Environment by The Avenue Magazine

SPRING 2020

VOLUME 11

the avenue ENVIRONMENT

Are You Still Watching? — Preparing for a Post-Sneaker World — The Walden Mindset — The </div>ide — Technology — Nothing Says I Love You Like a Bowl of Fruit — Beauty Behind Bars — Fast Fashion / It's Not Easy Being Green — The Expectation of Good Things to Come — Home — Self-Expression, Just as the Ads intended — Burst Bubble — The Business of Sneakerheads Engulfed — Between Two Races — One Person's Trash is Another's Treasure — Handle With Care — Ongoing Orientation

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Madelaine Millar

MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Fleming

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Tova Lenchner

FASHION EDITOR Annie Koessler

PHOTO DIRECTOR Simran Gvalani

BEAUTY EDITOR Naiem Yusuf

DESIGN DIRECTOR Phoebe Lasater

LIFESTYLE EDITOR Kaela Anderson

DESIGN ASSOCIATE Olivianne Iriarte WOMENSWEAR DIRECTOR Casey Martin MENSWEAR DIRECTOR Avery Parker

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Allie Kuo COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE Muy Lin Loh VIDEOGRAPHER Tyler Dolph

PRESIDENT Maddie Casey TREASURER Tomer Zilberman SECRETARY Ellie McMurtrie

WEB EDITOR Amanda Dupell

the avenue WRITERS Henry Abrams, Kaela Anderson, Jessica Brite, Michael Caruso, Dipshika Chawla, Amanda Dupell, Lily Elwood, Kelly Fleming, Dalya Kahn, Lynne Khouri, Alexandra Nieto, Sowon Park, Elena Plumb, Preston Reep, Bhavana Sinha, Eugene Staroselsky, Elsie Wang PHOTOGRAPHERS Henry Abrams, Serena Buscarello, Kristen Chen, Alexandra Chua,Sofia Cianca, Estelle De Zan, Randall Gee, Simran Gvalani, Lynne Khouri, Ryan Kirkaldy, Aditi Lohe, Ellie MacLean, Hillary Nana-Adjei, Meryl Prendergast, Catherine Titcomb, L-A Zenezini DESIGNERS Hanieka Balint, Sarah Ceniceros, Hanna Cormier, Olivianne Iriarte, Phoebe Lasater, Renee Pearce, Victoria Verrecchia, Jack Vogelsang HAIR & MAKEUP ARTISTS Dana Dworkin, Morgan Kay, Jill Kligler, Elise Minami, Lucia Tarro

MODELS Andy Abrego, Olive Adegbile, Kaela Anderson, Samir A-Rahim, Charlotte Baughan, Noor Benabderrazik, Jessica Brite, Shawn Cai, Alexander Chang, Dipshika Chawla, Aaron Christo, Nicolas Cianca, Sofia Cianca, Petrina Danardatu, Aisling Deane, Amanda Dupell, Augustino Escandon, Kelly Fleming, Cameron Glynn, Jaime Gonora, Troyce Griffin, Cassandra Karcher, Annie Koessler, Patrick Luizzo, Logan Magin, Camryn McAllister, Soja Moore, Alexandra Nieto, Yejin On, Lauren O'Sullivan, Aidan Perry, Jacob Philippe, Elena Plumb, Cameron Rackey, Medha Shah, Emma Steiner, Sydney Tan, Petya Tordorova, Elsie Wang, Roxy Welch, Noah Wendel, Stella Westlake, Shantih Whiteford, Molly Winship, Ben Wolf, Ken Yin, Tasha Zaaro WOMENSWEAR STYLISTS Aya Albakoush, Alicia Liu, Hillary Nana-Adjei MENSWEAR STYLISTS Aidan Baglivo, Jonathan Pereira, Jackson Wang

letter from the editor

Place matters.

As I write this, I’m sitting in a warmly lit bakery. The air smells like butter and sugar and it’s raining softly outside. I’m sitting here because when I sit in warmly lit bakeries, I feel warm and wholesome and happy and writing this letter feels joyful rather than laborious, because place matters. The spaces we inhabit don’t just influence our moods; they offer us different opportunities, different connections, different people. My editorship of this magazine is inextricably tied to my choice to live in Boston; your ability to read it is an effect of your connection to the place that is Northeastern. For better or for worse, we would both be different people if it wasn’t for this corner of the planet. Our moods, our minds, our social circles, our bodies; we are products of our environments. Place matters.

And in a brilliant twist of fate, we shape our environments back. I can sit here and watch the baker brew espresso because I keep coming back to the same bakery for my coffee. The circles of people we draw together, environments in and of themselves, agitate and organize and build and create until they’ve made this school and this city a place worth living in. We make our environments what we want them to be, with the same vigor and speed and determination that they make us who we are. T h a t ’s b e c a u s e p l a c e m a t t e r s . A n d w e matter too.

Thank you to our readers for continuing to support The Avenue. As always, I am stunned and honored by the hard work and talent that everyone on my team has put into this issue. I hope that you enjoy reading "Environment" as much as we enjoyed creating it.

MADELAINE MILLAR, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

table of

FASHION

Nothing Says I Love You Like a Bowl of Fruit

040

TECHNOLOGY

032

The Walden Mindset: The Natural Flow of Creativity

026

Preparing for a Post-Sneaker World

020

Are You Still Watching?

014

The </div>ide

008

contents

BEAUTY

LIFESTYLE

The Expectation of Good Things to Come

058

It's Not Easy Being Green: How to be a Sustainable Shopper

Fast Fashion: The Trendy, the Cheap, the Harmful /

052

Beauty Behind Bars: Cherry Juice & Chapstick

046

Between Two Races: Must I Choose?

102

ENGULFED

092

The Business of Sneakerheads

086

Burst Bubble

082

Self-Expression, Just as the Ads Intended

076

HOME

064

Ongoing Orientation

118

Handle With Care

114

One Person's Trash is Another's Treasure

108

the

</div>ide

WRITING Amanda Dupell PHOTOGRAPHY Estelle De Zan DESIGN Hanna Cormier MODELING Amanda Dupell, Jaime Gonora

Every morning I wake up and join about sixty other engineers at my co-op. Only four other women sit next to me.

I was never supposed to become a software engineer. In almost every sense of the word, none of it agreed with me. My eclectic style, interest in fashion and design, and lack of coding experience entering college put me as far away from the computer science department as possible. Add on top of that the fact that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a woman, you could say my chances of ending up as a coder were close to zero. Despite this, every morning I wake up and join about sixty other engineers at my co-op. Only four other women sit next to me. When I came to Northeastern, I was undeclared but heavily leaning towards majoring in design. While my parents supported me fully, they did express some concern about my career options after college and encouraged me to look elsewhere to help guarantee me a job.

The computer and information science field is expected to grow by about 13 percent in the next seven years — faster than the average growth rate of any other occupation. It sounded like a dream, and Northeastern — almost like fate — offers a combined degree in Computer Science and Design. I would be taking a balance of classes from both disciplines, fulfilling my passion for design and curiosity about computer science. While I wasn’t sure exactly what it entailed, I was happy to have declared a major at all, and I became an official student at the Khoury College of Computer Science. The first class I walked into was overwhelmingly male. I can’t tell you now how many women were in that class, but I know for a fact that it felt like I was the only one. While I had known that women in tech were largely a minority, it was still a bit of a shock to experience it firsthand. It is not an exaggeration or a joke when computer science or engineering students tell their friends that they’re the fifth girl in a 200-person lecture hall. It can feel like all of your peers, tutors, TAs, and professors are male, seeming to put females out of sight and therefore, out of mind when technology is talked about.

