6. Harp Seals 2026

image   Even though I live in the same country and attend the same school as my friends, I still feel a little different. They talk about movies I haven't watched and fast food places I've never tried. I grew up in America, but being surrounded by Japanese people made my everyday life feel different from others. The expectations and reminders that shaped my childhood taught me to see the world through a Japanese perspective. Yet when I step outside to a new environment, everything I considered normal wasn't normal. This confused me. Something everyone agreed on and felt so obvious before doesn't seem so obvious anymore. It's strange to grow up believing you understand where you belong, only to discover that the world does not always work with the same rules.  I never really understood this difference until I became friends with more American kids in high school. I met new people and saw new things; essentially, I discovered America after living there for fifteen ye...

Personal Image of my Sister and Mom during a Pooja With my older sister in hand, my parents immigrated to Fremont, California, in 2006. 3 years before I was born. It was my mom’s first time going abroad, leaving her little suburban town in Southern India. As for my dad, he was the first person from his entire village to arrive in the land of the free. My parents understand and speak English daily to a moderate extent; however, my mom’s grammar is mediocre, but it is sufficient nonetheless. The move here proved difficult for them. Beyond the language barrier, they had to pack their entire lives into suitcases filled to just under 50 pounds, bringing only a small piece of the past into the present. My mom and her parents were under the impression that my dad and her would be returning to India after only a year. Spoiler alert: we are still here! My dad moved here because of a job opportunity, and they stayed in an apartment not too far from where we currently live. Although I was not ab...

Source:  The New York Times      In America, news is everywhere. We see it often on television, on social media platforms, and read about it online. There is always something happening from politics and technology to everyday life. But one thing I find interesting is that understanding the news is not only knowing the facts; it is also about understanding the language used to describe a story.      When I read US news, the word choices the writers used can change the way a situation may feel. Words such as freedom, crisis and opportunity can mean many different things. Different news sources may report on the exact same event, but describe it differently. They can focus on the benefits of a decision; while another may emphasize the problem going on. These decisions shape our opinions and influence our emotions all can affect how we see the world.      The United States is home to many diverse cultures with different backgrounds, experien...

A photo my dad took of the sunrise from the inside of a Chinese bullet train, leaving from Beijing to Chengdu, Sichuan.    I’m sick of scrolling onto those cooking videos where the entire thing is a cliche-dense narrative by the author mourning with a possibly AI-generated script about their less-than-ideal childhood and I’m sure I’m not the only one, so bear with me. I remember landing in California, alighting the plane, and seeing new classmates. I still recall crying in the Xi’an International Airport, where my grandpa was practically face-hugged by me, Alien style, as I looked at my ticket in disgust, refusing to leave. I remember my mom had complained United Airlines planes were too cold on the way here, and I remember her frustration being magnified when the flight attendants served ice cream once we landed… while the AC was fully on.       The mandarin word for America directly translates to “Beautiful Country,” but at first, I saw no beauty. In kin...

This Sunday, me and my family will head out on our bi-weekly Costco trip. It is a story as old as time: we came, we conquered, and we bought more than we could consume. On the same day, my sister attending college in Georgia goes with her roommates to Sam’s Club, embarking on a similar mission. If you are not familiar with Sam’s Club , it is essentially a chain of membership-based warehouses that sell a wide range of products in bulk for reduced prices. Sound familiar? The behavior of mass overconsumption is especially prominent in America, building off of patterns first seen in the 1870s during the Gilded Age . The term “gilded” itself means to be coated with gold on the outside, but overall composed of lesser quality of materials. It reflected on the deeper social and political issues that existed at the time.  Sure, now people can buy French perfume and read weekly newspapers, but what about the hundreds of city dwellers that come home to three other families living in their sma...

