When it’s spring, we stake flimsy blue plastic funnels into soft mud. The rain gauge—otherwise known as the udometer, ombrometer, pluviometer, or hyetometer—measures the amount of liquid precipitation in a predefined area over a set period of time. I got mine for free at the public library. It ...
Many stumble upon their words when trying to decipher the origin of our beloved April Fools’ Day. Was it the saints in their splendor? Or God Himself, who blessed us with the most splendid day of the year? Who can I thank for this radical and majestic holiday? One so rooted in selfish satisfaction ...
According to my mother, the magnolia tree outside our house blossomed the night I was born. When she left for the hospital, the tree’s branches only had buds. As if by magic, when she returned thirty-six hours later with me in her arms, the flowers had opened their pink and white petals to welcome ...
You’re nine Jo’s Chobani yogurts tall. When you draw your lips back in a toothy exhale, you can taste yogurt tang as hot air leaves your throat. There is milk film covering your teeth, and when you run your tongue over the back of your molars, it comes away chalky. You know what pairs well with ...
After arriving at Brown last August, I have slowly become acquainted with the surrounding Providence area. The city has charmed me with its tree-lined neighborhoods, downtown area dotted with shops and restaurants and weekend markets, dispersed parks with their outlooks and benches and fleeting greenery, ...
You sit in a carpeted row, knee clanking against knee, elbow sharing armrest with elbow, like a curious line of bony wind chimes. You sit in the soft disquiet of a room full of people trying to make their little noises as noiseless as they can be. But breaths become louder when you pay attention to ...
It was the spring of 2022. I was a second-semester senior at a small arts high school in San Francisco. Life was good. I knew where I was going to college—all I had to do was pass my classes, and before I knew it, I’d be in Providence. It still felt surreal, no matter how many times I said it. It ...
“Shorten your stride.” The phrase rings in my ears. There’s a metallic taste in my mouth. I swear I can feel each indent of the track on my heels as they pound. Thump. Huff. Thump. A rhythm I know all too well. My arms loosen from fatigue. I rein them in the second they fall out of line. Long-distance ...
This summer, when I arrived alone at the Zen temple with a toothbrush, two T-shirts, and a notebook, what had I been hoping for? Some semblance of freedom, surely.
TW: gun violence, school shooting
A building that one passes nearly every day, just on the commute to South Campus from North Campus, to North Campus from South Campus. One that many students (myself included) seem to use solely as a tool to check their reflection before heading to class, sneaking that furtive glance and playing it ...
My ice powers have lain dormant for years. Yet, when news of last week’s blizzard hit Providence, I could feel them stirring. Knowing that these college years will be among my last unburdened by driveway shoveling, I promised myself I’d make the most of the storm. And so, I laid out my heavy-duty ...
TW: r*pe, sexual harrassment
There’s so much I wish I had known before going into college. Not because I didn’t get advice—I received so much advice, and most of it ended up being garbage. But that’s the point of college, isn’t it? To find yourself and figure out what you want, not what the thousands of voices surrounding ...
I see London; I see France; I see a pair of old, faded blue-and-white striped boxers peeking out of some pure-math-super-nerd’s sweatpants, as he reaches even higher on the whiteboard, working on a problem that probably takes more patience than I am willing to expend writing about it. It’s midnight ...
This world is made of boxes.
It’s funny to think how much the passage of time can change our relationships to ideas, hobbies and beliefs. This is something I’ve been grappling with lately: How much of our present selves are defined by our past identities?
Solutions by The State News