Historically, the technology industry has been catered to men, allowing them to rise to positions of power faster than their female peers. More often than not, men are given promotions over their female peers, and represent a large part of the STEM industry. This cycle feeds a system in the tech community in which men already have a leg up despite beginning their studies at the same time as many women. Even though I felt isolated by this gap, I was more encouraged to succeed where I felt behind. When I registered for my computer science classes, I was always conscious about the lack of female professors and made sure to enroll in their sections. While I have never had a bad moment or experience with a male professor — or even student — I felt more confident when I was seeing a woman at the front of the classroom or sitting next to me. Not every woman’s journey to joining the tech industry looks like mine. Some of them have a love for math and coding from an early age, and a lot of girls tend to be weeded out when they’re young, overcome by the lack of support or representation around them. To see women around me in the tech world was not only a source of comfort, but also a source of inspiration and dedication.

E nt e r the prom i s i ng world of t ec h.

Enter the promising world of tech.

11 29

This support and sense of belonging despite being in the minority ultimately led to my decision to pursue a computer science related co-op, and I happily accepted a position at a startup in Boston as a front-end engineer. The co-op program is one of Northeastern’s biggest pulls as a factor for enrollment, and it serves as an opportunity for students to get insight into their interests as a career in the real world. I chose to explore engineering as a way to test myself — a way to assure myself I could make it as well as in industry as I did in class. I made this decision for personal reasons, but ultimately, when I began working, I found myself realizing again what little representation for women there was in the engineering department.

me to contribute to the number of women in STEM by ultimately proving myself as a coder, graduating with my computer science degree and landing a job as some type of engineer. Yes, the engineering department’s Slack channel is mostly just guys chatting about things I find strangely stereotypical, but ultimately, I feel proud of my choice to stay in this overwhelmingly male environment. The best thing about being a woman in tech today is the ability to say that you are contributing to a movement that will inspire more young girls to feel confident and represented when choosing to explore STEM. Although I don’t seem to be the ideal candidate for an “engineer”, I am comfortable labeling myself as one to prove any girl out there can code too.

Simply put, I love where I work and feel no sense of intentional isolation in the office. However, I did find it funny when I attended my first engineering team meeting and ended up being the only woman in the room—the reason being that all of the other female coders happened to be out of the office. When I called my dad later to tell him about my day at work, I told him about this experience and we spoke more about my time as a woman in computer science. I voiced to him how I never felt like a minority until I really looked around and began to notice by how much men outnumbered ion and dedication. nspirat e of i c r u women, whether it be at work or in school. Even a so lso though I noticed this, I only viewed it as a way for but a t, r fo

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as n ot o nly a

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WRITING Jessica Brite PHOTOGRAPHY Aditi Lohe DESIGN Jack Vogelsang MODELING Jessica Brite, Aisling Deane Elena Plumb

ARE YOU

STILL WATCHING ? Escapism [Es-cap-ism]: “n. the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy.” The way most of us spend our time, escapism is the countless hours we spend bingeing Netflix and scrolling through social media. Even on my saddest days, watching rom-coms on Netflix always has me laughing till my stomach hurts or leaving my heart full. Though it offers us temporary happiness when we are laughing at scripted jokes on-screen, it robs us of quality time that could be spent reflecting on our mental health.

For the first couple of weeks at the beginning of the fall semester, I was afraid to be alone. As a freshman, I don’t think that I processed what it meant to be away from home in a completely new environment. Instead, I spent every hour out of class with my friends. If they were busy, I would immediately open my computer and go to YouTube or Netflix; aiming to fill the void of emptiness that used to be filled by the presence of my family and closest friends. It’s natural to feel lost or anxious when taken out of an environment familiar to you. My mistake in all of this, though, was burying and blocking out all of these feelings. I chose to fill my mind with false positives through happy television shows and upbeat music. Seeing people on screen being happy allotted me a small amount of happiness. Whether or not that happiness was real is the question. I used to think that if I was laughing at all the jokes being made, I wasn’t really all that sad. While the digital landscape can be an excellent source of entertainment during downtime, there comes a point where it borders unhealthy behavior. A Netflix survey from 2013 found that 73 percent of users regularly watch between two to six episodes of a show in one sitting. From that survey, 73 percent of participants reported positive feelings associated with binge-watching. Yet the question lies in whether those positive feelings lasted after the binge-watching session ended.

If we turn all of our attention on fictional characters and influencers, we ignore our own sadness and embrace the happiness of individuals we see on our screens. I realized that that entertainment cannot serve as the only basis for our headspace. When I returned back to Boston from Thanksgiving break I was hit with a wave of sadness and stress. My sadness came from missing my family that I only got to see for a long weekend. And the stress? That was brought on by being overwhelmed with emotions and not having the time to deal with them because of finals. I attempted to just watch an episode of “New Girl” to get my mind off of it but the second it was over, my mind was still all over the place. So I tried something else, something that would relax me but still make me present in the moment — writing. I started jotting down what I was feeling, things that I wanted to do that week, plans for the weekend — I allowed my thoughts to bleed onto the page. Releasing those feelings made my mind feel free and relaxed. That same night I FaceTimed my little

I realized that entertainment cannot serve as the only basis for our headspace.

cousins back home and their laughs and smiles brought me real happiness that endured long after I hung up. It felt good to actively play a role in my own happiness and mental health rather than passively letting the digital landscape control it. From then on I began to notice when I was turning to my screens for entertainment versus when I was turning to them to escape. Being able to make that distinction has helped me gain a better grasp of my mental health, allowing me to change my headspace. Because we live in a screen-based society it is easy to make our happiness reliant on so many external factors. But through my experience, I find that I am happiest when I am aware and in control of my mental state. Doing things in the real world like writing, playing with makeup, and being part of clubs brings me lasting happiness â&#x20AC;&#x201D; rather than zoning out to vlogs, movies, or TikToks. Social media was created to connect people locally and globally, but in recent years thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a shift in the digital landscape to a more escapist based function. So instead of turning to the digital environment for escapism, I try to use the digital environment to my advantage. I use apps like Instagram to create mood boards of future aspirations, using Snapchat and other messaging apps to connect with friends and family, using Netflix as a means to host movie nights, and so much more. But above all, I make sure that my mental health comes first, and that I am in control of my happiness and not the fictional characters on my screen.

WRITING Michael Caruso PHOTOGRAPHY Ryan Kirkaldy

DESIGN Renee Pearce

Preparing for a

Post-Sneaker World

In December 2019, Virgil Abloh, the man who partially led the crusade for streetwear, shook the world of menswear when he announced that streetwear was on its way out. Looking at recent trends, sneakers appear to be first on the chopping block. The past couple of years have become so oversaturated with exciting sneakers that they seem to lose their sense of significance. Yeezy and Balenciaga have both released dozens of variations on the same silhouette, making the market for two of the most prominent sneakers in menswear seem lackluster. For designers on the rise, collaborations with Nike or Adidas are almost seen as common practice in menswear. Just in recent events, Nike has worked with Sacai, Travis Scott, Cactus Plant Flea Market, and several shoes with Abloh himself. Perhaps the troubling part is what is on the horizon for sneakers. Prada’s collaboration with Adidas and Dior’s collaboration with Nike have both been underwhelming and derivative to say

the least. Maybe sneakers have just lost their thrill and need to be replaced. Many labels have already begun to pan away from sneakers and if these first few examples are any indication; it is a very exciting time to ditch your bulky trainers. One of the drivers behind the decline of the sneakers’ “coolness” is the concept of reselling. Whether we would like to admit it or not, a trendy fashion house or brand collaborating with a large sneaker manufacturer is an incredible investment. Of the 20-plus sneakers Virgil Abloh has made with Nike, nearly every pair resells for ten times its retail price. The value of sneakers has become so inflated that they have become more about attaining Instagram clout than love for the finished product. Perhaps it needs to be said aloud that a collaboration is more than pasting two logos together. Menswear has been blinded by the attention high profile sneaker collaborations retain and ignores whether these are things we want to see or are interested in.