American flag When people think of a “normal” American accent, they picture a General American one. Smooth, universally known, and often heard in national news broadcasts. However, GA is more of a broadcast ideal than an accepted national reality, and many more accents exist throughout the continental USA. Consider the classic south drawl, characterized by elongated vowels and a melodic cadence and inflection. This evolved from early English settlers mixing with African influences. Compared to the sharp, punchy, New York accent,  with sharp vowel shifts and not pronouncing ‘r’; something that came from centuries of dense urban migration patterns. Accents do a lot more than indicating where someone grew up, they carry someone's personal and cultural identity. When someone speaks with a southern, midwestern, or Boston accent, they echo centuries of their family, their community, and their heritage. For many people, an accent provides a sense of home, and belonging. Though, accents ca...

  Source: Cosmopolitan Magazine          Far and wide, the United States of America has been ascribed the honor of being considered "the" place to be internationally, a melting pot of the entire world that gives anyone with passion The American Dream. My cousins plan their grade school careers around qualifying for American universities; boy bands earn millions of followers to get one man an American visa. They seek the country founded by, for, and run by migrants searching for a better life. But this glorifying title is nothing more than a fake, self-imposed compliment.           Take the image of a melting pot as a source of comfort: one is with their mother in their family home, blending familiar spices into the dish grandmothers and aunts painstakingly taught her to make, the protective weight of ancestors' wisdom in each warmly numbing spoonful.            “Look,” the nation says, “look ...

                                                              The Campaign for the College Opportunity 5 APs, who in their right mind would take 5 APs? I mean I did, and so many other students take this amount of APs—even when it is heavily advised against. Somewhere between choosing classes and planning for our future, our surroundings have convinced us that sacrificing our sleep and social lives are worth getting ahead of other students.  The college admissions process in America has transformed almost into an arms race. Students are encouraged to bombard themselves with extracurriculars to outdo one another. From 10 years ago in America taking 3 APs was considered challenging to six APs today. One extracurricular becomes three and people take more and more opportunities to pad their resume. Everything ...

  Frankenchrist   (1985) by Dead Kennedys is where the cited song, "Chicken Farm," originates Run, my little brother Run to the chicken farm. The story of Icarus and his wings is well known, and at this point, a trite tale that I hesitate to even force to resurface. However, no better story describes the events of late. No such thing has made our school and our class identity more dissuading and disgraceful to be with than the Icarian tale of late, igniting with the “Junior Day is Here” post by the student bureaucrats that be. Prompted by critiques, the post eventually saw its deletion, but not before Orwellian measures were taken to also eliminate the discourse as a whole.  From this, it can be synthesized that there is indeed the existence of a student caste system in American High School. Of course, this is often avoided in conversations, whether out of fear, obliviousness, or mutual understanding; I know not. He found a new toy and held it up proud Then i...

                                                                                                 source Language is not just simply about words. We usually use words to express our thoughts and who we are, but what happens when a character barely speaks and still manages to have a personality that is famously recognized around the world? Snoopy, the famous beagle from Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip called Peanuts is exactly that.  Snoopy has a strong personality despite being unable to speak directly to the human characters like Charlie Brown. Instead, the audience can understand Snoopy through his expressive facial expressions and actions. His silence does not stop him from expressing himself, ...

Diaz Family in Stuck in the Middle Growing up, I binged Stuck in the Middle on the norm on YouTube . It follows a girl, Harley Diaz, and her family of nine through their shenanigans and busy suburban life. Harley, having six siblings, was the middle child. The chaotic nature of her family drives her to engineer inventions that solve her family’s everyday problems, such as the “Mom Tracker” and “Cheddar Shirley.” I, too, am the middle child. I have a younger brother, 13 years old, and an older sister, 22 years old. Although growing up and watching this show made me try to relate to Harley, I never was able to. It may be different in a household of nine, but in mine of 5, my voice was never overshadowed or minimized like Harley’s constantly was.  One of the show’s most viral moments was when Harley said if she was a day, she would be “Wednesday.” The most overlooked, ignored day of the week because her parents forgot her birthday. (This segment went viral because Harley, played by J...

