Talk of the Quad
Rose, bud, thorn
Among the long list of my mostly unachievable 2026 New Year’s resolutions was to be present. I wrote this in hopes that I would not only stop worrying so much about the future but also be more appreciative of my …
Talk of the Quad
Talk of the Quad
The magic and majesty of British Minecraft YouTubers
When I was in late elementary school at the height of the early 2010s, I was absolutely obsessed with Minecraft, the explosive game, literally and figuratively, that allows users to create their own worlds using blocks of different materials. More …
Talk of the Quad
How far?
I am mildly obsessed with my Google Calendar. The tab on my computer feels almost like a baby I take care of, filling its bottle with my daily activities and coddling it through constant rearrangement, ultimately building some future. Yet, …
Talk of the Quad
What your LinkedIn doesn’t show
At my high school, homeroom was in the middle of the day. After two blocks of 85-minute classes, 20 something or other teenagers and I would come together for seven minutes in Room 302—a health classroom, with the CPR dummies …
Talk of the Quad
“Ben 10” and the beauty of the family cartoon
The year was 2010. I was five years old and finally allowed to watch television (my mother had a strict “no TV” rule until then). Quickly, my little mind was captivated. At first by the commercials advertising toys I would …
Talk of the Quad
“Max and Ruby” and the eldest daughter
Dirt cake, Grandma and a wind-up lobster. These aren’t just things you may witness walking down the mean streets of Maine but essential components to Nick Jr.’s 2002 show “Max and Ruby.” If this show wasn’t a staple of your …
Talk of the Quad
A polyglot loophole found in the Balkans?
While Serbs nowadays throw up a holy trinity salute to express their national pride and religion—like Albanians who sign an eagle across their chests with both hands—when I occasionally throw up my thumb, index and middle fingers in a photo, …
Talk of the Quad
Soft ground
Early in the fall it is not rainy, but I decide to wear rain pants to lab anyway. We study mosses flagged by yellow tape for a few hours. The medium is found ballpoint pen on waterproof paper: my favorite …
Talk of the Quad
Spoiler alert: Bowdoin is nothing like the Jersey Shore
It had been three months since the lockdown was announced in Metro Manila, and suffice it to say we were all going stir-crazy. Our hands were exhausted from the trend of whipping coffee, our eyes were red from Zoom school …
Talk of the Quad
How can you not be romantic about sports?
January 11, 2024—I am an absolute mess. Tears slide down my face as I slowly chip away at my now-salty chicken parm sandwich. I quickly dry my eyes in my sleeve just as my mom walks into the kitchen to …