OFF-WHITE YEEZY ADIDAS YEEZY ADIDAS NIKE

OFF-WHITE OFF-WHITE YEEZY ADIDAS NIKE NIKE Recently, the dad sneaker trend has been more prominent than ever. Fila Disruptors were seemingly omnipresent and regularly trending on social media for their unflattering design. This style is defined by thick midsoles and distorted proportions. This progression originates from designers like Raf Simons via his Adidas partnership in 2013 and later Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga introducing the Triple S. Although the ideas of Simmons and Gvasalia come from similar spaces, the Balenciaga Triple S takes this idea to an extreme. The name of the sneaker itself comes from Gvasalia deconstructing three sneakers and reassembling them together into the Frankenstein of a shoe that is the Triple S. Gvasalia has been criticized throughout his career for appropriating â&#x20AC;&#x153;uglyâ&#x20AC;? styles. Although what is considered ugly is truly subjective, it may be time to finally put this trend to rest. 22

DIDAS IKE FF-WHITE

FF-WHITE EEZY DIDAS IKE FF-WHITE EEZY

So, how are designers filling the void sneakers will leave? Many recent collections have placed their emphasis on loafers. Gucci, which for a short period focused largely on their sneaker offerings, made their loafers the center of attention at their F/W2020 shows at Paris Fashion Week. There was a wide spectrum of Gucci loafers dressed in both formalwear and more casual looks. Creative Director Alessandro Michele was even seen after the show wearing stonewash jeans and a pair of brown tassel loafers. Chelsea boots were also key takeaways from Raf Simons, Givenchy, and Rick Owens. Even Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh, which caters towards a younger market wearing almost exclusively sneakers, featured several styles of square-toed boots and leather derbies. Of the 34 looks in the show, there were only one and a half pairs of sneakers shown; a model was seen with a Jordan on one foot and a leather derby on the other. F/W2020 seems to be all in for this post sneaker world.

Beyond Paris runways, sneaker alternatives have been making appearances from celebrities. Recently, Kanye West was seen leaving his Calabasas office wearing a pair of Birkenstocks. Within hours of paparazzi publishing the photo, Birkenstock clogs were sold out everywhere. This shows us two things: Kanye (still) has the ability to shift trends in the palm of his hand and men are begging for something besides sneakers in their footwear rotation. Similar to Birkenstocks,

Suicoke sandals have become very popular in recent seasons as Japanese menswear continues to increase in popularity. Another popular style comes from Blundstone boots, which at first glance looks like something your dad would wear to go hiking, but I swear everyone in SoHo is wearing them and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m here for it. Blundstones are practical for any weather, are comfortable, and serve as an amazing starting point for entering the post sneaker world.

What does a post sneaker world look like? It won’t be as extreme as seeing derbies on the treadmill at the gym, but their absence on runways and lookbooks will be duly noted. Sneakers will always be here for lazy Sundays and when you’re running errands and just want to be comfortable over anything. However, having a diverse wardrobe of loafers, boots, and lace-up footwear has made me more conscious of outfits I put together. Regardless of whether Virgil’s prediction of streetwear dying comes true or not, I hope this seemingly endless stream of sneakers comes to a halt.

The Walden Mindset

the natural flow of creativity Whether you’ve grown up around Boston or simply made it through a tenth-grade English class the name “Walden Pond” might sound familiar to you. Walden Pond is the inspiration for American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau’s greatest work, “Walden; or Life in the Woods.” Thoreau spent two years living alone in the woods surrounding Walden Pond, living off the land and writing his thoughts on isolation, nature, and serenity. The quiet pond and woods were often at the center of his work. Every year, about 500,000 people make a pilgrimage to Walden Pond, either in an attempt to discover what inspired Thoreau, or just to go for a refreshing swim. It is a common escape for the city-dwellers of Boston (as it lies only thirty minutes from the city) looking for respite from their daily stresses. What is it about Walden Pond and other natural spaces that stirs this sought-after creativity and relaxation? To understand the legacy of Walden Pond, we must understand its history. According to the State of Massachusetts, the pond was formed over twelve thousand years ago by retreating glaciers. These glaciers left yawning holes in the ground as

they slowly melted away from the land. Abenaki Native Americans lived near the pond’s shores in Merrimack Valley for thousands of years, until European settlers cast them away in the 1700s. By the early nineteenth century, Americans harvested Walden Pond’s ice yearly to ship it for profit to Cuba, India, and Hong Kong. By 1845, Thoreau had made his home on its shores. Thoreau found value in the isolation and quiet of Walden Pond, and its beautiful natural scenery. He separated this pond from others for its depth, crystal clear water, and narrow beach. Much of his wonder surrounding the pond came from an appreciation of its vast history. He often contemplated its formation and the Native Americans who formed worn paths around its perimeter. Thoreau found lakes to be nature’s “most beautiful and expressive feature”. He felt that to know Walden Pond was to be closer to God.

WRITING Kelly Fleming PHOTOGRAPHY Simran Gvalani DESIGN Hanieka Balint, Phoebe Laster MODELING Alexander Chang, Sofia Cianca, Kelly Fleming, Patrick Luizzo

Thoreau’s fascination with Walden Pond has carried on through history to our generation. Many of the pond’s visitors are from nearby Boston, enjoying the cool water for a few hours to escape the heat of the city in the summer. Others visit the pond for its literary history, walking the same

Walden Pond is still a reprieve from the distractions

and fast pace of society, perhaps even more today than it was

in Thoreau’s time.

trails as Thoreau and holding worn copies of his book. Regardless of a person’s reason for visiting, everyone can appreciate the pond’s qualities that held Thoreau awestruck. The water is deep, still, and cold, and surrounded by a mingling of pine and deciduous trees. Walden Pond is still a reprieve from the distractions and fast pace of society, perhaps even more today than it was in Thoreau’s time. People visit the pond to reconnect with nature and themselves, to relax and awaken their creativity. But why do we turn to Walden Pond and other natural spaces to stimulate our creativity? There have been a few scientific studies about the effect of spending time in nature on cognitive function. The University of Utah recently tested the Attention Restoration Theory, or the idea that spending time

in nature restores attention levels. They gave half of a group of fifty-six individuals a creativity test before embarking on a backpacking trip, and half were given the test four days into the trip. Those who took the test after four days could problem solve about 50 percent more effectively. These results show that time spent in nature can increase creativity and problem-solving abilities significantly. A second study published by The British Journal of Sports Medicine gives us possible reasons why nature has a positive effect on creativity. The study found that as little as twenty-five minutes spent walking through a natural space can relax your brain and boost cognition. Scientists monitored multiple subjects’ neural responses to a walk in a park, a shopping street, and in a crowded city center. The subjects who walked through a green space experienced less frustration, engagement,

