Music is like a puzzle. Fit all of the elements of harmony together, and you'll be rewarded with a cohesive image; fit only a few of the elements together, and you'll be rewarded with a distorted collection of dots with no more significance than a heavily pixelated computer screen. Yet if I were to describe my experiences as a pianist before high school using one comparison, I would say that, despite all of the competitions I had won, they really...

A Worldly Dish As I step into my kitchen, the poignant sweet-spiciness of processed soy, fermented bean paste, and frying pork drifts casually through the air before knocking out my nasal passages with a brutally precise, ringside-seat-worthy punch. It’s mapo doufu: a fragile mound of creamy-white tofu and minced pork basking in an oasis of chili sauce so deep that it resembles a collection of clouds being illuminated by the setting sun. The characteristic that distinguishes mapo doufu as...

For much of my childhood, my piano instructors taught that increasing exposure to classical music would result in increasing musical inspiration. The profundity of this advice cannot be denied: I detect the haunting melodies of Stravinsky's Firebird in summer monsoons, describe the tempo of falling raindrops as allegro. Classical music has consequently become a constant as intrinsic to my life as breathing. The musical inspiration that I derive solely from this genre, however, does not demonstrate cultural awareness, and both...

While every academic institution certainly has its own merits, I have come to love Duke for the singular combination of interconnectedness, compassion, and resourcefulness that both its students and faculty demonstrate. Becoming a Blue Devil not only means that I can discuss the outcome of the latest Quidditch match with fellow students while walking back to East Campus after classes, but also that I can rant about my interest in cultural geography and music to any other student on campusâ€...

If Shakespeare could visit the University of Pennsylvania, he would no doubt pronounce the entire campus a stage on which men and women prepare to become catalysts of change. Although I am not Shakespeare, even I can foresee that incorporating the Sectors of Knowledge and Foundational Approaches into my college education would not only grant me the gift of being able to intellectually connect with fellow students across all disciplines, but would also encourage me to analyze information from different...