As a Liberal arts student, people expect me to be as ‘woke’ as possible and more often than not, I have to deliver. Like when someone from my Political Economy class curses Capitalism because they got charged for selling cheap counterfeit merchandise for a profit (Oh, the irony!) or when I see someone wearing (Ahem!) a red MAGA cap. I’m always as outspoken as I can be, but if I’m being true to myself, the only place (unfortunately) that I feel comfortable being outspoken in, happens to be the same place many avoid saying anything in- Social Media. I post Instagram stories about articles I have read all the time and hope more people would connect to my issues or become aware of phenomena they doubted the existence of. 99% of the time, it’s really rewarding but that 1% is a grey area where people take offense to stuff I say because they don’t understand it, don’t know much about it or genuinely think my opinion on it isn’t well-informed (Which it is, sometimes, because I’m still learning.).
So here are some articles I feel strongly about (YES, I REALLY LOVE BUBBLE TEA!). Here’s hoping you find them interesting!
- The Mistake I Made With My Grieving Friend
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By Celeste Headlee
Published by Huffpost
Death and loss are inevitable events in life and for many, the death of a loved one is nothing less than a life-changing event in itself. This article, written by Celeste Headlee starts as a lesson on how to help someone who’s in mourning but ended as a lesson in just being supportive. It struck a chord with me because I identify as someone who has always prioritized other people and their problems way above mine. It was a reverse lesson in deconstructing what had been happening to me all this while as too often in our lives, we take up conversational space for ourselves when chatting to people we know and love but it’s important to keep in mind that, especially when someone’s struggling with something, you don’t want to make the conversation a struggle too. Life is not a competition in who has it better or worse.
- I’ve Never Thanked My Parents for Anything
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By Deepak Singh
Published by The Atlantic
If ‘Cultural Shock’ is a real response to a change of cultures, consider this writer culturally shook as they talk about 2 cultures that are close to my heart- Indian and American. At first, I couldn’t reconcile with the fact that someone from my country (India) didn’t thank people enough since ‘Thank you’ is something I and my immediate family cannot live without saying. I often find myself thanking people for stuff I clearly did for them and now that I’m here in America, they often stare at me quizzically waiting for my gratitude to subside so they can express their own. But, on reading the article further, I realized saying thank you even in India right now is just as much an exercise in being culturally ‘forward’ (Read: Western), as is wearing a pair of jeans. I’ve never heard anyone except my Hindi instructors back in high school thank anyone in Hindi which says a lot about the way Indians have gestures and expressions for everything. Thanking people isn’t just limited to 2 words, a smile and a favor in return suit the population much more than western verbal ideas like thank you.
- How Instagram Stories Dictate the New Rules of Love
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By Alisha Sachdev
Published by Arré
As a person who has a hard time saying no when an ex says they want to be friends after breaking up, I relate to this QUITE a bit. But the odd thing is: even if we’re both engaged in each other’s social media, our conversations justify our disinterest in each other now which is why we choose not to talk at all. Subjectivity apart, the confusion in this article is valid and distressing because it’s written in a way that calls our generation out for being hypocritical when we claim we don’t care about our social media image. Validation isn’t just stuck to Tinder and Bumble in 2019, and unfortunately, romantic relationships are a huge source of it, thanks to pop culture. Therapy has helped me process this constant need for validation greatly but a cute compliment still sticks with me like a brave octopus would, making me wonder (on a surface level) if I still have a taste for sweet sweet Validation. After all, just because they voted on a poll in my story which asked everyone to choose between calling me cute or wonderful, my crush choosing wonderful is not a cry for love.
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Casual Racism is a Fact of Life for International Students – They Deserve Better
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By Sam Phan
Published by The Guardian
A disappointingly short read for a subject that deserves to be understood especially at institutions for higher education, this article is an odd way of looking at something that international students face since it has been written by someone who wasn’t an international student themself. This made me wonder if it would have gotten the same attention if the writer was an international student but the fact remains, racism at institutions and institutionalized racism are both alive and well all across the world on some level. As an international student myself, I have been asked tons of times by people on campus how I can speak English so well and why my accent sounds so different from what people think an Indian accent should sound like. It is ridiculous that Appu from The Simpsons is still the gold standard for an Indian accent and anybody who doesn’t sound like him is treated as an exception when in fact, Appu is a cartoon character voiced by someone as American as Alfredo Sauce. Tarnishing the image of a certain population, solely because the majority of the population ‘thinks’ they speak a certain way is downright ridiculous. I share this with you with hopes that maybe someday down the line International Students would have one less thing to worry about.
- Why I Need a Woman of Color Therapist
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By Gloria Oladipo
Published by Teen Vogue
Therapy is complicated. Mental health is something that can make or break a person’s will to live and therapy is supposed to help in weeding out issues that the person might be encountering. But, like all things in life, you need to have the right tools and experience to work towards helping solve a problem. This article mainly talks about therapy as a way of finding someone that can relate to your issues. Going for therapy sessions these past few months has only made me realize how empty not having the first-hand experience makes your words sound. Eating disorders, body dysmorphia, racism, xenophobia, are all issues many of us go through and to have a person much older to us advising us based on textbook knowledge that they have never experienced themselves in the real world is the last thing any of us want.
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A 14 year-old girl Was Allegedly Hospitalized For Hundreds of Bubble Tea Balls Clogging Her Stomach
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By Jasmine Gomez
Published by Seventeen Magazine
This was straight-up HORRIFYING…..for like twenty seconds because I was getting late to acquire my daily dose of Bubble tea. I found myself wishing this was fake news for the first time in my life but unfortunately, events like these happen every now and then (tHiS Iz LyF). This made me reflect on my bubble tea intake which has gotten worse with time. Within 20 minutes of accidentally sharing this in a friend group, my friends had me worrying that I’ll die a really awkward death getting choked on a bubble but I was quick to realize that I can choke on literally anything, any second and pass away and as depressing as that sounds, it also defeats the purpose of this article which, it seems, is nothing more than temporarily horrifying people for something that can happen to anyone because of literally anything.
Those were my top picks for now. I believe the best way to remember things is to think about them enough to know how you feel about them.
Go ahead and read those articles!