and excitement, but also higher meditation levels. When they left the green space, they had higher engagement with their surroundings. This second study shows us why backpackers may experience higher creativity levels after four days in nature. Their brains were given a chance to relax and recover from the constant stimulation of urban surroundings and technology, improving their ability to focus on a single task at hand. When our brains are given a chance to step back from modern responsibilities of school, work, and technology, the prefrontal cortex slows down and the network of our brain that focuses on thought and memory quickens. It’s during this time that imagination awakens. Thoreau’s decision to spend two years at Walden Pond was intrinsically motivated by the common experience of creativity and self-connection in nature. He was able to think more deeply about his own connection to the world when he was stripped of the modern responsibilities that used to occupy his mind. Constant immersion in nature gave him the ability to think deeply and write creatively. We can learn from Thoreau’s experiment and today’s scientific studies by taking advantage of the green spaces surrounding us. Try to spend some time walking through a green space, whether it is as close as the Fens or a longer trip to Walden Pond. Observe the effect being in nature has on your thought process, and you’ll find yourself thinking deeper than you do when navigating Boston subways or crowded walks to class. Taking a moment for your brain to relax can have an incredible effect on the rest of your day, improving your focus and calm as you navigate an increasingly over-stimulating world. Spending time in nature is a reminder to connect with yourself and your creative powers.

ECHNOLOGY TECH

PHOTOGRAPHY Lynne Khouri SENIOR CREATIVE DIRECTION Tova Lenchner CONTRIBUTING PHOTO DIRECTION Simran Gvalani DESIGN Olivianne Iriarte MODELING Soja Moore, Shantih Whiteford

STYLING DIRECTION Casey Martin Avery Parker MENSWEAR STYLING Aidan Baglivo, Jonathan Pereira, Jackson Wang WOMENSWEAR STYLING Aya Albakoush, Alicia Liu, Hillary Nana-Adjei MAKEUP Elise Minami

TECHNOLOGY THE APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE FOR PRACTICAL PURPOSES, ESPECIALLY IN INDUSTRY.

WRITING Sowon Park

PHOTOGRAPHY Ellie MacLean

DESIGN Renee Pearce

MODELING Yejin On

Nothing says

I love you like a bowl of fruit

As a Korean immigrant, my curiosity grew into questioning how my perception of thoughts and beliefs differ through my distinctive cultural environments. Although I lived my first couple of years halfway across the world in South Korea, the remainder of my childhood was established in the United States. I pondered if the judgements that I created intuitively in my mind may have been due to the surrounding environment I was nurtured in. Growing up in a traditional Korean household, I was always taught to refer to elders using honorifics regardless of the age gap. For example, instead of calling my older brother by his name, I was taught to call him “oppa”, which is the Korean word for “older brother”. Upon arriving in the United States, I naturally began to assimilate into American society and this is when I began to witness many of my American friends refer to their older siblings and even their own parents using their first names; their relationships with each other seemed considerably informal which opposed my existing personal knowledge. At that moment, I was brought face-toface with my first encounter of a cultural difference. The difference in cultural perspectives I was able to observe at a young age provoked conflict in my day-to-day life. It became more difficult deciphering what was considered “right” or “wrong” because what I’d been taught by my (Asian) parents and what I’d learned in America clashed, provoking doubt on the moral values I’ve been disciplined to follow.

Actions speak louder than words in East Asian culture when it comes to expressing emotions. They may not feel that it is necessary to explicitly express their feelings of love in overt ways because of their fixed generalization that it is omnipresent and understood. Among the moments where these two mindsets clashed, emotional expression was one of them, especially when it came down to expressing love. How come it became so normal for my friends to naturally say “Bye, love you”, but not my parents? In today’s society, love language tests have grown in popularity among young generations. These five love languages are words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, quality time, and physical touch. As a Korean-American, this made me wonder: Do cultural differences influence our love language? Romantic gestures such as buying a large bouquet of roses and vocalizing “I love you” are typical ways of showing how much they love a person in Western culture. Yet, preparing food for another and showing care by asking questions such as “Did you eat well?” are ways of expressing love in East Asian Culture.

It’s kind of like an unspoken rule in Asian families for mothers to express their love through bowls of cut fruit. Throughout high school, whether it’s me cramming for an exam or working on an essay, my mom would come into my room and drop off a bowl of grapes, apples, and pears without a word being said. My mom would cut up apples after dinner for me and I’d catch her eating the core in the kitchen. Although it wasn’t verbally expressed, my mom cutting fruit and bringing it to me without being asked has got to be one of the purest gestures of love ever. I felt lavished with love. With these small acts of service, I feel thoroughly understood with the love we Asians were showered with. Instead of gifts, words of affirmation, and physical touch, my mom showed love through bowls of fruit.

Instead of gifts, words of affirmation, and physical touch, my mom showed love through bowls of fruit. Ethics cultivate how experience and emotion can shape our personal knowledge. This is why I believe that culture develops this foundation for what is considered ethical and unethical behavior for how we express our affection. Touch is often referred to as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the mother of sensesâ&#x20AC;? and all other senses such as sound, taste, sight, and smell are derived from it. While a touch in the shoulder or hand may be a sign of friendly affection in Western culture, maintaining a physical distance to avoid touching is acknowledged as the moral behavior for Eastern culture values. One may perceive physical contact as a symbol of trust while contrastively, one may deem the avoidance of touch as the respectful act to behave. It can induce a taboo in Eastern cultures, in contrast to American cultures embracing somebody as a form of welcoming, congratulating, or expressing any other forms of affection is seen 44

as normal and common. Simple interactions we encounter in our daily lives lead to differences in comprehension of others. How we perceive and understand is fostered by our multitudinous interactions in our daily lives and our familiarity on what we have been taught is the morally right or wrong thing to do substantially based on our cultures. Culture may not necessarily alter how one views the world, but rather how one thinks and interprets. Since the lifestyles between Western and Eastern people differ, the way of thinking and interpreting consequently is distinctly different. Reflecting and understanding the indigenous cultures of people different than our own allows people to recognize and perceive discipline through different lenses within our global society.

Culture plays an important role in perception, how we express love. Perception can be defined as the process of recognizing and interpreting an idea to foster an understanding through the utilization of our senses. Our perspective of the world is shaped by our experiences within society in which constructs the way we perceive in any discipline. Culture plays an important role in a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception, like how we express love, as it is an intrinsic sense that is ingrained in our way of thinking. Just like how I still completely feel the same kind of love from my mom, even though she shows it in different ways. We may subconsciously develop a particular interpretation simply based on interactions with our surrounding environment and so maybe thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why I think and feel the way I do.

