3. Mozarella

  Every kid has dreamed about having superpowers. Wishing for a supernatural ability might as well be a rite of passage for all children with how common it is. Whether it was the ability of flight or invisibility or super-strength or teleportation, superpowers were always something that children yearned for. But, if superpowers were indeed real, how would our lives change? I’ve read lots of series that explore worlds where people have superpowers, one of which was the infamous My Hero Academia (MHA). In My Hero, almost everyone in the world is born with a superpower, but contrary to what people may think would occur, the series explores the negative effects of this change. Discrimination against people with “villainous” or “freaky” superpowers is highlighted, as well as how the rare few without superpowers are treated by society. In fact, a large part of the later storyline revolves around how their society’s system of superheroes and villains caused people to become villains due t...

  “Try and fail, but never fail to try,” beautiful line I know. I live by this everyday because I realized a long time ago that I’m not a one shot wonder kid. Failing is ingrained in me, falling on my face both publicly and privately have become good friends of mine. My friends tell me I have an insane lack of social anxiety and they think I’ve always been like this, but that's not true. The reason I am like this is because in the second grade, my teacher Ms.Fischal taught us about the power of yet.  Woah.  I know, as a second 7 or 8 year old (6/7 🤣🤑) that was an absolute revelation. While the exact details of that conversation are foggy (sorry as I continue to age my memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be 😝) what I do know is that she told us that time is our best friend and patience is a virtue (I know a real Mrs.Miyagi). As cheesy as it sounds, I see it all the time in movies. All the great love stories past and present, the protagonists find their true love at the ...

When I was going into freshman year (or maybe it was in the middle of the year, I don’t really remember), my parents gave me a talk. I vaguely remember the context being that I wasn’t trying hard enough (as in I was barely trying, that was completely my fault), but in summary, I wasn’t doing so hot in my classes. Growing up in an Asian household, “talks” are common. I’ve sort of grown fond of these, as some of the most memorable lines and powerful lessons I’ve learned have come from them. But of all the disciplinary speeches I’ve been on the receiving end of, this was the one I remember the most. “You are insignificant.” Who was I to say that I could just take life easy? Was I the next Einstein? I lived most of my life a breeze, with elementary school and middle school being quite literally, impossible to fail (I still remember bringing up a class’s grade from a 59% to a 90% in a single quarter). Why was I the one given these privileges? Who said I deserved these things? I was given th...

                               Image Citation  I wonder how much trust you have to have in yourself to embark on multiple suicide missions each year, even with a wife and two kids at home? Alex Honnold is arguably the best free solo rock climber who ever lived. He regularly embarks on gargantuan climbs in some of the hardest places in the world…without any protective gear. I wonder if the adrenaline and epinephrine of spraying bullets and blood for years at a time makes returning to “normal” life fall severely flat compared to the glory of your prime years? On May 2, 2011, members of the infamous Navy SEAL Team Six infiltrated and killed the mastermind behind the terrorist organization al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. The same questions apply to the multitude of people who engage in dangerous and hyperarousing activities such as cave diving and professional boxing . Some people are naturally attra...

  It’s Thursday night, I just came home from Oakland, and it’s 9 P.M. (thanks a lot, mock trial). I should strip my suit, wash off my makeup, and take a long, hot shower…but my idea of unwinding is watching a depressed 50-year-old man perform surgery on a motorcycle crash victim! Yes, for the next month and a half, my after-school routine on Thursday is to spend two or more hours participating in glorified jury duty right after school. When I get home from the Alameda County Administration Building, I indulge in the Emmy-sweeping show The Pitt . Cue the fanfare. The Pitt follows the daily lives of the residents, students, nurses, patients, and doctors who work and come to the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Its employees are always running on empty fuel (and benzodiazepines, but that's only for one guy). Still, they show up at the Pitt (which is the nickname for the center) to treat people, even if they are met with hostility. The major character in this show is…err, not exact...

One of my top ten favorite words is the German loanword Schadenfreude (shah-dun-froy-duh); Cambridge Dictionary defines the word to be “a feeling of pleasure when something bad happens to someone else” where Schaden means “damage” and Freude means “joy.” It’s similar to karma in a sense, but karma is simply cause and effect. Schadenfreude from someone receiving karmic retribution because “they deserve it” is normal, but it’s also applicable in other circumstances. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said “Humor is just Schadenfreude with a clear conscience” and it’s hard to deny that. Laughing at Tom and Jerry or Spongebob Square Pants when watching the shows' respective main characters get nearly-concussed with swirling stars of dizziness above their heads is “damage-joy.” Jokes teasing other people are quite literally jsut laughing at their suffering. Just today, my friend tossed his baton (a 38” long stick with a metal dome) in the air. When he realized he couldn’t catc...

