In the second episode of the Netflix original comedy “Master of None,” the characters Dev and Brian realize that their parents experienced a lot of hardships as first-generation immigrants. To express their gratitude, they treat their parents out to dinner and listen to stories from their parents’ difficult childhoods. Dev even buys his father a guitar and a series...
I came back to UCR in January of 2014. Since it was winter quarter, I was the “new girl” in my dorm hall. I was pretty bummed, since I felt like everybody had already formed their little cliques, and didn’t have room for a newcomer.
I was wrong. I’m so grateful I got put in that hall because they are...
“You speak to your mom in Spanish?” my coworker inquired one day at the office when I answered a phone call from my mother. While I didn’t give the question a second thought, it puzzled me. Why was he surprised? I thought it was obvious; given that my coworker knows that I’m Latino, that I would speak to my...
Being stuck in a rut is not an ideal situation to be in. Especially when it has to deal with your major. You know you are in the wrong major when the courses are either too difficult, unappealing, boring or you are looking for excuses not to go to class. But hey, if you make it through your grueling...
This past winter break, I held high hopes for my family vacation. This would be the time that my brother and I got along, my mother would be open to opinions not similar to her own and my father would listen attentively to topics beyond the military, work and cars. With my parents moved out of state and my...
Midterms suck. So do finals. There is only one perk about taking these annoying tests: Once you’re done with them, odds are you can take a break from really using your brain for a while. The question then becomes what to do with the time off that follows.
For some reason, there is a sort of expectation that college students...
My, how time flies. A part of me doesn’t believe it; but here I am, writing a reflection of my time spent in college. Has it really been four years since I first set foot in my dorm room? I’m in my fifth year and what people say about college being a transformative period for a young adult holds...
Living on your own for the first time is one of the most daunting things that any reasonable person can think of. Without the familial support net that most people rely on or the help of school facilities to keep you afloat, most newly independent students tend to make seemingly obvious mistakes. Without any sort of help, stress levels...
Crackhead, junkie, burn out, bag bitch, dope fiend, druggie, all terms designated for what psychologists and medical doctors deem a drug addict. Appearing in dilapidated houses, street corners and prison cells across movie and television screens, the “junkie” is the utmost social pariah, someone who willingly destroys their life and ruins those of everyone around them.
Living with one opened...
“What are you?” These three words compose the single most-heard question I am asked by the people I meet. Despite hearing it so often, I am still slightly insulted time after time. Isn’t there a better way to ask me what my ethnicity is?
Understandably, I am aware that my face is quite racially ambiguous and rarely have people assumed...