Voices

Hopkins is a diverse university where an incredible mix of cultures, academic interests and personalities coexist and thrive. Here is the section where you can publish your unique thoughts, ideas and perspectives on life at Hopkins and beyond.

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Saving yourself this Valentine’s Day

By GABI SWISTARA | February 14, 2019

In a world governed by social pressure to love and be loved, knowing how to be single is key to your health and that of your relationships. Knowing how to be single can be difficult, though, when surrounded by rom-coms, love songs and Disney-happy-endings.

How dating expectations change in college

By CLAIRE BEAVER | February 19, 2019

The act of dating is complicated, to put it lightly. To text or not to text. To Snapchat or not to Snapchat. To wait a certain amount of time before responding to the text so you seem like you’re not on your phone 24/7 and have a very cool life or to not. These decisions feel monumental in the moment, creating a pressure that other generations just don’t understand.

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Learning to move on in real life, and online

By MORGAN OME | February 18, 2019

Each morning, a Facebook notification arrives at the same time with the same message: “On this day, you have memories with…” That’s usually accompanied by a list of seven people, five of whom I don’t talk to anymore. 

I’ve identified as gay for years. Not anymore.

By JACOB TOOK | February 18, 2019

Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” is a bop — it topped charts in 25 countries and became one of the best-selling singles of all time. It’s also a monumental LGBTQ anthem in which Gaga embraces her bisexuality and affirms other LGBTQ identities, singing “I’m beautiful in my way / ‘Cause God makes no mistakes / I’m on the right track, baby I was born this way.”

I had a ‘make America gay again’ sign at the 2018 Women’s March.
PUBLIC DOMAIN Redzinski recounted her experiences in relationships without labels.

Learning to survive the “situationship”

By SARINA REDZINSKI | February 14, 2019

People have lots of different words for it, all with slightly different implications. “Situationship,” “seeing each other” and “hanging out” are just a few. Ultimately though, they refer to the same vague thing: two people who like each other enough to act like a couple, but who, for some reason or other, won’t commit. Though there is some overlap in terminology, I’ve found these pseudo-relationships aren’t quite a part of “hookup culture,” really. Instead, they exist in a strange gray area somewhere between “friends with benefits” and an official relationship. 

Take pleasure in eating your heart out this Valentine's Day

By FRANK GUERRIERO | February 13, 2019

Something unsettling has spread about the culinary mediaverse in recent weeks. If you spend as much time as I do browsing the websites, Instagram accounts and — on particularly hungry evenings — LinkedIn pages of restaurants, you’ve probably noticed it. Also, get yourself some help — your homework, pets and sleep cycle need you.

COURTESY OF ALLISON.HARE/CC-BY SA 2.0 Whether it’s Nutella or some other treat, indulge this Valentine’s Day.

Taking concrete action to support abortion rights

By KATHERINE LOGAN | February 13, 2019

For years now, I have proudly identified myself as an intersectional feminist. I’m minoring in Women, Gender and Sexuality (WGS) Studies and am currently working on an Honors Thesis project related to the history of fairy-tales and the implicit, gendered messages that they often contain. 

COURTESY OF LORIE SHAULL/CC-BY SA 2.0 The organization Planned Parenthood provides women with health care.
COURTESY OF TRACHEOTOMY BOB/ CC-BY SA 2.0 Girls are socialized in many ways, including through the toys they play with, from a young age.

Embracing abrasions: the inherent risks of being female in America

By GABI SWISTARA | February 13, 2019

In introducing my column for this upcoming semester, I want to transition between the positive relationships I wrote about last semester to focusing on more politically-charged experiences. I would like to provide a content warning to anyone who cannot read about sexuality and sexual violence. 

My experience at a Subtle Asian Dating event

By KELVIN QIAN | February 14, 2019

It was a brisk December night in the Big Apple when I stood under the Washington Square Arch, as the greens and yellows and purples of the skyline glowed in the background. I was already exhausted from walking across Manhattan, having visited the National Museum of Mathematics and walked the High Line, but I also felt excited as I stood in the park waiting for our group of Subtle Asian Daters to form.

