MERAKI
DIGEST
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NEW ARRIVALS
“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
－ Oscar Wilde
Maybe The Real College Was the Friends We Made Along the Way
Before coming to the States, I envisioned my life as an international student to be exciting, thrilling at times, and adventurous. Sure, there are days when I’m making all sorts of friends and trying my best to remember everyone’s names, but there are also days when I feel so discouraged and overwhelmed by all the social interactions that I’ll go through my entire day without saying a single word. Ultimately, though, I was able to get through the rough times when I learned that simply doing what you love is what brings loving people around you.
Atlas of the Heart
When I decided to major in Cognitive Systems at University of British Columbia, I was baffled by how this intensely multidisciplinary program could encompass seemingly disparate fields from computer science to psychology to linguistics. It was only in my fifth year that I was able to start drawing pathways connecting these nodes which I had thought were wildly different. Like filling in a blank map, I realized that with every experience, good and bad, I was coming to a greater understanding of my mind and my soul—I was charting the atlas of my heart…
The Girl Who Lived Freshman Year Twice
Everyone obsesses over college rankings, and they’re the reason I ended up transferring from UC Irvine to UCLA. After I transferred, however, I realized that I had left something precious behind, something even more important than number rankings...
Winning is Everything
Trick-or-Treat? More Like Fight-or-Flight
In the room I stood paralyzed. My vision struggled to adjust to the endless darkness surrounding me while the voice in my brain yelled, ‘GET ME OUT OF HERE, NOW.’