Content warning: This story contains language that pertains to negative body image and eating disorders.   The reflection in the mirror wasn’t mine. Staring at this altered image of myself,...

Five. Four. Three. Two. One. I watch as the numbers on the microwave tick down and hear the three loud beeps that have been ingrained in my mind, signaling that my meal is done. I grab my pesto tortellini,...

“Sonya, how are you doing?”  “Can you stay after class?”  “Can you explain the situation in Ukraine to me?”  As one of the few Ukrainian students at Whitman, my teachers and classmates...

The buzz is inescapable. Whether you’re overhearing classmates in the hallways, chatting with friends in the commons or scrolling through your “For You” page on TikTok, one television show seems...

Only a ripple of water trails behind the rutter of my 20-foot long sea kayak. My sunkissed knuckles clutch my paddle tightly, my hands blistered from the repetitive left-right motion needed to propel my...

One student’s name has been changed for anonymity. Season three of Netflix’s British teen comedy “Sex Education” premiered on Sept. 17. The series follows awkward high school student Otis Milburn,...

Searching for a television show that my two younger sisters and I can all enjoy is never an easy feat, especially considering there’s an age gap of almost seven years between me and the youngest. There's...

On September 1, Texas passed the strictest anti-abortion law since the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a woman’s right to reproductive choice. The new legislation, which took effect...

On September 8, 2013 — my 9th birthday — I was given a bright red CD player and, coincidentally, Taylor Swift’s album “Red.” Immediately after receiving the gifts, I spent hours dancing and singing...

At 5:30 p.m. — right on cue — I hear the crank of the garage door open from my bedroom; my parents are home from work. Before March of 2020, I would run downstairs and embrace each of them in a hug...

From the ages of nine to 13, I based my bedroom decorations on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Hogwarts house decals covered my walls, and a platform 9 ¾ sign hung on my door. My magic wand from...

I am not a sports buff, to say the very least. My peers always chose me last for scrimmages in gym class. I didn’t grow up watching sports, and even today I don’t tune into football or baseball games...