A New State of Mind
Why I can’t go home
To be a Southerner in Maine is to be homesick. It is to dream of an idealized version of a home that does not exist. It is an unrequited love, a longing for a place that does not want you …
home
home
From Near and Far: Students reflect on home
The Bowdoin student experience is deeply affected by the relationship between the campus and its distance from one’s home. Many students find themselves running into the dichotomous reality of life at a residential college away from home at one point …
Talk of the Quad
What food means to me
When I first got to college, my go-to icebreaker question was, “Do you live to eat or eat to live?” Coming from Singapore, where food is an integral part of the culture and all of my friends “lived to eat,” …
Mundane Magic
Seen through each other
My mom is driving. She’s trailing our family friend’s grey car as it inches along a winding road of snow and mud. A storm blew through a few days earlier, depositing five inches of snow—winter’s first. And it’s forcing our …
Talk of the Quad
Rooted in Brunswick
I’ll admit it: I was overwhelmed during my first semester at Bowdoin College. Three thousand miles away from my home in California, I was ready to sink my teeth into Maine and did everything I could to find something to …
Mundane Magic
Seen through glass
The man wearing a baseball cap approaches our front door. Far from the door he stops and lays the box on our lawn of mostly hot dirt. Intrigued, I pause beside the stairwell. Just visible beyond the window trim is …