Stream of Consciousness

Christina Hey Mar! Ever since the beginning, we’ve been best friends (and during our occasional fights, worst of enemies), yet regardless, we’ve been destined to be sisters. I know that I’ll be going to college in less than a year, and you’re probably secretly excited to move into my room and to sell my entire wardrobe, but to be perfectly honest, I’ll probably miss you the most. I still remember the days when we were just toddlers, still living in Georgia. You were so scared of blowing out the candles on your birthday cake that you ended up crying, so I had to blow them out for you. I guess I got two birthday wishes that year. Or the time when we were sitting on our leather couch and you fell from your upright position onto your side. Your pacifier dropped onto the floor, so I bent down, picked it up, blew on it real hard, and stuck it back into your mouth. You never noticed that it was missing. Or the time when we pretended to be videographers with that tiny, old iPhone 3. ...

Avery People spend their lives finding others, But I didn’t spend much time looking. They came to me, one after another. From childhood, to now graduating.  From the middle I came,  She was the first friend I had made. A little smaller than me, But faster than I could ever dream to be.  Big, brown round eyes,  ponytails, just like mine.  12 years later, we’re close, And for longer I know. The next with with strands so bright They turned green in the water. My best friend, since first meeting and sight, Both the oldest child and daughter. Quickly my sister, For a while, I missed her. Not as blonde anymore, But decades of sisterhood in store.  Weird, quirky, unafraid of judgement, If fun needed be, to her I went. If weeks pass without heavy discussion, One meeting, back to normal, words start rushing. A light to others once in darkness, A pure joy and nothing less. In the movie world she’ll be, ...

Spoilers for Atonement!!        On February 16, I watched the first hour of Atonement. When I went back to finish it the next day, Netflix removed it! Just my luck! And I never got around to finishing it. It’s a two hour movie based on Ian McEwan’s book, starring Keira Knighley (Cecilia), James McAvoy (Robbie), and Saiorse Ronan (Briony).         Ugh, Briony.                Yesterday I decided to finish it (on YouTube this time), because I really did love the portion of the movie I had watched, and I was in love with the characters and the actors and the aesthetics and the plot of the film. Whenever I thought of the movie, I thought of Robbie’s bright blue eyes or Cecilia’s silky emerald green dress or Briony’s typewriter. But now, it’s something much deeper than that.          ...

Christina Xu From a young age, my parents taught me about finance including inflation, debt, and more importantly, investing one’s money. By nature, money is a finicky subject: it defines the ever changing boundary and chasm between rich and poor. For low-income families, the struggle is living from paycheck to paycheck while supporting and feeding an entire family. For wealthier people, the challenge is investing one’s money so value is lost to depreciation. By storing money in a checking or savings account, it will eventually lose its value due to inflation and a minuscule return rate. However, if money is invested, not only will the value of the money be preserved, but capital gain can also be earned. And thus, no amount of money can truly equate to a financially stable and worry-free life. In fact, money will never be able to holistically represent a measurement for happiness, yet realistically, it is also the foundation of today’s nation and economy. I have been exposed to this co...

Avery Last year I didn’t take APUSH: the class that consumed everyone’s junior year, the class where DBQs dominated, and the class where, unfortunately, for me, all my classmates learned about America’s history. (yeah, I know, American history in US History class? D uh ) But I’m saying this because I feel that taking this course online (due to my crammed 7 period schedule) definitely underprepared me in terms of how well I knew the events and important happenings of my country’s past.  Yes, I know about civil rights and the Revolutionary War, but definitely not about the details of past Presidents or the implications of the Civil War. Thus, I desperately clung to the knowledge I had accumulated in AP Euro, one of my favorite classes from sophomore year. While history is not my favorite subject, knowing history makes me feel amazing in a way I cannot explain. I’ll try though. History allows me to connect the past with the present and to better grasp the world as ...

Christina I flipped the page again. And again. And again. Yet no matter the number of times that I turned the worn pages of my family photo album, still there were no images of me as a newborn. While my younger sister’s childhood was well documented through photos and film, mine was shrouded in mystery. I guess it is no surprise then when I explain that my parents were pretty poor when I was born in Pennsylvania. They had just immigrated to America to pursue their doctorate degrees, and the matter of the fact was that cameras were simply luxuries that they couldn’t afford. Besides, to them, living through memories were more precious than capturing them. Thus, today, I relive these moments through words and stories instead: stories like copying my classmates in preschool because I didn’t understand the teacher’s English instructions or making up numbers like “one hundredty one” because I didn’t know how to count over a hundred yet. Silly anecdotes like these fill in the gaps of my child...