Looking around the top of the trail, I couldn’t see anyone in my ski group. I was lost again. How was I always so slow? I hurried down the slope to the lift, but my group wasn’t there, either. My instructor wouldn’t leave me behind, right? Luckily, my instructors had drilled a reminder in my head for years: if I ever got lost, ask someone in a red Stratton jacket to help. At the mountain base, there...

For me, almost every day ends the exact same way– lifting up a lid from a lobster pot on the stove with an oven-mitted claw, and having white hot steam envelop my face. No, I’m not making lobster every night. Once the steam dissipates, pure, perfectly popped corn kernels fill the pot to the brim. Why do I make popcorn on the stove? Because the popcorn is lighter, each kernel is perfectly coated with a thin layer of oil,...

Five 420 boats are in front of mine: two with the same white and green sails as my own, and three with yellow accents. Indian Harbor Yacht Club is behind them, its anchored boats tiny in the distance. The six of us bob in the green Long Island Sound waves, rocking in the light breeze. I count six orange floating marks and two anchored boats, arranged to form the digital-N course. As the name suggests, the course resembles the uppercase letter,...

During my high school career, I had chased after going to an Ivy League school, much like the rest of my peers (I went to a very rigorous college preparatory school). However, when it came down to choosing a school, I loved the idea of going to...