Beauty Behind Bars: Cherry Juice & Chapstick

WRITING Lily Elwood PHOTOGRAPHY Meryl Prendergast DESIGN Hanieka Balint, Phoebe Lasater MODELING Cassandra Karcher, Molly Winship

For many people, beauty routines are a daily occurrence to start their day and keep them grounded with something constant. Women in a prison environment, however, do not have this luxury and are often forced to come up with creative ways to make their own beauty products out of common household items. These women use makeup to continue the routines they once had outside of prison to preserve some kind of normality in their lives, and to remind them of their own self-worth and humanity. Makeup can be used to counteract some of the negatives of a prison environment and can help women to focus on becoming better, more confident people. In prison commissaries, there are only a few lowcost makeup products that women are allowed to use. Mascara and eyeliner can often be found here, but very rarely are there any face creams or powders, concealers, or eyeshadows, among other products. The makeup found here is also stocked very rarely, approximately every six months. When women go to acquire these products, they need to try to stock up as much

as they can to hold them over until the next time new products are allowed to be given out. It is for this reason that most of the makeup they wear is created from non-traditional products. The ingenuity of the makeup they create is truly incredible. For example, coffee grounds are used for a couple of different purposes, and actually are quite healthy for the skin. They are known to brighten the face and reduce puffiness and dark circles, making them a good product to use for self-care. To create face powders and tinted moisturizers, coffee grounds are mixed with baby powder or face cream (if available at the commissary) until the product created matches the skin tone of the wearer, and they can also be used to create mascara by mixing them with water. Eyeliner and eyebrow â&#x20AC;&#x153;pencilsâ&#x20AC;? are often made from mixing vaseline with a pencil until the graphite becomes a sort of paste that can be applied. This seems to be one of the more harmful techniques, as sometimes it has been described as causing a burning sensation in the eyes. Eyeshadow and blush are created in the same way, which is that

These women use makeup to continue the routines they once had outside of prison to preserve some kind of normality in their lives

and to remind them of their own self-worth and humanity.

The point of prison should be to rehabilitate, not to break a person. 50

women will take deodorant and flip to a magazine page with the desired color on it. By rubbing deodorant on the page, the color comes off onto the deodorant and makes a cream eyeshadow or blush. Sometimes, for sparkly eyeshadow, sparkly birthday cards can be rubbed together to remove the sparkles and applied using a base of vaseline. Lipstick can be worn by using Kool-Aid, Dorito dust, M&M shells, and fruits like beets and cherries that leave a stain on the lips. Often there are no mirrors in prison, so women make use of any slightly reflective surface available to do their makeup routine. They are not allowed to wear particularly dramatic makeup, and women who are caught wearing too much can be punished for possessing contraband. For the most part, makeup is not a punishable offense as long as it is not regarded as being â&#x20AC;&#x153;too muchâ&#x20AC;?. The only

time makeup is really a large concern is when prisoners are sent letters that have traces of lipstick rubbed into them, as these could be laced with drugs like LSD. Makeup needs to be more universally available in a prison environment. In England, the HM Prison Drake Hall won the bid to be allowed to have makeup readily accessible to them and it has only improved the well-being of the women in the prison. Other prisons have followed suit, and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s self-worth and ability to reintegrate back into society is improved because they are allowed to wear makeup. It allows them to feel like people, and not just inmates, which gives them the confidence to do well returning to their previous life, going out for interviews, and trying to be better. Some prisons even have salons within them that inmates can work at. Women who are put into

prison often already have very low self-esteem entering prison, and though they only make up five percent of the total population of prisoners, a third of all self harm incidents in prison are involving women, and have a higher rate of suicides per 1000 prisoners than men. Once they are in prison, their self-esteem worsens, and this makes it significantly more difficult for them to reintegrate back into society. Building their confidence and allowing them to express their individuality through makeup is extremely important to make their transition back to their community much easier. They want to look and feel pretty like they did on the outside of prison and keep this routine that has been a normal part of their life up to this point.

a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spirit, everything that can be done to make things more normal for these women should be done. Allowing women to be confident and hold on to their identities is an incredibly important thing; it helps them to be able to rejoin society and lowers the chances of them ending up back in prison, and makeup is an incredibly powerful tool for this. And no matter how you look at it, the ultimate goal of prison should be to help these women get back on their feet so they never have to reenter the system again.

The point of prison should be to rehabilitate, not to break a person. Taking away the things that make a person feel human and normal is not going to help someone get better in order to be a good member of society in the future. Women who enter prison with fake nails get them torn off or cut, and women with wigs, hair extensions, or weaves have to immediately remove them. Their individuality is being stripped away, and it can be very dehumanizing. Psychologically, it can be very damaging to not feel like one does in their normal environment for a long period of time, and so in order to ensure that prison isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t about breaking

FAST FAST FAST

the the the

FASHION FASHION FASHION

trendy cheap harmful

“Wow, I love that shirt on you.” “Thanks! I got it for only seven dollars!”

My favorite conversations about my wardrobe always include how I proudly boast about my latest find, usually a piece I bought for under twenty dollars. Shopping on a college budget limits my available price range, but with the help of discount retail stores staying up to date with fashion trends without draining my bank account, shopping is highly manageable.

WRITING Alexandra Nieto PHOTOGRAPHY Hillary Nana-Adjei DESIGN Jack Vogelsang MODELING Samir A-Rahim, Noor Benabderrazik, Troyce Griffin, Alexandra Nieto, Emma Steiner

Low-priced fashion retailers have been able to achieve unmatched success over the past ten years under a model of fast fashion. This streamlined system cuts production time of garments to produce large quantities of garments with a high turn around rate. By keeping raw materials on hand, fast fashion industries are able to produce new lines daily, with some stores having 52 fashion seasons each year according to CBC News Marketplace. Stores including Fashion Nova, H&M, Forever 21, and Zara work on a highly profitable business model that gives the consumer the feeling of luxury without the expensive price tag. Although these stores produce trendy clothes quickly and cheaply, their clothes are often low quality eventually meant to be disposed of. Inditex, the parent company of Zara, produced 1.6 billion articles of clothing in 2018 alone according to their annual report. Because of this attractive price tag, American consumers are now buying clothes in bulk. According to the fashion journalist Dana Thomas, in the 1980s the average American would buy 25 new pieces of clothing per year while the average American today in 2019 buys 68 pieces of clothing. Even worse, half of these pieces are worn at most three times or less. We are living in a culture of over consumption and our planet is paying the price for it.

Producing garments in such large quantities takes a toll on our environment every step of the way. First, the creation of clothing has a tremendous impact on our planet. Textile production in 2015 created more greenhouse gases than international flights and maritime shipping – combined. The fashion industry holds second place for the most polluting industry in the world behind oil. Fabric production alone requires an intensive amount of natural resources. Growing cotton to be made into a new cable knit sweater or cropped hoodie requires about ten thousand liters of water per piece of clothing. This same amount of water could be used as drinking water for a single person for thirteen years. Beyond cotton, another notable fabric popular among fast fashion brands is polyester. This type of fabric could easily be dyed, holds its shape well and stretches easily, but plastic based fabric consumes an obscene amount of fossil fuels for its production. Since polyester is non-biodegradable, each piece containing polyester will remain in landfills, sitting in piles for years to come says Maxine Bedat, the owner of a sustainable fashion brand. Washing polyester fabrics further contribute to the pollution of the environment. Microplastics leave the clothing when washing and end in our oceans, directly polluting our food chain. The creation of polyester is also a highly energy-intensive process where producing this fabric requires eight times more energy than linen. Beyond polyester is viscose, the third most commonly used textile fiber in the world that produces an incredible amount of waste. To create this fiber, resources must come from endangered and ancient rainforests while only 30 percent of the materials are made into fabric. This leaves the other 70 percent of the tree left to waste and to be discarded. Beyond the creation of fabric, the dying process to create fun patterns and eye catching designs further pollutes the world around us. To chemically treat certain pieces, fabrics have to remain in dyed water to retain color.

