Archive

    • Get Paid to Pursue Happiness

      The United States needs to drastically overhaul its time off system for all workers. A week ago, Wednesday, March 31st, I was off from work. It was a state holiday in California (as well as in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin). For those states, March 31st is César Chávez Day and public offices are closed. The…

    • My Private Digital Rebellion

      An exploration into how I fight against mess and anxiety by keeping a neatly ordered online life. Content warning: this post contains discussion of mental illness. I am not an organized person. Ask anyone who has seen my living spaces over the years — parents, college roommates, girlfriends, my roommate’s dog — and they will…

    • The Allure of March Madness

      It’s the most wonderful time of the year. March Madness is ubiquitous. Your favorite website is certainly running a bracket right now, pitting everything from beers to rock bands against each other in an easily digestible, engagement-driven format. There is a certain magic inherent to March if you grew up in a community built around…

    • An Anxiety Hypothetical

      Content warning: this post contains discussions of mental illness. This is also the weirdest post I have ever written. A college acceptance should be one of the proudest moments of a young life. Instead, Twitter makes it easy for you to search #Harvard2025, where you might find out that, damn, the president of your rival…

    • Rest in Peace, Irish Chocolate

      Too many football players are lost too soon. Content warning for today’s post: Contains disscussions of mental illness and suicide Louis Nix III inspired a lot of my current interests. He committed to a Notre Dame football team with no coach on December 1, 2009. Three years later, he anchored a defensive line that led…

    • A Brief History of the National Anthem and Sports

      If you’ve ever wondered why the anthem is played before every professional sporting contest, this is the post for you. The national anthem has been played before every sporting event I have watched on TV, participated in, or attended across almost all levels of athletics, from high school varsity to the pros. Since National Football…

    • Will the Amazon Warehouse Help Syracuse?

      I fear the city learned nothing from Destiny USA. When I first moved to South Bend from Syracuse, I was struck by the parallels between the two cities. Both are small, Rust Belt-adjacent communities that receive an inordinate amount of snow whose economics are often dominated by the universities they host. In 2020, I became…

    • Sports Leagues as Activists

      Every so often, the leagues get it right You don’t have to be a football fan to recognize the name Colin Kaepernick. Whether your grandparents had Fox News on the last time you visited or you dared to enter the comments section of an article about the June 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, the quarterback…

    • The Indignities Suffered by MLK Day

      Even in death, states disrespect the Reverend Doctor. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created as a federal holiday by Congress in 1986. The holiday was proposed in 1968 by Representative John Conyers, fell five House of Representatives votes short of approval in 1979 despite support from President Jimmy Carter, and was recognized by 17…

    • The Books I Read in 2020

      Having fun/isn’t hard/when you’ve got/a library card As I move away from the academic space, I am working to rediscover reading for pleasure. I enjoyed reading from a young age – my mother likes to tell me the story of when I stole her copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and hid it…