For a long time, the socially accepted beauty standard looked like this: blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and legs with a noticeable gap in between them. Victoria Secret angels, runway models, and TV ads plastered this image of perfection to the American public for decades. With the rise of social media, it seems that these images are nonetheless inescapable. Lately, however, it seems that women are starting to push back on this type of marketing. While certainly not the only culprit, this type of unrealistic beauty standard that is largely still being advertised adds to feelings of self pity...

In the heart of downtown Manhattan a little girl once stood, staring at the towering skyscrapers that loomed above her. From where she stood, she felt as if she was a meaningless dot in a vast and ever-changing world. Her eyes were fixated across the street, where less than a decade before the twin towers had stood, and she was suddenly struck by a sense of overwhelming fear. In her mind she could picture her father, climbing up the stairs from the subway as the second tower was hit. It was the first day his wife had gone back to work, his daughter of only six months back at home. Above him...

As a young child I remember hearing a poem at a Shabbat service, words that have forever been ingrained in my heart, words that became the foundation of my principles from an early age. “The person who attends a concert with a mind on business, Hears - but does not really hear. The person who walks amid the songs of the birds And thinks only of what will be served for dinner, hears - but does not really hear. The one who listens to the words of a friend, or spouse, or child, and does not catch the note of urgency: "Notice me, help me, care about me," hears - but does not really hear. The...

There is a strenuous debate over whether civil disobedience is an effective way of bringing about change or not. The general assumption is that civil disobedience effectively brings change to the society. However, it is my point of view that civil disobedience is not an effective way. To exemplify this, climate change is one of the most urgent, difficult, and side-lined issue in modern U.S. history. Government is our leader who needs to balance the economic growth and the climate change. For all the events that news can accommodate, unfortunately, climate change has been side-lined. When the...

As a child of two immigrants from India, I am a mix between the vibrant and traditional culture of India and the extroverted culture of America. To me, India and America were worlds apart, often making me drift between the two whenever I visit India or return to America. I could not find any similarities between India and America, because to me (or at least to my parents), India was a mystical place filled with culture that I often took for granted. Now that I'm older and have access to more information than the generations before me, I started to realize that Indian culture and Western...

Walking down the streets of Tirana,Albania, you happen to see a lot of things. Giant buildings, most of them inhabited, some of them left undone at the very last moment. You see people running up and town, some going to work, and some searching for one. There are cars honking at every red light, being parked at the side of the road, occupying that very little public space, and therefore making driving in the streets of Tirana, an extreme sport. If you keep walking a little bit more you will see cafes, a lot of them. Probably one of the most beneficial businesses. You will see people inside...

When you hear about Generation Z, it’s always from the perspective that they’re “digital natives” and they “grew up with the internet at their fingertips.” But there’s a lot more to be said about this promising young group of individuals than the simple fact that they were the first generation born into a technological era. They’re also living, breathing human beings. They have emotions. Many are in the midst of sorting through their college careers. The first wave of older Gen Zers are even busy entering the workforce ...all in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. How the Coronavirus is...

Art is a wonderful way of expressing ourselves. Writing is another good way of expressing ourselves as well. Those two mediums of self-expression is what I use personally to help express not only myself, but my emotions and my thoughts, especially during this pandemic. Doing so is a healthy way of coping and expressing our emotions and feelings. We can draw friends hanging out and playing with each other, and write about how we miss playing with our friends. We can paint raining skies to show our sadness, and journal about why we are feeling. I personally like to write about how I am feeling...

Ask me if I vote and I’ll tell you no. I’m told it’s important and necessary, yet I come from a city with strong views that appeal to mine anyways. Besides when I turned 18, I figured my vote wouldn’t even matter since the majority of the city/state see the world the way I see it. I’m a young person, I work, I pay bills, I go to school; I’m responsible. Yet aside from that, voting has always seemed pointless because there were many things that occurred in the time that I couldn’t vote (like Trump becoming president) that I did not approve of. Even now I do not feel like voting is the only or...

My South Asian culture is something that I have always cherished. The traditional folk music and dances, flavorful cuisines, and colorful festivities native to Kerala have always managed to mesmerize me ever since I was young. But at what cost was I finally able to start appreciating these aspects of my identity as a young Indian American? I remember laying down when I was younger, perched next to our Casio stereo CD player and listening to Indian music from my native language, Malayalam, while I would sing my heart out in random gibberish, thinking that I was reciting what I thought were the...

