Wednesday morning coffee date.
(08/30/23 1:30pm)
Even as a senior at Hopkins, I haven’t exactly mastered control over my own homesickness. Initially, this lack of proficiency was a product of not experiencing much homesickness early on in my time at Hopkins. More recently, during my semester abroad in Paris, I was overwhelmed by how isolated I felt. It’s likely that no one is completely in control of their homesickness, but over the years, I have found a few effective strategies to mitigate dwelling on it.
(04/29/23 9:39pm)
One of my goals for my semester abroad was to take a solo trip. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, but I knew that the experience would be crucial to learning more about myself. After sitting on the idea for some time, I decided to go to Kraków, Poland for a few reasons. First, I have Polish heritage on my mother’s side. I grew up eating some Polish foods prepared by my grandmother: pierogi, babka and kołaczki, to name a few examples, and I was very intrigued by the possibility of having Polish dishes in Poland. Though I was most familiar with the country’s culture in terms of food, I was also interested in the nation’s history and nature, making the trip very appealing. I ultimately decided between Warsaw and Kraków and booked a four-night stay in Kraków due to the wide array of attractions available as well as walkability.
(04/06/23 4:00pm)
Located just a few miles from the France-Germany border, Strasbourg was at the top of my list of places to visit within France. I was curious about the French and German cultural influences in the city and was excited to learn more about France’s Alsace region.
(02/13/23 5:00pm)
I have been in France for just over three weeks. It’s still just the beginning of my time here, as my study abroad program runs until mid-May, but it’s incredible how much my life has changed in a few short weeks.
(11/30/22 5:00pm)
I am preparing to study abroad next semester. So far, this has mainly consisted of curating a new wardrobe on Pinterest, applying for a visa and — on a sadder note — grappling with the knowledge that this would be my last semester with many of my best friends at Hopkins.
(12/01/22 5:00pm)
I quit figure skating when I was 10 years old, and though I regretted having done so throughout middle school and high school, I never actually imagined that I would return to skating. The more time that passed, the more distant that former hobby of mine seemed. Still, when I found myself craving the comfort I had found in skating as a child now as a freshman in college, I decided it was worth picking it up again.
(10/19/22 4:00pm)
I have an on-again, off-again relationship with running.
(09/17/22 4:00pm)
I picked up my first foster cat, Tippy Montana, from the Maryland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) nearly three weeks ago. I didn’t know much about Tippy when I agreed to foster him, just that he was thirteen years old, a tabby cat and that he was extremely depressed in the shelter.
(09/05/22 4:00pm)
Taylor Swift’s place in the political sphere is complicated, to say the least. Early in her career, she stayed silent about politics. Swift has said that she acted this way for two main reasons: she believed that country music was hostile towards artists who spoke out politically, as was the case with the Dixie Chicks, and she did not feel educated enough to make political statements with the ability to influence millions of people.
(04/11/22 4:00pm)
When my plane landed on Long Island, it felt like spring break had officially commenced. I was experiencing an immense craving for Rosa’s Pizza, a staple of my hometown, but the pizza was going to have to wait. My mother had been hinting at “making a stop” on the way home from the airport. I hadn’t entirely believed that we were off to Babylon Animal Shelter to adopt an elderly German Shepherd until she asked me to check Google Maps and see which PetSmart would make for a more efficient stop.
(03/08/22 5:00pm)
The Decembers of my childhood shared one constant: a weekend trip to my aunt Dolores’ log cabin in New Hampshire. Years ago, the house was built by my great-grandfather, grandfather and other relatives of mine, and it has maintained its place in the family ever since, hosting many annual gatherings during which all of my relatives pack into the cozy kitchen and living room.
(02/08/22 5:00pm)
As an International Studies major, I am required to take a foreign language. For freshman fall, I signed up for Intermediate French I, feeling excited for what was ahead in college but nostalgic for my experiences with French before college. Namely, the six years of French I took in Huntington, N.Y.
(11/22/21 6:56pm)
I have known three homes of my paternal grandparents: the Old Westbury house on Bacon Road — the one that my cousins say has since been painted to look like a Taco Bell — the Asharoken house on the north shore of Long Island and now, and finally, the one in Northport with the house number that always manages to slip my mind.
(10/25/21 12:38pm)
I applied to be a First-Year Mentor (FYM) on a whim, not expecting to actually be hired. Mostly, I applied so I could tell myself (and my parents) that I had at least attempted to get an on-campus job.
(09/25/21 3:03pm)
There’s a sick dichotomy between Sept. 2, 2021 being my 19th birthday and Sept. 2, 2021 being the day my 20-year-old cousin, Thomas, was diagnosed with leukemia.
(09/05/21 3:21pm)
My mother’s dream since childhood was to have a horse. She was not around horses as a kid, other than in books, and only began riding in her 20s. In her 40s, she began volunteering at a horse rescue. She was interested in quite a few of the horses that passed through, like Troy, the thoroughbred who wasn’t fast enough to be a racehorse.