Nickname It’s 5:00 P.M. I’m still at school carefully arranging the articles for the December edition of Campus. Rubbing my eyes, I lean back in my chair as my mind drifts to the space on the Common App for “Preferred Name.” While many of my foreign friends had eagerly filled in their American nicknames, I had left the space blank. I resume my work as I contemplate my lack of a “preferred name.” I first saw the problem...

The “apartment” is an old and familiar concept for me. Every time I move into a new home, the same whitewashed walls and smell of newly-applied paint confronts me. Unlike living in a house, living in an apartment always had a feeling of impermanence, and this continual uprooting presents a challenge for me when I was young. In China, I grew up always mindful of not jumping around for fear of disturbing the elderly couple that lived below. Every night,...

I am not an athlete. I am a mathlete. My equipments are pencil and calculator. The court is my desk, and my opponent is the sheet of diagrams and numbers. Face down, the paper taunts, “You will never solve me!” Adrenaline surges through my body as I wait for the start of the meet. Suddenly, the proctor shouts, “Go!” and the room fills with the sound of pencil scratching. First problem. Done…Last problem. Reading. Understanding. Formulating. Finally. Need to...

English and Harry Potter During a recent Science Scholars class, the senior students were asked to talk about our research topics and which book or article inspired us to pursue science. After stating my research topic as modeling cancer cell cooperation and tumor development, I answered the second question with the statement, “Harry Potter.” Muffled chuckles permeated the classroom amidst whispered comments about my questionable abilities in distinguishing science and fantasy. As a child in ****, China, I would sit in...

I have often wondered, “What is infinity?” Its dictionary definition is “unlimited extent of quantity.” But how can we imagine something that is infinitely large (such as our ever-expanding universe)? We can imagine something large. Then, we can imagine something larger. We can continue doing this for hours but we will never reach infinity. The lemniscate curve that represents infinity has no end and no beginning; so, if an ant decides to travel around the curve, it would be traveling...

At the age of four, my grandfather (my yéyé) proudly declared that I had learned all the Chinese characters I would ever need. He was exaggerating, of course, but I felt assured that I would never have to memorize another word again! Two years later, I proceeded to relearn the names of every object: this time in English. On one sweltering summer afternoon, I sat in my grandfather’s lap as I tried to decipher the strange letters filling...

Harry Potter, crazy hats, sustainable garden—everything I like in one place. The “Harry Potter” atmosphere of Yale with its twelve residential “houses” allows physicists to chat with philosophers, authors, or musicians in a tightly-knit environment. Wearing headgear on Class Day shows a student body composed of individuals who are not afraid to show their creativity. Because I loved growing tomatoes in rural southern Illinois, I look forward to once again working outside in the garden at Yale.