a waffle analysis

Adulthood is a social construct. Yet the ropes I was connected to—  for the past eighteen years—  undertake departure, with only those remaining to pull and pull,  all the way toward a world unknown. Seemingly all is lost yet all is one.  ——  🌳☀️🍃 —— Inspired by my recent eighteenth birthday (celebrated by massive amounts of cake, cookies, and boba) as well as Bishop's writing style with end-stopped lines and em dashes, this poem is a testament to becoming 18. Age roles and periods are a social construct; profound change doesn't happen over one day. Our behaviors that are trained to react toward our new age shapes the way we go about our day. Knowing that this birthday is supposedly my last birthday to be celebrated at home and that this age is attributed to newfound independence (as created by our society) scares me at times. The world of adulthood seems like a mystical portal waiting for entrance, and what settles me is the fact that challenges are inevitabl...

As shown through my blog posts, I'm pretty crazy about psychology, often using the psychological lens in tandem with the formalist lens to analyze literature. With this being said, the discussion on Maslow piqued my interest: how can we reach self-actualization? What is that moment of anagnorisis in which we reach the peak of Maslow's hierarchy? The feeling of self-actualization won't be reached unless the tiers below it are met. I'll often look at the food on my plate, the muffins and waffles I ate today, or the family around me, and feel tremendously grateful for the privileges I have. But as much gratitude as I hold for these people and items around me, I don't find it easy to experience self-actualization. To be frank, the feeling doesn't even have a concrete definition. Nevertheless, the reason I can't have full gratitude is the inhibitory feelings that still exist within me. I'll be anxious about something or planning an event ahead of time in my m...

My favorite word of last week was  ✨  anti-senioritis  ✨ .  For the next few months, my new goal is to reach anti-senioritis . But thinking about it, senioritis itself is open to interpretation. To what point of laziness does senioritis entail? Every year, I'll claim that I'm under [insert grade]-itis, but is it just me covering for my perceived faults and failures? Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God  has allowed me to broaden my perspective on the line between unproductivity and productivity. A motif in the novel is the horizon, as compared to land. Our often-materialistic selves cause us to count quantity, such as the number of fields in TEWWG , rather than quality. As Janie listened to Jody, she felt that he "spoke for far horizon; for change and chance". The vast possibilities of exploration instead of confinement with Logan appealed to Janie, to which she decided to run off with Jody. One could say Janie was more of an idealist than a realist—the neverend...

March 2020 was the most influential change in our lives. It wasn’t easy to hear about a pandemic, better yet an indefinite amount of time in quarantine. But to put it quite frankly, I learned the most about myself then. Hours on end, stuck alone, engrossed in emotions; the lack of change fences me within the confines of my home, pondering over who I really am. It makes me neurotic at times, but perhaps that’s simply part of my personality invoking such a coping mechanism toward the pandemic. What intrigues me is this confluence of physical and psychological, given the social contexts. In the play Fences , both the physical and psychological limitations presented after climactic action exemplify how solitude evokes suppressed feelings against societal norms—often leading to epiphanies in identity. The way in which characters in Fences experience catharsis is similar to Greek tragedy. As defined by Aristotle, tragedy is “in the form of action, not of narrative,” and the “incidents arou...

Can you believe it's already December—the end of 2020? This end of the year holds or leads to a culmination in January of so many things: our last first semester, the finale of college apps, the end of the very odd yet iconic 2020... All the times typing 21 at the end of our usernames, seeing it as an abnormally large number; it's crazy that 2021 is in less than a month! I'm sure most of you have experienced a long moment of reflection upon writing college essays—who are you? What does your identity consist of? Reading "Three Girls," I was super inspired by the main character's courage at the end to come out, finding her identity amidst the societal stereotypes back in that time. But for me, thinking about each year and how I've grown really makes me nostalgic, excited to see what awaits me in college, a new environment. Perhaps putting up the Christmas tree and realizing this year is my last year of fully being at home (maybe) caused this nostalgia. I gue...