The wasted water is typically dumped in the water sources of developing countries where the clothes are produced. The Chitnam River in Indonesia, the base of operations for the clothing productions of H&M and Zara, is polluted daily with chemical filled water from the factories. The effects of this water pollution are seen by the children living alongside this river who experience health issues as a result. From the production of the garments, the articles of clothing are worn for a short period of time but then are later discarded. The low quality of the clothing is not meant to last. One aspect of the fast fashion business model is the quick return rate of customers, allowing for more profits to be made. After the consumer no longer has a use for the piece, the clothing is thrown out. Each year every American discards between 50 and 85 pounds of clothing according to Newsweek. This clothing remains in landfills and the small portion of the clothes that are biodegradable will eventually break down. Four billion pounds of waste from the textile industry goes into landfills annually. For the clothes that get donated to organizations such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army, pieces that do not get sold within the month get bought in bulk by developing countries, but will likely sit in a landfill or be incinerated. While many aspects of our world and staying ecofriendly are seemingly hopeless, this is an aspect of our daily lives we do have a say over. By wearing something purchased from a fast fashion retailer for longer than nine months, the carbon footprint for this one piece will be reduced by 30%. Other affordable options open to consumers include buying from secondhand retailers, such as thrift stores, or buying from sustainable brands. Some affordable, sustainable options include Pact, Everlane and Able. Fast fashion has a huge role in shaping the environment around us from polluting our water sources to overfilling landfills. Without a change in our habits, over consumption could have longlasting damage on the planet for generations to come. Change begins with us. It is our responsibility to make a difference. With smart consumer practices, staying sustainable and eco-friendly is within our reach.

ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NOT EASY BEING GREEN: HOW TO BE A SUSTAINABLE SHOPPER 56

WRITING Elena Plumb

DESIGN Jack Vogelsang

PHOTOGRAPHY Hillary Nana-Adjei

MODELING Cameron Rackey, Sydney Tan

“Sustainable” was the buzzword of Fall 2019’s fashion cycle. From Marni’s use of recycled plastic bottles to Burberry’s carbon-neutral runway, designers around the world embraced the idea of fashion sustainability. While this eco-friendly innovation is admirable, many factors ranging from manufacturing to garment disposal must be considered when deeming a brand “sustainable”. Even if a label releases a T-shirt made of biodegradable cotton, they likely used an excessive amount of freshwater in its production, strained the agricultural industry, and overworked employees in a foreign nation. As complicated as it may seem, achieving complete sustainability in fashion is possible. Systematic changes must be implemented from within companies, but this does not mean we as consumers are powerless. Through our brand choices and shopping behaviors, we can ensure that sustainability isn’t just another trend, but a movement that’s here to stay. Here are five ways to be a more sustainable shopper: Buy less clothing Fast fashion companies have found success since their quick design-to-distribution process suits the ephemeral nature of fashion. Every season, new styles come to prominence and others become obsolete, encouraging consumers to amass cheap, trendy garments from companies like Forever 21. However, certain looks remain timeless. By purchasing a smaller quantity of durable, classic garments, you can save both your pennies and the environment without compromising style.

Shop second-hand & upcycled Fast fashion companies may replicate trends seen on the runway, but current trends often stem from styles of past decades. Mom jeans from the ‘90s were all the rage in the late 2010s, and some of the cutest, most cost-effective mom jeans could be found in thrift stores. Choosing to purchase secondhand or upcycled garments decreases the demand for fast fashion, therefore decreasing the supply and production. Also, you can reduce waste by donating unwanted clothing to thrift stores or recycling centers. Order online A study by ScienceDaily revealed that 22 percent of a garment’s climate impact comes from the shopper’s gas emissions. UPS and other delivery systems serve as public transportation systems for your clothes, eliminating each shopper’s need to drive to multiple stores in search of the perfect garment. Simply surf through options online rather than in-store to curtail your carbon footprint. Get your clothes custom-made This option is not as pricey as it sounds! Since fast fashion companies occasionally overestimate the demand for a product, leftover garments are thrown out. By ordering custom-made clothing from a brand like Nineteenth Amendment, the shopper helps combat unnecessary waste. Without a doubt, it will be difficult to immediately break your shopping habits. However, if every shopper takes just one suggestion from this list, drastic improvements in terms of pollution and sustainability begin to take shape.

Be conscious of fabrics Instead of grabbing a Zara polyester tank that will shed millions of microplastics, opt for a similar top made from recycled and organic fabrics. Many companies use sustainable fabrics while maintaining affordable prices. To name a few, Piñatex constructs garments from biodegradable pineapple leaves, Synergy uses organic cotton harvested by well-paid farmers, and Levi Strauss’s recycled denim initiative has reduced its water waste by 96 percent. 57

THE EXPECTATION OF

"Inbox sage for the digital age." Those are the first words that pop up when you open Goop — the latest health and wellness company launched by actress turned entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow. Whether it's digital sage, Himalayan salt lamps, or crystal-infused highlighter (thanks, Glossier), it's become clear — natural remedies are in. In this age of social media advertisement taking over, it's become close to impossible to avoid the influx of influencers posting pictures with burning sage or artfully arranged crystal collections in the background. Mindfulness, energy healing, astrology, and the like are all concepts that are relatively new to the pop culture sphere, thus bringing with them the intrigue and fascination of the unknown. For a generation that has grown up surrounded by large capitalist institutions and toxic social structures like hustle culture, spirituality offers a form of escape. It allows us to connect with something bigger than ourselves — outside the doctrine of organized religion — through a unique journey of personal reflection.

WRITING Bhavana Sinha PHOTOGRAPHY L-A Zenezini DESIGN Hanna Cormier MODELING Petrina Danardatu

I was raised in an environment surrounded by these beliefs — from aura-readings to palmistry to Ayurvedic medicine; there's nothing I haven't tried. My parents firmly believe that we are surrounded by energies, both in our environment and within ourselves. While I’ve never fully indulged in these practices, I’ve always been open to experimentation and learning. I watched as my mother continuously cleansed our home of negative energies through strategically placed crystals, sage burning, and saltwater cleansing. Over time, I too, have found myself warily putting my faith in crystals and now carry a small black tourmaline with me everywhere I go to ward off negative energy. But does any of it really work? Can keeping a crystal under your pillow or cleansing your house with smoke actually change your life? So far, research says no. However, spirituality and religion aren't practices founded in scientific fact. Faith, at its core, is the deep-rooted expectation of good things to come. It cannot be rationalized using reason or logic. Having hope for the future is the fundamental motivation for most people to wake up and make the most of each day. Relying on natural remedies or religion or spirituality are merely different instruments we use to express that hope. 59

I WAS RAISED IN AN ENVIRONMENT SURROUNDED BY THESE BELIEFS â&#x20AC;&#x201D; FROM AURA-READINGS TO PALMISTRY TO AYURVEDIC MEDICINE;

THERE'S NOTHING I HAVEN'T TRIED.

Explicitly admitting to my belief in these practices was a point of shame for me for a long time, because I couldn't logically justify the effectiveness of any of these practices — they were just part of who I was and where I'd come from. People often laughed and made jokes when I talked about them, and for a long time, I played along because it was easier than trying to explain myself to people who weren’t willing to listen, even if it meant disrespecting my own traditions. However, in the past few years, these products have become trendy, and stores like Urban Outfitters and Free People sell “starter witch kits” and sage bundles to an ever-growing market of millennials and GenZers who choose to identify as “spiritual but not religious”. The new popularity of these products has made me a lot more open towards expressing that part of my identity. At the same time, there is also a slight discomfort in the knowledge that something that has been such a significant part of my life has been reduced to an aesthetic that is trending on social media. While spirituality has never been restricted to any specific group of people, it is important to remember that commoditization of these products can trivialize the historical and cultural significance they hold to the people who have been using them for centuries. For example, the burning of sage, or smudging, was deemed illegal until the passing of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978.

