We were anything but two peas in a pod. First of all, we didn’t like the same things; second of all, we didn’t like each other—at least, that’s how we acted. We would “accidentally” step on each other’s shoes, hide each other’s teddy bears, and maliciously embarrass each other in public (I told our friends […]

I say I’m not a fake, but I’ve often felt like one. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before: “imposter syndrome,” especially common among women (according to research) and especially prevalent at a place like Brown (according to my freshman orientation lectures). But I felt it even before Brown—stiff smiles, midnight tears, my mom’s you […]

I have lived a significant chunk of my life as a careful, oftentimes stuffy perfectionist—getting annoyed when the picture frame is not perfectly aligned with the edge of the wall; writing a sentence only to erase it, write another one and erase that one too; calculating the exact, dollars-and-cents amount to Venmo my friend after […]

We often hear that the pen is mightier than the sword.  Throughout my years as a writer, I’ve proudly clung to this expression, simply believing that it promised me the possibility of transcending the bookworm archetype. Offered a weapon to wield, one even mightier than a sword, I became a warrior-leader-pathfinder—with an emphasis on “warrior,” […]