6 a.m., an ungodly hour to be roaming San Francisco. I dig the coils of my spiral notebook into my palm hoping the pain will keep me alert. I’m trapped in Coffee Limbo — I’ve consumed enough caffeine to keep me conscious but not enough for me to pass as a functional human being. Around me, people fiddle with their smartphones and nervously bite their lips. A sharp gasp. A dropped phone. Disbelief. “DOMA is overruled!” a drag queen...

Why major

The summer I turned five, I remember gleefully punching in random keys at the cash register and watching the ancient machine cough out receipts. I pranced down the aisles in the storage room, running my fingers along the stacks of glossy cardboard boxes until Big Aunt yelled at me to come out because bloodthirsty mosquitoes hid in the shelves. Shrieking, I ran out of the room into Zhenghong, my family’s wholesale sock store. It was a family business. Big...