EXPLICITLY ADMITTING TO MY BELIEF IN THESE PRACTICES WAS A POINT OF SHAME FOR ME FOR A LONG TIME... THEY WERE JUST PART OF WHO I WAS AND WHERE I'D COME FROM.

TRADITIONS THAT PEOPLE HAD TO FIGHT AND SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT ARE NOW SOLD IN RETAIL CHAIN STORES AS ACCESSORIES AND HOME DĂ&#x2030;COR.

Traditions that people had to fight and sacrifice their lives to protect are now sold in retail chain stores as accessories and home dĂŠcor. This, along with influencers on social media, is increasingly promoting the idea that these sacred traditions are a product to be consumed rather than accessed from within. If you do choose to invest in these practices, it is essential to take the ethical intentions of the seller into consideration. Look for local communities that provide authentic products rather than large corporations trying to capitalize on the latest addition to the global wellness movement. There is nothing wrong with wanting to experiment with different spiritual techniques. Without trying, there's no way to find out which practice connects with you best. However, we need to educate ourselves before we delve into an unfamiliar field so we can appreciate and acknowledge the deep cultural significance it holds to different societies across the world, not as a grab-bag approach to faith.

home

PHOTOGRAPHY Randall Gee

DESIGN Olivianne Iriarte

SENIOR CREATIVE DIRECTION Tova Lenchner

MENSWEAR STYLING Aidan Baglivo, Jonathan Pereira, Jackson Wang

CONTRIBUTING PHOTO DIRECTION Simran Gvalani STYLING DIRECTION Casey Martin, Avery Parker

WOMENSWEAR STYLING Aya Albakoush, Alicia Liu, Hillary Nana-Adjei

MAKEUP Dana Dworkin, Morgan Kay, Jill Kligler MODELING Olive Adegbile, Charlotte Baughan, Annie Koessler, Noah Wendel, Ken Yin

self expression just as the ads intended

Do you have a live studio audience keenly observing your every move? One that’s oohing and aahing, laughing and wincing?

WRITING Lynne Khouri PHOTOGRAPHY Sofia Cianca DESIGN Victoria Verrecchia MODELING Shawn Cai, Aaron Christo Nicolas Cianca

And who are you exactly? The universe responds to you — like a dance partner — moving around you, brushing past you, ricocheting off you, and mimicking you. But, as you’ve likely ascertained after years of scrabbling along on this planet, you do seem to have some degree of control over how the world receives you. One can be assured the universe will have its say. Every morning, or afternoon if you’re anything like me, we’re faced with a decision, one that often determines — and nearly always reflects — our place in the world’s pecking order. That decision is what to wear. Some believe this decision to be a corroboration of the self in a world wherein the self is a kind of commodity. The world is a proverbial stage upon which some characters assume spotlit starring roles, dressed in embellished drapery and conspicuous garb, while others assume the role of background props: a boulder, a shrub, or perhaps a wastebasket. Those who may subscribe to this worldview fall into one of two unsavory categories…

Those in the first category are, by design, more easily spotted. This is the person asking themselves, How shall I dazzle? It is the individual who, though not unique in doing so, limits their cache of clothing strictly within the margins set by others’ laudation. This person is fueled by the reverence-stricken gaze, a gaze privileged to behold their thrifted, bohemian, patchwork coat, which — they won’t fail to mention — only cost five dollars!! They are addicted to the self-conscious “I love your hat” commentary hesitatingly offered by timid admirers. Surely, said coat owner receives at least three to five doses of unadulterated praise before lunch. I wanna stand out, they think, while scrolling through the “trendy” section of Urban Outfitters in their platform Doc Martens and baggy straight-legs. Self-expression, just as the ads intended. Assuming you are hell-bent on crafting looks as a means of manipulating others’ interpretations of who you are, reducing your clothing to a code yearning to be decoded, it’s inevitable that the participation of your audience is rendered just as relevant to the integrity of the outfit as your

snakeskin heels. The fundamental paradox woven into the fabric of this person’s closet, however, is that they don not-concerning-themselves-withwhat-people-think as an accessory upon which to dote, because their ironically in-your-face indifference has in fact already been co-opted by the fashion industry. Alas, the performance is one of feigned subversion. These people advertise their Frankenstein’s avatar as boldly wearing what no one has worn before, with valorous dismissal of any (supposed) bad press, but will do so only after asking their friend, for the sixth time if they’re absolutely certain the graphic “Rick and Morty” socks they’re wearing aren’t cringe-worthy. But for the record, dear God, they are. Never try, never fail, their mantra goes. They dress well enough to not warrant a second glance. This next category of performer thinks just as much about how they are perceived, but sadly, fear paralyzes their fashion sense. Whirling in their heads are the venomous criticisms spat at those who, for far too long, had dragged out the bucket hat trend. Risk-takers they are not. The failed fashion attempt is their greatest aversion, embodied by an ancillary group of the audacious who daringly venture into a minefield of mild disfavor. These adventurers are consequently everyone’s worst nightmare, just like the “Rick and Morty” merch: cringe-worthy.

In the morning, our heads fill with all the things people might say

about us

Individuals occupying this second category may recognize the voluntary objectification of the self that takes place when one gets dressed, an endless submission and compliance which we all perpetually promote. This awareness does not absolve them, however, as they become passive bystanders who refuse to wear denim vests for some reason. They are equally condemnable in fostering coerced self-censorship. Those who do not submit to the expectations of the irredeemably fashion-forward often experience take-downs that pierce far deeper and are much more funny, precisely because they dared to try, only to fail in the attempt. The fashion-fearful live to distinguish themselves from these embarrassments, visibly attempting to recreate something already familiar to everyone, because that’s what everyone does. After all, they’d surely do better if only they had the time and energy. Ironically, this category, like the previous one, will advertise itself as utterly indifferent to the opinions of its audience, adopting the I’m-so-above-it accessory to justify their characteristic plainness. In the end, it’s about conserving their apathy in the minds of their critics.

It is not creation for the sake of creation,

but rather creation for the purpose of

val idation.

These mental constructs aren’t exclusively the handiwork of the angst-ridden fashionista, however. Advertising agencies sprinkle their fair share of magical indoctrination dust. “We sell being-comfortable-in-your-own-skin,” they say, when in reality they are selling you a skin, effectively leaving you hyper-aware of all the versions of yourself you could be and how to perfectly exemplify this caricature of hippie, baddie, yuppie, bombshell… the list goes on, as I’m sure you know. Desperate to preserve our egos and our vanity, we adopt these tactics — fundamentally, ways of upholding the simple, unequivocal fact that “I am better than the average person,” or at the very least, better than the below-average person, and the world must know it. In the morning, our heads fill with all the things people might say or think about us — about our look. We become the sum of that which we possess plus the attitude with which we possess it, because this is the only way the world has interacted with us. We abuse the term “selfexpression”. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’re merely constructing avatars. It is not creation for the sake of creation, but rather creation for the purpose of validation. We tailor costumes that set the criteria for how people should address us. The world truly does become our stage. We live this way until we are unable to remove our artificial wigs because they have dug their roots into our scalps. We live this way until upstage has a backstage. We live this way until we become the role and the world our audience.

