I was lucky. I was able to sit down with my mum and tell her how scared I was. The people I love supported and watched out for me. When I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t see, my dad was there to drive me […]
Off the Board
Becoming a Canadian in Canada
Before I went on exchange last winter, my mum sewed a small Canadian flag to my backpack. I was apprehensive: It felt like a a bold, definitive declaration of my nationality. As an anonymous traveller, your country of origin comes to define you, and I wasn’t sure I was ready […]
“But, you don’t seem autistic!”
Last October, my best friend, who has autism, told me that he thought I might be on the spectrum. I was skeptical: I’m not into trains, I take turns in a conversation, and I’m good at giving relationship advice; I’m not autistic. Still, his comment prompted me to do some […]
Reflecting on the Quebec mosque shooting two years later
I remember crying when I first heard about the Quebec City Mosque shooting. I saw the faces of my father, my uncles, and my friends in the faces of the victims. I remember asking how this could have happened in a country that claims to value immigrants and diversity. I […]
Light your academic fire
In the first few sessions of every graduate seminar I’ve taken at McGill, a particular routine has unfolded without fail: The class goes around the table introducing themselves, their progress in the program, and how their research interests relate to the course. When my turn comes, I take a deep […]
Pork before synagogue: Growing up at a cultural crossroads
Born in Queens, my mom was raised in Westchester county, New York, a predominantly-Jewish area surrounded by fellow first and second-generation Ashkenazi relatives. Meanwhile, my Arkansas-born father was growing up with Methodist parents who have deep southern roots and distant Scottish ancestry. So, when they married in 1992, a strange […]
One-tweet wonder
The thought of achieving any form of popularity had always seemed light-years away for someone like myself who is accustomed to mediocrity. I had never found the prospect of widespread admiration particularly attractive to begin with. As cliché as it sounds, external validation has always seemed a little shallow to […]
What my parents’ polyamory taught me
It was a peculiar sequence of events: I remember walking downstairs and seeing my mother lying down with someone else in our living room. I remember my dad coming home from yet another business trip. It had been about two weeks since I’d last seen him. I remember sitting in […]
The elephant in the room
Among other deeply instilled habits I’ve developed as a socially-anxious introvert, I make a point of not sharing my political opinions. Somewhere in the midst of the chaotic depression of high school, I found myself a political outsider in my liberal home state of Massachusetts. I was convinced I would […]
The art in athleticism
When I was eight years old, I got the first hit of my competitive softball career. I don’t remember where I hit the ball to, but I remember standing tall on second base, feeling shock, pride, and pure happiness: An exhilarating combination. Hits came more regularly after that. I spent […]
Latest
Tribune Tries: Fencing
December 6, 2019
Skin deep
December 3, 2019
The haphazard world of scientific research funding
December 3, 2019
The gut microbiome in disease and health
December 3, 2019
Learning to love physics
December 3, 2019