Democracy settles beneath the pact between the bad guys and the businessman it's chocked by hate and by man-made mistakes it has dust all around its edge Come one don’t let it go to waste, You’ve seen the Carpenter hills and the Arizona lakes You’ve seen the way a mother works to pay the rent it’s in the U.S.A where dreams are made Oh, democracy won’t you wake up and find us again? Looking at the railroads and trains it’s the place where technology bolted to wake and it’s here the man grow greedy and they search for fame but I know an American household by the union and a hard workday, Oh...

A few weeks back, I was watching It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, a Korean drama that dealt with a number of mental health issues such as Antisocial Personality and Dissociative Identity Disorders. All was good until I stumbled upon the comment section, which housed a rather insensitive conversation around mental illness. I wasn’t surprised though, being an Asian myself, and that’s when I realized just how normalized the stigma around mental health is even in Asian American communities. For many years, Asian Americans from a wide range of cultures have been considered the “model minority”. This...

Waking up from the shining sun to the sounds of the rooster's cock-a-doodle-do. When you open the windows and you can feel the fresh breeze of air hits you. Then you go work in the fields in the hot sun sweat dripping.When you finish you will feel accomplished. As an award you take a nice hot shower feeling refreshed and get ready to do it all over again.

You're beautiful put the bleaching cream down, you don't need it Stop allowing society to convince you that you're too dark Stop feeling discouraged everytime a guy says ''I like light-skinned girls only" or ''You're pretty for a BLACK GIRL'' You're beautiful On a Saturday night you're laying down with your feet kicked up scrolling through Instagram admiring your favorite celebrity wishing you were ''that girl'' Truth be told, you are THAT GIRL When I tell you are dripping melanin and honey you wouldn't believe it because you run to society for validation ''Am I light enough?'' ''Is my smile...

Boys will be boys, often, when I was young I would hear that phrase after a boy did something wrong. It was a made up excuse everyone just recited instead of correcting the boy for his behaviors. As I have grown older that once innocent phrase now holds a terrifying definition. Girls learn many things to get themselves safe: always carry mace, never walk home alone, buddy system, lock your cars doors as soon as you get in, never put down your drink, etcrea. Boys will be boys no longer meant it’s okay if they steal your toy. It now meant he will probably cheat on you, pressure you, use you...

Hello. As you may know yesterday there erupted two fires in two beloved, and incredibly important religious buildings; the Notre Dame in France and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. I have seen far less information circulating about what occurred to the mosque in the same time, that seemingly, every news outlet in my Midwestern American town reported on the Notre Dame. I understand a larger part of the Cathedral may have burned, but I think it is a very sadly missed opportunity if people are not able to see that both these events happened on the same day. For those of us who believe in God, it...

Here are my feelings on the Mennonite Identity, (continued) I think there's a lot of sadness, inherent to a lot of people in the faith and in the families. But there is so much love. That's what I hope my family is remembered for, because that's how I remember them. Mennonites are complicated, their descendants are complicated. But my family was pretty amazing. They weren't all the stereotypes people might think about them. The thing is a part of me has known that it is more than possible there will be no more Mennonites in America in the next few centuries. I am not personally of the faith by...

These are my thoughts on the recent United Methodist Church (UMC) decision to continue to not allow the marriages of same sex couples in the church, and any openly LGBTQ+ person to be ordained as a pastor. So I love the UMC with all my heart. I also love women and men (romantically) and I don't personally think those two sentences contradict each other, despite any decision our conference recently made. But I also do not want any of us to be in pain or the church to break. I believe there were parts of the conference's vote that I did not previously understand, and I think we should. I just...

In writing all this and speaking with the wonderful lady who inspires me every day, my mom, I've learned a lot about myself and who we are as a people, all people. I'm sharing a part of myself as I write this. I'm sharing a part of my family, which scares me. I don't trust the general public with my family history. We're a private people for a reason. But what I will say are the things I wish everyone could know. This will be in bullet style, general sentences because I tried writing essays about the different aspects of the Mennonite identity and it is just too long. - The Mennonite religion...