I turned the final page of the book and let out a sigh. This was it: the climax of my spiritual awakening. Herman Hesse had taken my questions and answered them in Siddhartha’s quest. I jumped out of bed and ran into my parents’ room to share the news: a new favorite book! They hugged me and reminded me to pack Siddhartha in my suitcase. My next encounter with the book was on a murky Friday in Xi’an,...

If I told you that apples are oranges, you would call me insane. Sanity, however, is relative. By calling me crazy my views are merely dubbed absurd with respect to yours. When we are socialized in our early childhood, we make a tacit agreement with the world and vow to view the universe through a single frame of reference. In that frame, apples and oranges cannot be compared. An apple has fifty-two calories while an orange has forty-seven; apples grow...

When I returned from a UChicago information session, I sat down to watch my nightly episode of Jeopardy! and realized why I had fallen in love with the Life of the Mind. UChicago’s philosophy is similar to Jeopardy!’s structure, in which contestants come up with the correct question in response to the answer displayed on the screen; while knowing answers is helpful, asking questions is imperative. My passion for inquiry is strongest when I am in a stimulating...

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