We love morally gray characters 鈥� from Snape in 鈥淗arry Potter鈥� to Wanda in Marvel movies, viewers and readers have continually gravitated toward those who seem to do clear moral wrong. But why do we love characters who often do awful things?
In an age of hyper-connectivity, we have lost our capacity for solitude. Driving in a car or walking the dog were once moments of solitude. Even air travel was once a valuable block of time during which one could ruminate, cut off from phones and the rest of the world. However, today, ...
When the United States became its own nation, it was chiefly an agrarian one, dominated by farmers and designed to appease their pastoral mindsets. Just one in 20 citizens lived in cities. In today鈥檚 America, the demographics of the Constitutional Era have entirely ...
While applying for post-graduation jobs this semester, I鈥檝e stumbled across a baffling aspect of the application process for some companies: a personality test. When the company I applied to requested I fill out a short character assessment, I assumed the test would consist of relevant questions, ...
I鈥檓 irresistibly drawn to personality tests 鈥� but not for the reasons you might think. While I enjoy taking these tests myself, my real interest comes from seeing my friends consider their answers. Through these experiences, I see how different people perceive the world and react to difficult ...
With Thayer Street a one-minute walk from my dorm, I鈥檝e often found myself browsing Yelp for food options. I love the category search function in particular, which allows users to browse for food options by cuisine. One category I鈥檝e noticed is 鈥渆thnic鈥� restaurants. The word 鈥渆thnic鈥� ...
When I was beginning to make my college application list just over four years ago, I had never considered the possibility of going to an Ivy League school. Though my academics and extracurriculars certainly qualified me to apply to highly selective colleges, I lacked the confidence to pursue admission ...
Brown pitches its campus as one set in 鈥渢he heart of Rhode Island鈥檚 vibrant capital city,鈥� boasting its ostensibly active membership ...
I am giving you $70. I am also presenting you with a charity request letter from Save the Children. You now have an opportunity to donate any of your just-earned $70 to Rokia, a starving ...
The videos are all the same: A thin, conventionally attractive person poses in front of a mirror before the screen cuts to a beautifully staged bowl of oatmeal. The next shot is lunch, a colorful salad, and then dinner, a mix of grains and greens. Bonus points if 鈥渕acros鈥濃�� the grams of carbohydrates, ...
As a nostalgic senior, I鈥檝e often found myself reminiscing about my first year, and in particular, the inextricable link between my first-year experience and partying. Drinking is at the core of the American college experience. For first-years eager to immerse themselves in college life, partying ...
As I enter my senior year at Brown, I鈥檓 watching everyone around me make decisions that, on the surface, seem life-defining. What will our futures hold, and what is the best way we can shape them? For some, this question starts early. Many students in my class already know where they will be working ...
Midway through my study abroad experience in Paris, I was sitting in my European-sized single when I got a text from my dad at midnight. 鈥淒on鈥檛 panic, but call your mom.鈥� I called my mom, who was in pieces. After a fall, my 86-year-old maternal grandmother was unconscious in the hospital. My ...
When it comes to love, words often fail us. Some articulate love as warmth, others as 鈥渁 madness of delight; an obsession.鈥� My favorite description of love, from Iris Murdoch, is 鈥渢he extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.鈥� Yet no words can quite capture ...
This year鈥檚 Commencement Magazine marks the end of our class鈥� collective journey through Brown, and more broadly, a world irrevocably transformed.
Finding the words to adequately reflect on the beauty, triumph and at times difficulty of navigating this university is an exercise that is daunting yet necessary. It is my hope that my own personal narrative and understanding of my Brown experience will guide you, uplift you and empower you. ...
This winter break was my last time home as a college student and my first time holding an American phone number in Spain. More than needing to be available to my classmates on College Hill, my 401 number signified a transition that would have seemed insurmountable to my first-year self.
For as long as I can remember, my attention has escaped me. It has always been in a million places at once, split a million different ways. But at some point in my educational journey, I figured out how to direct it toward the standard markers of student achievement 鈥� academic excellence, extracurricular ...
In October 2021, trend forecaster and TikTok influencer Mandy Lee predicted the return of the so-called 鈥渋ndie sleaze鈥� aesthetic: a call back to the hipster heydays of the mid 2000s and early 2010s. And this predicted 2010s resurgence may be quickly becoming a reality. In recent months, I鈥檝e ...
My love-hate relationship with reading has been tipping a little more into the hate category recently. For the first time ever, I鈥檓 in four reading-heavy classes. Add a language on top of that and it feels like all I do is decipher dense texts. And I鈥檓 burnt out.