source We are so used to thinking that every argument has a winner and a loser. Someone is right, someone is wrong, someone is identified as the victim, and someone is the person to blame. We pick a side, defend it, and sometimes we hold onto it so tightly that we forget there are real people standing on both sides of the argument. But what if there isn't always a right side? And that disagreement doesn't identify who or what kind of person that person is completely? Sometimes, two people can both be right. Sometimes, two people can both have valid feelings, valid reasons, and valid points, and still end up hurting each other. It just didn't work well because their expectations and circumstances simply did not fit together. I think about it like two people who love each other but want completely different futures: one wants to get married and have children, and the other wants to focus on their career and doesn't want children at all. Neither person is wrong for wanting...

Me (left) and my sister Anika (right)                I remember (when I was about 7) the day I learned what "exasperated" meant. My sister had been (like all younger siblings) doing whatever I wanted to do before I could, from showering to choosing a couch cushion to playing with the same legos. She chased me around the whole day in a way that made me have to fight just to use my favorite blanket.                 My mom has on camera this very specific moment, when Anika had commandeered this one Dora the Explorer -themed toy guitar (stashing it only God-knows-where), and I turned and muttered, “I’m tired .” My mom, camera shaking from laughter at my very important struggles, simply told me not to look so exasperated and just go play with her. Even without photographic evidence, this moment was a really foundational moment in my life; it was as though unlocking this new vocabulary flipped a s...

As of this year, I have two cats. I got my first cat Mr. Mittens during COVID after my friend informed me that her outdoor cat had given birth. She Facetimed me and pointed her camera towards the crate of squirmy little baby kittens, and asked me if I was interested in adopting one. In the corner, I saw the runt of the litter, a grey and white little scruff-ball, and I immediately knew he was the one. After some serious convincing and discussion with my parents, we took Mr. Mittens home. I have always been closer with Mittens than the rest of my family, mostly because I was his primary caretaker.  As a result, when he got older and had access to the entire house, he would follow me around all day, observing my conversations. He got into the habit of responding to me when I paused between sentences, like we were genuinely exchanging thoughts. Eventually, my cat grew extremely talkative. He had a voice, and he was determined to make sure everyone heard it. Locked out of my room? He’d...

Saharsh in 2017 My name is Saharsh; in Sanskrit, it means happiness or joy. I have known the meaning of my name for as long as I can remember. I have tried to live up to the meaning of my name.  Growing up, I always felt like I was supposed to be a happy person—whenever I was mad, my parents would tell me that I had to be happy because of my name. At the time, I would just disregard my parents, but those comments really stuck with me more than I realized. I wanted to be someone who could make other people laugh and stay positive even when I am not feeling the best. Obviously, I am not happy all the time. But I usually try to make a joke or find something to laugh about—it has become an integral part of my personality. If a conversation becomes awkward, I just say something stupid to make everyone laugh. Sometimes I wonder if that is my personality being happy, or if I have spent my entire life trying to become the meaning of my name. This made me realize how small things like a nam...

  Indigenous People are not a monolith. The U.S. Census still lists “American Indian or Alaska Native” as an exonym to refer to the native inhabitants of America. But words change, and how do these people view this culture war themselves? Christopher Columbus makes landfall on San Salvador in the Bahamas; October 12, 1492. With him, he brings smallpox, measles, typhus and so much more. 90 percent of the Native population would die in 100 years. As a young America trekked westward, the Indian Removal acts are enacted, and the U.S. government carves out “reservations” for Indigenous People, the most barren, sparse, and infertile areas of land across the entire United States. An entire continent's population is reduced to a shell of itself; and “Indians” are put on the backburner for the growing nation. For millenia, before the arrival of Western Europeans in the Americas, there was no Pan-Indian identity, there was no Indians, there was no reservations, and there was no Native Americ...