What should we do? How should we tax the rich? Does pineapple belong on pizza? What should our foreign policy be? Does mint chocolate taste good? Do I want to be friends with this person? It seems that no matter what, there’s bound to be some sort of conflict everywhere. We Americans love to disagree. Money is the one exception. Money is power. It is American to love money, and there is no American in the world who doesn’t love money. Heck, just about everyone and their mother loves money. It’s just how society works. Capitalism is as American as cheeseburgers, Ford mustangs, and the bald eagle. Because we have shaped society to revolve around money, money is now synonymous with power. The more money you have, the better things you can buy. Big houses. People. Spaceships. The media. The people that have money have the ability to do everything, and they in turn have power. Now, I’m not complaining about how blatantly unfair this is. I love money too, and if somebody handed me more mone...

  Power is such a simple word for something that describes so much. For a word, pinning down what exactly is power and what it means to have power is quite a challenging task. Power—to me—is the ability to change things.  Whether it is as small as speaking up about something that no one else pointed out, or passing laws that influence an entire nation, both of these actions have power behind them. Power exists in many different forms, from the prestige of wealth to the trust earned through good deeds to the strength to stand up for what one believes in. While these forms of power all have different strengths and weaknesses, they are all unequivocally powerful.  While there are many different kinds of power, there is one kind of power that I have always felt is the strongest, and it is quite different from what I feel that others would believe. While my sister may say money, and my books may say reputation, I believe that willpower is the power one can have. While wealth...

My POAS person is Jeffrey Epstein! I know, I know, what an awesome man. While doing some research and pondering, I found myself laughing at him more than I thought I would. For a (supposedly) really smart man, Epstein was objectively very stupid. He made highly avoidable mistakes and completely overestimated how far his power and reputation would be able to protect him. For one, you would think that after being convicted AND registered as a sex offender, one would stop or at least change up their pattern a bit. But noooo, he reoffended after his conviction (this alone is enough) but also didn’t make any actual countermeasures. If you’re already caught once, I would assume the smart thing to do would at least try to hide your actions. He also continuously repeated himself. Over and over, the same planes, pilots, routes, properties, etc, etc. And (!), he also thoroughly documented his outlandish pedophilia and involved way too many people. I could literally go on and on about his mistak...

       Let me set the scene; it’s August 2024, and you are currently x number of TikToks into your nightly doom scroll when you get a video captioned “Blake Lively outed for being a mean girl?” Ok, so you are a bit confused (don’t worry, I was as well), so you click on the comments and see comment after comment of people disguising misogyny as critical comments. As you scroll, you see these words repeated throughout the comment section: mean girl and girl’s girl.  What if I told you that these words and the entirety of the Blake Lively “mean girl gate” are a direct propagation of misogyny in today’s culture? I know it sounds insane, but trust me. The word girl’s girl likely originated from TikTok; its definition is someone who uplifts other girls and follows the infamous “girl code.” Sounds good on paper, right? Unfortunately, this word and the phrase “pick-me girl” (a girl who craves male validation and attention, her means of getting these things is di...

  “Age is just a number,” a phrase repeated constantly to me throughout my early childhood as a way to motivate young Ranvir Thapar of Fremont, California to try new things without the worry of failing because of his young age at the time. However, what was supposed to be my evolution and growth over the years as I grew in age ended up in a pattern of regression. Of course I still grew physically and yeah I guess mentally I have grown, but a part of me yearns to be young again.  “But why Ranvir?” you ask. This is a good question and while there are multiple reasons such as the lack of responsibility, the carefree lives the youth lead, or the ignorance they constantly feign, right now as of this moment it's because people call me old.  I am 17 years of age, just a measly 17 short years on this planet and my friends have the audacity to call me old, ancient, and aged!?! But no! I refuse to get ragebaited I will NOT be ragebaited anymore so my response to them “I just a bebe...

Irresistible. Smooth. Charismatic(?). My dearest compatriot, the Pilot G2 0.7mm Premium Gel Roller, is truly the pinnacle of human creation.  BIC pen users could never fathom the feeling of a wonderful, ergonomic grip created for writing the juiciest, darkest lines. The tip glides across the surface of any blank sheet with immaculate ink flow. No matter what the pen connoisseurs say, the Pilot G2 will always be my go-to pen, suffering with me through every single essay and assignment. But sometimes my Pilot loses control, its path deviating from the one originally planned.  As the ink in the cartridge dwindles to a point where it's hidden by the pen grip, the once smooth journey from one destination to another is now full of turbulence. A straight line is broken up into choppy lines barely connecting with each other. Even when it’s full of fuel, the Pilot G2 has the tendency to become “blobby,” with a blot of ink appearing upon contact with the paper. Maybe it’s something abo...