6. Pretzels 2025

Maybe it’s the way I looked at her in jealousy as she sat down, realizing that she wouldn’t have to write the historical essay that I’d already spent hours doing research on. Maybe it’s the awkwardness I felt during first period PE, when we had to awkwardly hold other people’s feet as we counted their sit-ups. Maybe I sympathized with her because I remember sitting down at my desk the same way; my eyes darting around the classroom secretly hoping to meet a familiar face. I felt the need to become friends, to find that one ray of sunshine among a classroom of masked faces.  Spinning Mushroom   When did we really become friends?   I can never remember moments like those when it’s as if something clicked from the moment we met. From weekly miles during PE to short breaks between subjects, we chatted away every chance we got. Nothing ever changed from elementary to middle school; the trivial arguments we had on whether swinging on the mushroom was more fun or doing flips on t...

My mind is like a broken radio–constantly playing random songs with no particular pattern or motive. I could be in the middle of solving for the antiderivative when I just… “I could be ‘the one,’ or your new addiction / It’s all in my head but I want non-ficti–” Nope. Absolutely not. Not going there again. Or halfway through a chemistry lab prep, when… “Life’s better on Saturn / Got to break this pattern / Of flo–” Oh, for the love of… At this point, I have completely lost the will to try and rein in the impulses of my mind, simply just submitting myself to the aimless repetitions of catchy pop-culture songs. But why does this seemingly habitual phenomenon occur almost every moment of my day-to-day life? Why can’t I get these songs out of my head? Why must I recite the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” in my mind, against my will, in the middle of a biology test? Harvard staff writer Colleen Walsh consulted neuroscientists to associate the irksome problem–coined “earworm” in 197...

There’s been a trend on TikTok recently: Under an audio that repeats “I can’t go back,” people post lines that always start with “remember that…” followed by something like “side part you had?” or “old haircut?” and then show a picture of the hair they are referring to, which is usually really silly or goofy (please look at the attached photos for a better understanding). Credit: @ kjmcknight_ on TikTok Well, this is definitely a trend I could partake in. In freshman year, I literally looked like a mushroom (I am not willing to include a reference photo). My parents told me to cut my hair, and I just wouldn’t listen. Sorry to everyone who had to see me like that—traumatizing, I know. I am deeply regretful of my previous appearance… It’s now a joke that I get teased for. My amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing best friend Eunchan (I couldn’t love her more, as you can tell) is threatening me by saying she is going to write a blog on my freshman year haircut, so I just have to pos...

  Memory is a powerful thing, except when it disappears the night before an assignment is due. That’s why I’m writing this blog early, so I won’t forget! Have you ever stared at that red “Missing” icon on Google Classroom, wondering why your brain decided to erase all traces of that essay you were working on? Same. Actually, I recently learned that there was a term for this, which is the phenomenon called selective academic amnesia . Universal Excuses: “I thought it was due next week…” “Wait…that’s graded?” “I don’t remember hearing about that assignment!” “My digital dog ate my homework on Google Docs.” Language shapes how we recall information, but when it comes to assignments, our brains (or maybe just mine) turn into a master excuse generator rather than a good, trusty memory bank.  Teachers post deadlines, (some) repeat them, (some) highlight them in bold, (some) remind us again, and (some) want us to be on top of our game like Mrs. Smith, yet somehow a good 20% of the ti...

We have all been in a situation where you forgot something that you are just about to say. That feeling when you want to tell your parents or friends something exciting, but you always forget it right when you grab their attention is the worst feeling ever. You can almost taste the words that form on your tongue, but you have a brain fart and forgot everything. This annoying experience is called the “tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon,” and it happens so many times. So you must be wondering: Why does this happen? It turns out that our brains are extremely complicated and sometimes too complicated for our own good. You see, when we store words in our memory, we often link them to sounds, experiences or even taste for foods. Sometimes, our brains mix them up and output the wrong word, or you just stand there looking dumbfounded because you can’t put the words together. Another cause is interference which is the neurological equivalence of traffic jams. When words are too similar or connected, ...

Sitting atop a drawer in my room lies a large IKEA plastic storage bin. The clasps of the box are broken after years of opening and closing, and the lid no longer properly fits. It looks like it doesn’t weigh much, but it’s actually quite heavy—both in its physical weight and in the emotional weight of the memories it holds. Inside is every one of my yearbooks since kindergarten, along with random projects from each of my school years. This includes the star student poster I made in 2nd grade, my 4th grade California mission project, and plenty of other random assignments. Scattered between the contents are pieces of memorabilia from vacations, the small log with my science camp name on it, random drawings or writing that must’ve meant something to me at the time, and, more recently, my POAS paper. I always aim to add at least three to four pieces of my life into the box every year. I don’t open the box often; it’s by no means an everyday occurrence. It’s reserved for those random Tues...

 After every yearly visit to my grandmother’s house, I come back home with my heart overflowing with not only love and warmth, but also a sense of bittersweetness and fear. Seeing the newly formed wrinkles on her forehead, it shows a visual reminder of the inevitable time passage, and the memories that fly away with it.  Out of the many illnesses in this world, I believe that dementia is one of the most cruel and heartbreaking. It takes away the person's ability to form new memories or to remember old ones, erasing their valuable and meaningful memories. It is the most challenging for the person directly undergoing dementia since the thought of ‘losing yourself’ can be extremely scary. But it also puts serious emotional distress on the caregivers and family members, who experience guilt as they helplessly watch the patient’s condition gradually worsen. Spending last summer with my grandmother was an opportunity for me to build a lot of patience and to explore her thoughts on a...