Living in the moment

I remember standing in a room with two other people, who were probably my mom and sister, when my grandma came in. She walked towards the yellow machine that served multiple hot drinks, just like the one at the Riverside School, but before she could reach it, she collapsed.

Read More
Second-guessing

Second-guessing, that's my best skill, unable to let go of my skepticism I've built relationships off of mistrust. My mind racing, calculating what ifs, fearful of being hurt, I become my doubts. 

Read More
The art of failing

 As the van pulled up into the school for the blind, my eyes wandered to grasp the unfamiliar setting before me. Goosebumps appeared on my tanned arms while my mind jumped through the puddles of confusion bubbling inside.

Read More
Fearless from the Heart

Self-confidence and determined endeavor are qualities that are not unheard of when one is trying to achieve a particular goal. I have been told a countless amount of times to “believe in myself,” or to “try harder,” and these suggestions were only amplified in my time at Andover, a place that often serves as an accentuated microcosm of an individualistic society. These qualities had been to me an obvious component of the recipe for achieving a type of perfection, be it in academics, social capital, leadership qualities, fearlessness and the list goes on.

Read More
A Universe Aware

“What’s meant to fail will fail / What’s meant to soar will soar” —Nimo

Sitting cross-legged on a smooth stone floor, socks and shoes shed, the words of Nimo’s seed-planting song overpowered the ubiquitous hum of scattered fans.

Read More
My Key to Happiness

I was really surprised when they asked us “What is your superpower?” at the beginning of their presentation on ‘Design For Change’. Looking around, I noticed that the other Niswarth students were also a little bit confused by the question. Didn’t people usually ask, “If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?”

Read More
Quantitative Love

I grew up with a shallow perception of love. I saw love as a fleeting feeling of attraction, a materialistic concept accompanied by a box of chocolates with a bouquet of flowers. Only now have I come to realize, love is trust. Love is empathy. Love is compassion.

Read More
Calculated Lifestyle

I was raised to expect. If I was to do something, I was to get something in return. It was an engrained mechanism, a way of thinking that emerged as soon as I regurgitated a correct answer in the classroom and was rewarded with stickers, 100 percent marks, a promise of future success. Life was an endless transaction of motivations, actions and assumptions based on the sole idea that the determination of my personal merit and self-worth relied in how much I received.

Read More