When I first started volunteering at a senior citizen assisted-living community in Oakland nearly a year ago, I thought connection came from conversation, that if I wanted to get to know someone, I needed to ask good questions, keep the discussion going, and always have something to say. After almost a year of volunteering, I've realized that's not really true. A few weeks ago, I lead and participated in a laughing yoga class with some of the residents, and if you've never he

When people ask what are some of the things I do at the retirement center, the easiest answer and the technically true one is I design and help with arts and crafts. Over the past year, I've helped residents work on all kinds of projects, we made a giant Earth for Earth Day, we made Chinese decorations for Lunar New Year, and we've painted, glued, cut things out and I also fixed things that fell apart. If someone walked through the art room, they would probably think the goa

I always find it funny that people say they need quiet to get work done and then willingly choose one of the least quiet places possible. A café is full of distractions, people are talking, chairs are scraping across the floor, milk is steaming, music is playing, and every few minutes someone walks past your table, so logically, it should be a terrible place to focus. Yet whenever I have a lot to do, whether it's schoolwork, answering emails, or working for my non-profit Forg

I've always loved tiny souvenirs, and not necessarily expensive things or even useful things. Sometimes it's a snow globe, an ornament, a postcard, a museum gift shop trinket, or some random object that seemed incredibly important when I bought it and probably looks ridiculous now sitting on my shelf, but I keep them anyway. In fact, I collect snow globes whenever I travel. They aren't practical, and they definitely take up more space than they should, however I love them bec

At competitive high schools, being busy is not just a reality, umm, it's a personality trait. People do not just say they have a lot to do; they say it like it proves something. "I slept three hours," "I have three tests tomorrow," "I haven't had a free weekend in months." These statements are not complaints in the usual sense, they function more like achievements, and exhaustion becomes a kind of social currency, something you can trade for respect, validation, or at least r

Every culture has to answer the same question: what do people do when life hurts? The pain itself is universal, people everywhere experience grief, stress, loneliness, disappointment, uncertainty, and loss, however what changes is how people are taught to respond to those feelings. Some people talk openly about them, some pray, some lean on family, some throw themselves into work, some seek professional help, and others turn to rituals, traditions, music, service, or communit

After spending so much time doing art with an older woman at the assisted living facility nearby my house in Oakland, CA, I started noticing her hands. Not in a weird way, more like, once we were working together every week, her hands became part of the story, always there in the middle of the table, holding the paper, smoothing it down, reaching for the glue, adjusting something small that I probably would have rushed through. Hands are interesting because they can say thing

Restaurants do not just serve food, they also create a scene. I started thinking about this after noticing how certain people get seated in the front window of a restaurant, where everyone walking by can see them eating, talking, laughing, and making the place look alive. At first, it seems like a normal seating choice, maybe just the next table available, however then I started wondering if the window seat is actually doing more than we think. A family seated in the window c

In my family, you can never and I mean never show up at someone’s house empty-handed. Even if it’s just a quick visit, you’re expected to bring something. Usually it’s food: a box of pastries, a bag of fruit, maybe some tea. To arrive with nothing is really bad form. But here’s the twist: giving the gift is only half the story. What follows is a ritual that looks, to outsiders, a little bit like an awkward standoff. The receiver must first resist: “Oh no, this is too much!”

I spend an embarrassing amount of time in group chats, partly because I'm usually the person trying to make plans. If my friends and I are getting brunch, going somewhere for the day, or trying to coordinate anything involving more than two people, there's a decent chance I'm the one sending, "Okay, but what time are we actually meeting?" And after years of staring at group chats, I've become convinced that every single one develops its own culture. At first glance, a group c

There is almost always a line at Yogurt Park near my Oakland home. It stretches onto the sidewalk, making the whole street feel busier than it probably would otherwise. People stand there checking their phones, talking, changing their minds about what they want, running into friends, and slowly moving toward the little window where they order. Yogurt Park is not a huge polished chain. It is basically an open window on the street, and from the outside, the system does not look

When most people hear "mock trial," they picture teenagers pretending to be lawyers in a fake courtroom, and fair enough, since that's basically what it looks like from the outside. However, if you look a little closer, what's actually happening resembles something anthropologists have a word for: ritual, a repeated, symbolic performance that gives meaning to how a culture sees the world. Clifford Geertz once described culture as a "text" we're all constantly writing and read

I'm sixteen, and honestly, it feels like stress has become a normal part of life. Between school, college applications, extracurriculars, the news, and social media, there's always something to worry about. I don't even have to ask my friends if they're stressed because I hear it in our conversations all the time. It comes up in late-night FaceTimes, texts about homework, and jokes about having a "mental breakdown" before a test. When I saw that a September 2025 Blue Shield o

The school club fair is supposed to be about signing up for activities, but it also feels like everyone is walking through a hallway of possible selves. Every table is technically advertising a club, with posters, candy, QR codes, sign-up sheets, and people trying to make their activity sound fun in the ten seconds they have before someone keeps walking, however underneath all of that, every table is also selling an identity. Future lawyer, activist, artist, athlete, service

Are A-names more outgoing than Z-names? While studying psychology at USC, I explored whether alphabetical order shapes personality. After all, the last name of “Alexander” is called on before “Zimmerman" most often. My small study didn’t prove the link, but it revealed something bigger: how early visibility or invisibility can shape self-perception. Sometimes, research is not only about finding the answers but also asking the questions in the first place.

LA vs SF: The War of Words — What can a tiny word like “the” reveal about culture—and even mental health? This summer at USC, I discovered that how Angelenos talk about the 405 says more than you’d think. Language is more than labels; it shapes identity, connection, and even how we view healing. A freeway quirk turned into a lesson in cultural anthropology, one word at a time.

Before high school, I went to public schools, so when I started going to a Catholic high school, one of the biggest differences I noticed was how much community was built into the school day. It was not just classes, sports, clubs, and homework, there were retreats, prayer services, advisory moments, reflection days, Masses, and all these small traditions that made people stop and think about their lives in a way that felt different from a normal school assembly. At first, I

Driving through my hometown of Oakland, CA, you see walls alive with color. Fresh paint one day, graffiti the next. It feels like part of the city’s rhythm, a constant conversation between artists, taggers, and property owners. A war of words, political sometimes or simply a vanity plate where your self-etched name in the biggest spotlight along a busy highway, means, in some communities, that you are an important person. Sometimes the work looks like art and other times it f