this past weekend, in my quarantine hotel room in taipei, i lay in bed crying and watched youtube videos on how to cope with depression. fuck, i thought. one doctor said i have anorexia, another said i have anxiety, another prescribed me with daily 10mg prozac on the off chance the anxiety got worse and/or was also mild depression, but honestly i think it's been kind of useless because up until now, it seems only to be inebriating me with vivid, bloody dreams where i'm either

this past monday, on our last morning in taipei, kevin and i got up at 4 a.m. to hike to the top of jin mian shan. at 5:30 a.m., i found myself lying on top of a wide slanted boulder, watching the sky lighten in layers of lavender and blueish-grey as a soft orange glow spread from the eastern mountainside. i don’t want to ever forget that moment. how intensely content i felt to be up there, tiny, just breathing in cold air. at one point, i took out my phone and left seven sho

Dear Amy, This semester, people used the word “refreshing” to describe you in ten conversations. What did they mean, exactly? Why does it matter so much that you counted? “Now that is a most interesting question: whatever became of me?” – Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms Conversation One Is “refreshing” The cloak of cool air that follows a hot shower? The smell of grass and wet concrete after rain? Your favorite song, or A soft pillow? The lotion on your hands, or The

The fact that I’ll be spending this Thanksgiving far away from home feels weird. The fact that I’ll be spending it in Rome feels even weirder. That fact honestly just epitomizes the fact that I have much to be thankful for. This semester, I’ve had some extreme highs and lows. There have been times where I’ve thought no one could be luckier than I am and times where I’ve felt too stressed or angsty or exhausted or self-centered to realize how lucky I truly am. Actually, as I’m

November 2-5th – Paris Week 10 flew by, as did my time in Paris this past weekend. To honor my short and sweet speed date with the “city of love,” I’m going to speed date this blog post, too, in the form of 10 short observations.* *You might think this is a clever commentary about fleeting young love or an erudite use of numbers because 10 and 10 match, but I’m really using this format because a) I’m exhausted from traveling; b) I’m tired of writing long blog posts; and 3) yo

As I close out The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, I wanted to turn the page by reflecting on fresh starts of mine. It’s easy for me to get stuck on endings, so in the spirit of trying new things, I’ll highlight just the opposite. Big or small, these beginnings of the past week have brought—and hopefully will continue to bring—me happiness in some way. First time reading a book that explicitly studies happiness. First time eating at Xi’an Famous Foods. Those hand-pulled

Happiness Resolution #10: Post more frequently, less wordily. I’ve been in an uncannily good mood lately. It’s summer, I’m seeing old friends and living with others, I have a job that pays me to learn, and I still have time to take dance classes, eat out, and write, too. Yep, I’m living the good life (as I define it). But it feels especially good because, thanks to The Happiness Project, I am 1) not only more aware of all of the above but also am 2) more conscious of other pe

I’m sitting on a bench in Tompkins Square Park, reading a book next to Sandra and enjoying a rare errand-free afternoon in the heart of East Village. Across from us, speakers are playing 70s throwback songs–Boogie Shoes, Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting, Beethoven mashups. Dancing along to the tunes are a woman in hot pink shoes, light pink shorts, and a polka-dotted fuchsia shirt and a man in Elvis bellbottoms and a Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet. Passersby pause to soak in the

This post summarizes the work performed, goals accomplished, and lessons learned by the Stern International Volunteers of 2017 during their four days in the village of Woadze Tsatoe (Days 5-8 of the entire trip). The next post will offer a reflection on the course and this entrepreneurial trip as a whole. After a 6:30 A.M. wake-up call and a quick breakfast at the Chances Hotel in Ho, our group boards the charter bus, beginning the first of many hour-and-a-half long drives th

Petrichor, backyard barbeques, and car exhaust; the humid blanket of 80 degree weather; the busy highways overlooking a sunset-lit downtown and long, flat, and fat roads…welcome back to Houston, Texas. Home. For only one day. I spent it with young artists and writers; my freshman year English teacher; my best friend; my parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle; nostalgia; and myself. What a beautiful day. On March 25, 2017, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards gave me the opportunity

Today, I am heading to Waodtze Tsatoe, a small village in eastern Ghana, with the Stern International Volunteers to develop two small businesses established there last year by a group of Stern students in partnership with Studio 189 and Adanu. One of these businesses is a fashion business that trains women to craft and sell traditional batik products, and the other is a clean water business that provides potable drinking water to everyone in the village. This year, our goal a

. . . to share some interesting words I’ve overheard these past couple of weeks. “I know this is going to sound weird, but please laugh for me, preferably out loud and very hard . . . There is nothing worse in this world than having to listen to the same joke twice—except maybe having to be that guy who forces you to listen to the same joke twice and asks you to laugh just as hard.” – John Oliver, Last Week Tonight (live) “Students need a chance to fail.” “If kids don’t have