there are a lot of things I remember about you, except your names.
1 ) The Girl Who Was Friends with the Spy Kids (2002).
There are a lot of things I remember about you, except the most crucial: your name. We met at your neighbor’s high school graduation party.
I thought you were one of the high schoolers at first, since you looked and sounded like a model, standing at least 5'9 in heels with your hair beautifully styled and a low, sultry voice that carried across the room.
But no, you were 12 years old, just like me. And you were on a first name basis with the Spy Kids.
Your…
There was something oddly comforting about eating the Chickstar, the Japanese take on an American take on Mexican cuisine.
My last meal of 2019 was a Chickstar, a hexagonal limited edition version of the Crunchwrap Supreme, which I purchased at the Taco Bell in Shibuya Dogenzaka and savored over the course of three beautiful minutes along with my friends, who had ordered the same thing. It had no sauce, because Taco Bell in Tokyo doesn’t have any kinds of hot sauce, but that was okay, because somehow they managed to ensure that its flavor profile was perfectly balanced without any additions needed.
It wasn’t the end of year meal I had originally intended; in fact, I had never even…
I have three different names, each of which forms a core part of my identity.
“What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
So says Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, rationalizing why such a thing as simple as a name should not be what defines your identity.
Juliet, of course, is referring to her surname here, as well as that of Romeo’s — Capulet versus Montague, and how unfortunate it is that such a small thing can prove to be such a barrier to a relationship between two people otherwise perfectly matched.
However, the quote resonates with me for an entirely different reason, because I have three different names, each of which forms a core part of my identity.
In West Bengal, the…
“When did you become so wise?” says Jo to Amy, near the end of Greta Gerwig’s new adaptation of Little Women. “I always have been,” replies Amy. “You were just too busy noticing my faults.”
Though Amy is speaking to her sister, I also feel as though Gerwig is speaking to the audience, for Amy March is most commonly the March sister people love to hate. …
A tiny strip mall restaurant tucked away close to a Walmart.
Sanibel Island, on the western coast of Florida, is an idyllic place, with beautiful beaches filled with seashells and gorgeous sunsets.
There is one thing lacking: Asian food.
Sanibel Island, though beautiful, is not a very diverse place.
Perhaps because of its 98.8% Cacuasian population, aside from a lone sushi restaurant, as of November 2018, there were no establishments that served Asian food of any kind — no Indian, no Thai, not even Chinese.
After three days of eating lightly seasoned white fish and seafood, my parents and I couldn’t take it anymore.
We made the trek to Fort Myers…
My ideal plant, I think, is one that doesn’t really need me, but appreciates the effort I’m putting in to make its life easier.
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher did a science unit on plants, and brought in a yam growing in a glass jar as a classroom display. I was fascinated by the exposed roots sprawling across the inside of the jar and the long ivy-like tendrils of leaves cascading down the side of the glass.
I had never seen anything like it, but I knew I wanted one myself. …
At the beginning of 2017, I knew that my passport would be expiring come November, and I wanted to get at least one more adventure out of it before sending it off to be renewed.
I thought about all the places I hadn’t seen and still wanted to visit, and one destination stuck out to my mind: Sydney, Australia — and the Vivid lights festival, which I had first heard of back in 2011 and had wanted to attend since then.
Vivid is an annual festival that takes place at the beginning of the winter season in Sydney and is…
Contrary to the commonly held belief among many Chicagoland residents, Illinois does not end after you hit I-80.
What does end, however, is the fast paced lifestyle of the city and its suburbs. What begin are the miles of corn and soybean fields and the endless skies that seem to extend forever across the horizon of I-55.
If you drive south for a few hours without stopping, it all begins to look the same if you don’t look too closely. …
- Age 9: Tell your friends that you had a dream about the two of you getting married. Watch them tell everyone in your class and then plan a wedding for the two of you, with several boys in your class vying to be the ring boy. The two of you don’t speak to each other for the rest of the school year, though you continue to write fantasy scenarios involving your crush as a superhero rescuing you and your family from the edge of a cliff in your top secret diary.
- Age 11, part 1: Bring the Swimsuit Edition of…
