The Sunday brunch was long ago created by the American dad. That fact alone should make you cautious; the American dad is an unpredictable and crafty creature. He invented brunch solely to be commended after he laboured. It was paradoxical, then, when my non-American father decided that our family would join the waffleeating, pancake-hungry members of the Sunday Brunch Club because he simply could not cook. I assumed it was an attempt to assimilate with American traditions. Since it was...

The darkness and silence was stifling. I rocked on my feet, trying to calm my racing mind, but I could only see those embossed letters. Miami International Piano Festival: Audition. The fear of disappointing myself - not performing - unnerved me. Time after time, my fingers faltered as wellpracticed pieces vanished from my mind once I sat in front of the keys. Time after time, I was crestfallen as expressionless faces uttered rejections and apologies. I stepped forward as the...

Brown is at an intellectual crossroads where freedom meets discipline. The Open-Curriculum will offer the autonomy I crave by allowing me to pave my own road through college. If I wish to dabble in art history while doing a double-concentration and travelling abroad, then by all means I’d be able to. Brown’s rejection of the polarization between liberal arts and sciences provides a challenging, collaborative academic environment as well. I’d love to find the link between the...

I am a creature of two worlds. Inextricably tied to both the sciences and humanities, I’ve marveled at minuscule biological interactions and admired how Debussy’s tranquility encouraged dreams and hopes at Broward- General’s Pediatric-Oncology-Unit. My failure to belong solely to my ‘left’ or ‘right’ brain led me to dedicate myself to interdisciplinary notions. Unsurprisingly, Brown’s distinctive Science-and-Society major bridges between the sciences and humanities and personifies the cross-disciplinary flexibility that I relish. I know S&S...

I was born in the salty sea air of balmy Miami, Florida. When I was four, my parents decided to pack up and move us to Sydney, Australia in search of better business and in an attempt to avoid anti-Muslim sentiment following 9/11. We lived in a snug suburb named Surry Hills where I essentially spent the rest of my childhood. For seven years, I grew up wading in tide pools, moving to music in Aboriginal dance, and intimately connecting with...

Quiz-Bowl’s collaboration of students from all across campus is a rare sight. Semiweekly, I sacrifice my sacred lunch-period to discuss everything from Freud to FIFA with a hodgepodge of other teenagers. To my right sits a pre-law student enthralled with astrophysics. To my left is a photography sophomore who loves Model UN. In front of me, a six-foot-tall football-player well-versed in art laughs with an theatre-loving lacrosse-player. Through Quiz-Bowl, I’ve expanded my social circle to include people I�...

Sliding open the glass door quietly, I tiptoed inside and gingerly pushed back the curtains. I tried balancing the board games on one hand but - too late! - they toppled and landed with a crash. Michaela woke up and smiled contagiously as I picked up Candyland and laid it out. Though Michaela was only eight and rarely spoke, she’d mastered every video and board game in the unit. By the time I left, the sky was dark and...

When I walked through the door, I greeted thirty-four beaming faces. I gave a spiel on density differences and convection currents, then rolled an emptied tea-bag and positioned it upright on the table. With a warning about the danger of open flames, I lit it. Children are naturally curious, but as science advances year after year, failing to grasp fundamental ideas makes it seem challenging. In our rapidly transforming world, being ‘science-literate’ has become a necessity for children. At-risk youth...

I was four. Sitting uncomfortably on the piano stool, I forced my hot and bothered fingers into submission. Somewhere in my naïve mind, I knew that to learn something at my mother’s behest would force me unwillingly out of the soothing haziness of childhood. As I continued, however, scales, melodies, and harmonies bore me on their wings and I learned to love the music I could create from mere strings and ivory. Thirteen years later, I found myself...

–1– People are sweet, stupid, and fickle-minded. If we’re not too busy waging war, our minds are constantly focused towards the past, what we could or could not obtain, or what should have or could have happened. The lovable thing about human nature is that we rarely ever change; there’s a reason that the aphorism “history repeats itself” exists. We hold onto threads linking to the past that barely breathe anymore. We retain objects for so long past their...

I find it slightly paradoxical that every time I came across yet another temperamental college applicant bemoaning UChicago’s unorthodox supplements, I became even more intrigued. Then, when my mailbox (electronic and otherwise) was barraged with the first few college brochures and postcards, UChicago caught my eye again. Like a maiden courted by her knight in shining [maroon] armour, I was captivated. Since my days as a clumsy elementary-school student, I’ve consistently been told that there is always a �...

The year of 2016 was a travesty, burlesque, and parody rolled into one. In order to soothe my high-strung emotions about this mess of an year, I’m holding an end-of-the-year tea party. It’ll be an event challenging the magnitudes of both the Mad Hatter’s and Boston’s. Starting off with invitations, I’ll send two to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. I’d love to [non-sadistically] watch them argue over which detective is better - Holmes...

Medicine is not solely defined in scientific terms. The meandering history of its evolution over millennia as well as its indispensable global influence are two of medicine’s most integral components. As an aspiring cardiac surgeon, I also see chemistry as a stepping-stone to a refined form of thinking that would enable me to find solutions (not just the aqueous kind) to complex queries. On the other hand, music offers a distinctly unique world that counteracts my other left-brain-centric interests,...

From Handsome Dan’s adventures to the Voynich Manuscript’s enigmas, my fingers itch to pick apart Yale. I want to walk in Yale’s beloved apple orchard and breathe in the crisp scent of manuscripts at the Beinecke. At some schools, I’d reluctantly have to live on campus. At Yale, I would get to live on campus. Plus, Yale’s unique fine arts emphasis alongside the calibre of opportunities is impossible for me to deny. Yale unites and...

The children at Broward Health’s Pediatric Oncology Unit are real life superheroes. I find it awe-inspiring that through thick and thin for months or years, they always have smiles on their faces.

Marie Curie was a giant in the male-dominated fields of math and science. I want to experience exactly when radium and polonium’s humbling beauty taught her that we still have secrets left to unearth.

The Art of Con-lang: from Quenya & Klingon to Esperanto & Solresol. (Who knows - perhaps the students in my class will be able to decipher the Voynich Manuscript!)

Multilingualism, organization, cooking skills, a supportive shoulder, good music, bad dancing, distinct culture, words of experience, and exam study sessions. Essentially, a friendship of a lifetime.

I folded my white-ochre streaked arms in the bird-position and bent my knees, looking down at the ground. A bead of cold sweat trickled down my neck as I tensed up, waiting for the clapsticks. Click - and I sprung into action. Aboriginal dance is inherently part of Australian culture. The city of Sydney’s murals showcase dot-paintings and the streets ring with elemental Aboriginal music. It isn’t necessary to have aboriginal blood to feel part of the community;...

Two summers ago, I was ready to give up. My fingers ached and I couldn’t find the will to sit rod-straight on the bench. I was done with pain and forcing myself to play the simplest scales, so even though I loved creating music, I began to bid goodbye to a lifelong pursuit of piano. That’s when I encountered Fantaisie-Impromptu. I’ve never had any love for Chopin, so my infatuation with the one piece he regretted was...