On luck
While luck often only becomes possible and meaningful when met with effort and dedication, looking back makes it impossible to deny how large a role chance plays in how our lives unfold.
From non-runner to marathon runner
When people ask me when I started running, they are often surprised to learn that I began during my freshman year at MIT.
Why MIT should preserve the tutorial style in humanities classes
Silence feels different in a room containing only three students. It no longer becomes the anonymous silence of a lecture hall, but rather, a palpable, almost physical silence.
Is life an optimization problem?
There’s a version of regret that curdles into something less useful: a grief for a past that can’t be changed and a hypothetical present that will never exist. I’ve felt that version lately, and I’ve been trying to find my way out of it.
Call a boomer
In this era, the digital divide leaves many people feeling isolated. Matter Neuroscience is a group that aims to increase happiness across all generations; they believe that bridging this gap requires people to talk to and connect with each other.
An ode to the SAB
At best, the food was mediocre; at worst, each visit brought us one step closer to a disastrous, inevitable food poisoning episode.
An unrigorous investigation into food chain consistency
Is Blank Street consistent? Alor investigates!
For the love of the game
The phrase ‘love of the game’ is often employed in the context of sports, used to describe the player who would play for free, who needs no contract to give everything. I think it applies just as well to the games of life.
This is for ONCE
On April 3 and 4, K-pop girl group TWICE held two concerts at TD Garden in Boston. One of my friends had an extra ticket for the third, so I tagged along with them.
Memories in Manhattan
I’ve never been to New York. I’ve never booked Airbnb or Amtrak tickets before. And on top of that, I’ve never thought about how to consider everyone’s travel preferences.
I, too, am dying
Whatever I accumulate, achieve, or protect in this lifetime — regardless of how safe a bank it is in or the insurance I have on it — none of it will come with me when I die. I will leave as I came: with nothing.
On belonging
We live on a floating orb somewhere in the middle of who-knows-where, with no context for any of it. Is it really so surprising if we feel a little lost sometimes?
My metric for living
I aspire to think of ‘more life’ not as an extra hour added to the 24-hour clock, but as experiencing more vitality and meaning in the same 16 waking hours we already have — to not only have a beating heart, but to actually feel alive.
I got stuck in London for two days
All I had was me, my crippling sense of confidence, and Google Maps to guide me forward.
Turning the calendar back to 2016
Nostalgia is a rite of passage when growing up. But when an entire generation starts developing it, you might start wondering: are there deeper factors in play? And why 2016, specifically?
What four years at MIT taught me about life
My time here has revealed that happiness is a byproduct of looking beyond ourselves — empathizing with others and doing what we can, however small, to alleviate pain and bolster wellness in those around us.
Lagtrain: On Valentine’s Day and romantic love
Inabakumori: “If I don’t know the words I lost, I’ll set off on a journey, taking a ride on the local train”
Stratton’s Cinderella
I felt like a young deer, shivering with curiosity and a bit of fright, knees clacking together, when I first saw you.
My time in Rwanda!
As my first IAP, I’m really glad I spent it in a fresh environment! I really love traveling and teaching math, so this was the best of both worlds.
Kip Clark Convos
MIT students are always in motion, but what do we miss when we never pause? A conversation with Kip Clark, known for his “Free Listening” sign, reveals what’s at stake.