Rainbow flags hang from the walls of the cafeteria. I speak before a group of high school students about sustainable urban transit. I line up with four hundred thousand people on 8th Avenue to march for environmental action. These are the moments that have defined my life over the past two years. But they were only made possible by the one instant when I defied my own fear and told myself the truth. In that moment, facing the bathroom mirror,...

While exploring Brown, I attended Professor Oliver's class "Society and Population in Ancient Greece." I felt at home in this small seminar. Each student was eager to learn and contributed to class discussion. Professor Oliver didn't just teach, but challenged his students to develop their own theories about population growth in the Peloponnesus. My conversations with Professors Zimmt and Seto validated my interest in chemistry research. During the Physical Sciences tour, I saw the extent and sophistication of Brown's laboratories...

On Tuesdays after school, when everyone else is going home, I go over to the Carriage House with Lily and Nick. At the door, we're welcomed with an enthusiastic "xaire!" from Mr. Gudgel and ushered into a world of tragedy, comedy and polytonic Greek. The Carriage House has always been our temple for Latin. It's where we first discovered etymology, discussed the Roman Emperors with whom we identified most, and sang songs like Simon and Garfunkel's Hera Robinson and Carly...

I have always resided on Caldwell Drive. But in my 16th year, I made a huge move. I took control of my own life and started living out of the closet. Finally daring to slide the door open and peer between the heavy layers of flannel, I marveled at how large the world could be for me. I felt naked exposing my sexual orientation to family and friends. But I could breathe at last, free from the suffocating piles of...

When my sister finally gave me her Netflix password this summer, I immediately binge watched the first season of Gossip Girl. It's a juicy show. But as I started in on episode twelve, the monotonous storyline lost my interest. Just as the predictable excitement of those first few episodes kept me watching, the consistency of periodic trends and dactylic hexameter had hooked me on Chemistry and the Classics. For me, their organized foundations were perfectly comprehensible. But after an AP...

I’ve always been excited by the nature of our world. I wonder why water droplets on a tabletop will suddenly coalesce when they touch. I wonder what makes rock solid, and what makes air not. Chemistry is able to explain my wonderings. People answer these questions for a living. I realized this when I toured Merck Laboratories during the Merck State Science Day award ceremony. Holding a high-pressure liquid chromatography cylinder, I understood that in my hands lay a...

Electrochemical cells never made much sense to me. Mathematically, half-cell potentials added up, but I didn't understand how the flow of current could induce a chemical change in a metallic anode or cathode. While reading Chapter 21, “Electrochemistry,” for my AP Chemistry exam, I was filled with dread. I attacked the chapter with flashcards and diagrams, without success. But I wouldn’t let the textbook defeat me. Rummaging through my desk, I found two small metal frogs and a handful of...