“Did you not hear or did you not listen?” My partner’s words echoed in my mind. In truth I did not listen. I thought I knew better. After all, it had been on my shoulders. I was the one who had to win the debate. It was my speech. When all was said and done, the choices were mine and the loss mine. Except that it was not only mine. My decision meant that my partner would end the...

“Hey, what book should I read?” As the school’s resident bibliophile, I am asked this question on a daily basis. I walk the hallways with a book in hand and people stop to ask. I feel myself breaking into a smile as I channel my inner Ollivander from Harry Potter. I shuffle around the collection of books that is my brain, looking for the perfect story to match each individual. As Ollivander measures Harry to find his wand, I...

Every morning, as I look around my room, I am greeted with a poster of Fidel Castro claiming “Death to the invader!” My morning shower and drive to school are imbued with leftist economics. As I sit in bed reading my favorite leftist philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, I imagine Fidel Castro looks down approvingly. This is why I must go to the University of Chicago. I live for lively debates and I cannot wait to engage with my fellow students....

“You see, that lightsaber was a reference to the one Luke lost in Empire.” Breathlessly, I explain every subtle reference to a previous Star Wars movie. Awash in the glow of my laptop, I flip through 1,400 pages of the UChicago course catalog, while watching The Force Awakens with my best friend. “Science, ugh.” I skip the section. As I lazily turn page after page, my eyes are drawn to one major in particular. Middle Easter Studies. Hm, that sounds interesting....

“Welcome to the NPR Marketplace Morning Report. The Dow started off the day down by ten points.” I start every morning before school the same way. Rushing to my car, I quickly turn on the National Public Radio, or NPR, as I drive to school. Listening to morning developments in the financial markets, the world of economics unfurls before me. Everyday, I pass by a construction site, hearkening me back to the lessons of my economics teacher about union jobs...