The FAFSA provides a preview of boring, adult financial forms one must fill out every year. While I still haven’t done my own taxes, referring to my parent’s taxes hints at a future one-sided relationship with numbers; in the wake of smartphones, math and numbers...
As the world crumbled below my feet, collapsing into itself and swallowing me whole, I grasped for fragments who I was. Name? Raquel, I think. I was born in Fremont, I think. Or was it Alameda? Age? The beach trip I took to celebrate my 20 years last March. Scattered...
This was going to be my year. Or at least, I had told myself it would. August and September have visited without so much as leaving a tea ring on my coffee table. October has already stood up, ready to say goodbye, and will soon be leaving by the same door. Do I have...
Cold Summers & Red Lakes -- A July in Bolivia Check this video out to learn about how grants made my summer memorable and full of learning experiences!
On an unexceptional summer day, one of those days that feels like it could have been yesterday, or the day before that, who knows- I reached over to my bookshelf and pulled out my high school yearbook. Names I forgot existed flooded my brain with memories I had...
Say one is holding a college brochure- what sections of the brochure are most likely to grab and maintain one’s attention? It could be the Alumni section, for ambitious types striving to bump shoulders with the shakers and movers of the country. Maybe the brochure is...
Reed during finals week becomes a raw, ugly version of itself- a version we all dreaded would appear after it waited simmering silently for a semester, subdued by the distracting stress brought upon by quotidian college life: tests, periodical essays, and social life...
It’s been three semesters and I still don’t know how to “do college” right. I attended an amazing summer program that prepares inner-city students for college-level work and professional networking for two consecutive summers before college, yet there are still trap...
Three hours. Three hours, at most, was how long I napped before I checked the election results on November 8th. Throughout the day I had been quietly holding my breath and hoping for the best. Going to work, attending class. The usual. Hillary Clinton had to win,...
Mentor, mentee- I’ve been both, and I honestly couldn’t say from which role I’ve learned the most from. Mentors have been guiding me since high school, and the scholastic trajectory they set me on led me to where I have set root to thrive- college. As a...