COURTESY OF JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BENOIST/CC BY-3.0   The Subtle Asian Daters meet-up took place at NYC’s Washington Square.
M01229/ CC BY SA 2.0 You can choose to make Valentine’s Day about self-love this year. 

How to make Valentine’s Day less stressful this year

By SARINA REDZINSKI | February 6, 2019

For a lot of people, Valentine’s Day is less a holiday and more a 24-hour block of dodging obnoxiously googly-eyed social media posts and couples feeling each other up in the middle of the quad. And, as always, it’s coming around again. In a week, every store will be plastered with red heart-shaped decorations and every decent restaurant will be booking up fast.

Embracing the label ‘fat’ and all its extra weight

By JACOB TOOK | February 12, 2019

Growing up, I always hated my body. I was fat, and I was not happy about it. I hated eating in public because I felt embarrassed. Shopping for clothes was a nightmare, and whatever I ended up with would still be too tight in some places and too baggy in others. I worried that I’d never be able to get girls.

COURTESY OF JACOB TOOK A photo taken during a pageant at the weight loss camp Took attended. 
COURTESY OF KATHERINE LOGAN Ice cream is a great way to celebrate moving forward from a mistake. 

Mistakes are part of life, not something to be feared

By SANIYA RAMCHANDANI | February 6, 2019

Sometimes I feel as though I might be a naturally self-destructive person; in hindsight, some of the decisions I’ve made in the past appear completely discombobulated. In these moments, I end up simply wondering how a person could be so stupid. We all have our moments of failure big and small. 

COURTESY OF KATHERINE LOGAN.  A photo from her first day of running, training for the Rock N’ Roll half-marathon in D.C.. 

The sense of empowerment I gain from running

By KATHERINE LOGAN | February 6, 2019

My first experience with long-distance running came in the seventh grade. At my first practice, our coach nonchalantly told us that we would be running six miles without stopping to walk or drink water. I was astonished; sure, I’d run a 5K before but never anywhere close to that length. 

Why Andy Kim’s election to Congress is so important to me

By KELVIN QIAN | January 31, 2019

I was sleeping in my car as we traveled through the town of Mount Laurel, N.J., going from the I-295 onto the New Jersey Turnpike. We made this transfer every time I traveled between home and Hopkins, and on the surface, nothing has changed. The same hotels and stores by the same roads basked in the glow of the same sun.

Public domain New Jersey native Andy Kim was sworn into the 116th Congress.
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How football brings my whole family together

By KATHERINE LOGAN | February 3, 2019

Whether or not I get the same rush that the rest of my family does out of watching sports (don’t even get me started on how long the NHL season is), I was born into the inescapable clutches of football fandom. Come Sunday, I’ll be ardently cheering on the Patriots, swearing and cheering alongside the best of them, and, while it’s taken me years to admit it, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Finding meaning through existential crises and loss

By MORGAN OME | January 31, 2019

I’m 22 years old, and I still think that one of the most heartbreaking sounds is hearing your parents cry. Last week, I was on the phone with my dad, and he started to choke up. He was calling to tell me that Jamie, our family friend, has about two weeks left until her organs fail. She has been struggling with terminal cancer for a few months now. 

aitchisons/cc by 2.0 Ted Danson plays Michael, an architect of afterlife neighborhoods, in The Good Place.
Courtesy of Rudy Malcom Malcom and sophomore Sabrina Sussman on a camel near the Kfar Hanokdim oasis.

After going on Birthright, reflecting on what makes me proud to be Jewish

By RUDY MALCOM | January 30, 2019

Have you had the distinct pleasure of making small talk with me recently? If so, you may recall (or you may not — what else is there to do during Intersession besides black out every night?) my joking, probably in poor taste, that going on Birthright Israel this winter converted me into an ultra-Orthodox rabbi. (Birthright is a free 10-day trip to the Holy Land for young Jewish adults around the world meant to strengthen their Jewish identities and relationship with the State and people of Israel.)