Burst Bubble WRITING Dalya Kahn DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION Hanieka Balint, Phoebe Lasater

THIS PAST SEPTEMBER WAS THE FIRST TIME SINCE MY BAT MITZVAH THAT I DIDN’T FAST ON YOM KIPPUR. AS THE HOLIEST DAY OF THE JEWISH CALENDAR YEAR, THERE IS A SET OF CUSTOMS THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF JEWS FOLLOW TO OBSERVE SUCH A MEANINGFUL DAY. AND I DIDN’T FOLLOW ANY OF THEM. MY DAY CONSISTED OF APPLYING MAKEUP, WEARING MY LEATHER (SOMETHING NOT TRADITIONALLY WORN ON YOM KIPPUR) DOC MARTENS AND COLORS OTHER THAN WHITE, AND HEADING FROM CLASS TO CLASS THROUGHOUT THE DAY, EATING AND DRINKING AS I WENT. IT FELT HORRIBLE; LIKE I WAS GOING AGAINST EVERYTHING I STOOD FOR. LIKE I WAS BEING HYPOCRITICAL, IT FELT WRONG. WHAT KIND OF PERSON HAD I BECOME SINCE STARTING COLLEGE THAT I COULDN’T TAKE ONE DAY OFF TO OBSERVE THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THE JEWISH YEAR?

Prior to college, my life revolved around Judaism. Even when what I was doing wasn’t explicitly Jewish, my religion still played a role in everything. I attended preschool at a local synagogue where my mom was a Jewish educator and the head of the religious school. In kindergarten, I began attending a private Jewish day school. In addition to learning my ABCs and simple math, I simultaneously learned the Hebrew alphabet and the stories from the Torah. While typical schools celebrated Halloween and Christmas, I was eating the seven species for Tu B’Shvat (the birthday of the trees) and reenacting the story of the Maccabis for Hanukkah. Every year at school also came with a Jewish ceremony; receiving our own siddurim (Jewish prayer book) and celebrating Havdalah (the ceremony that concludes Shabbat and separates it from mundanity of the rest of the week). And as my years of schooling went by, I became fluent in Hebrew and well-versed in the stories of my people. My Judaism extended beyond the school week though. Friday nights were always reserved for family Shabbat dinners. Each member of my family sang a different blessing; my mom over

the candles, my dad over the wine, and my sister and I over the challah. We spent countless Friday nights together laughing, eating, and enjoying each others’ company. The following morning we’d wake up and go to services. I’d eat breakfast while listening to my mom practice her aaliyah (section of the Torah portion she’d read) and ask my sister advice on what to wear. Synagogue was where I learned the prayers, to the point of being able to recite them with a closed book. It’s where I connected to others my age, bonding over the songs we all knew and the traditions we all shared. Even my summers were Jewish. The summer before the third grade I went away from home for the first time and spent a month at Jewish summer camp. It was pretty similar to a typical camp experience, except for the fact that I prayed every morning (and afternoon and evening as I got older). Not to mention that we didn’t use any electricity from Friday night to Saturday night, and had Judaic classes in addition to my other daily activities Hebrew was spoken only a little less frequently than English, and we ate on separate dishes depending on if it was a meat meal or a dairy meal. This was the place where I really discovered how deeply I loved my Judaism.

relig

I was able to reflect on what

reflect

religion means to me

Right before coming to Northeastern, I spent my summer as a counselor at the camp I spent so many years at as a kid. It was so wonderful to be able to provide for young Jews what I was given by my counselors. I had the ability to inspire the Jewish future and being part of such a thing felt like a culmination of my whole life as a practicing Jew. Now I knew going to college would be different. Sure I’d heard about Hillel, Chabad, and various pro-Israel groups on campuses. Not to mention living in a big city like Boston there’s bound to be a Jewish population. But I spent my whole life in a small school where I and 44 other students in my grade practiced religion in the same way. Needless to say, going to a university with a couple thousand people in my grade all of whom have different beliefs, intimidated me. When I first moved in, I was committed to maintaining the level of Judaism that I’d known my whole life. I tried out Hillel and Chabad, but neither particularly spoke to me. What should’ve felt so familiar and comforting to me just made me feel almost like an outsider. I started going out on Friday nights instead of to Shabbat dinner. I felt myself disconnecting from the circles that could potentially grow to feel familiar and like home. It was in this separation though, that I think I was able to reflect on what religion means to me and how I want to practice it.

gion Even though I don’t typically go to Hillel for Friday night dinner, I still anticipate the voice message from my dad reciting the childs’ blessing to me all the way from California. I still take Friday nights to spend time with people I love. I still keep kosher and wear my Star of David necklace and Hebrew ring with pride. My religion has taken a different shape since the start of the school year, but I’m still the same Jewish self I’ve always been. Coming to college has meant completely abandoning the familiarity of being in a Jewish bubble and engaging in Judaism in the way I always have prior to moving to Boston. I’ve realized how much I love sharing about my Judaism, and more importantly, how much I love being Jewish. It’s such an essential part of my identity, and I think it took having to get out of the bubble to realize how important that bubble really is to me.

practice and how I want to practice it.

WRITING Eugene Staroselsky

PHOTOGRAPHY Catherine Titcomb

DESIGN Renee Pearce

MODELING Augustino Escandon, Cameron Glynn, Logan Magin

Sneakerheads

Lauren O'Sullivan, Roxy Welcy, Tasha Zaarour

The Business of

I woke up to my alarm at 5:50 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, five minutes after my mom pulled out of our driveway for work. My school bus came at 6:40, so I had plenty of time to get ready. Except I wasn’t taking the school bus. Or going to school. I was gonna make some money today. My mom hated going to New York City. She thought it was unsafe, and it gave her bad memories – 9/11 and the sort. When I, a 15 year old kid with authority issues and back problems, asked her if she could drive me to the city to buy some shoes instead of going to school, she shot me a weird look, thought for a bit, and then decided on a “no.” Obviously, my only option was to bike to the train station, buy a $10 ticket, take it to Grand Central, walk to the nearest subway station, buy a $3 metro

pass, take the subway to SoHo, and walk to the flagship Nike store. I was surprised at the lack of a line — the ‘Space Jam’ Jordan XIs were supposed to be a pretty hype drop for sneakerheads worldwide (the resale value would’ve been insane). I walked in and asked the closest employee if they had any left in stock. He told me “you should’ve been here earlier, they dropped at 8 a.m.”. As in, 8 a.m. EST, and not 8 a.m. PST, which is what I thought it was. I walked out of that store disheartened — heartbroken if you will. Not to mention I was down $26 when you include the trip back home. But new shoes dropped every week. I’d get my chance again in the future, and from this day on, I kept close track of shoe releases and continued buying, selling, and cutting a profit. My mom was at work this whole time and had no idea this happened, so if you’re reading this mom, hi.

thrifted clothing pushes young people to develop their own style

Point is, sneakers mean a lot to me. And a lot of other kids too. Thanks to the internet, hypebeast culture and sneaker resell culture is giving teenagers new goals; tons of sites like GOAT, STOCKX, HYPEBEAST, and DEPOP let anyone interested enough track release dates, market values, and recent sales. Kids can properly compete with adults in the job market – a new generation of independent businessmen and women are being created in front of our parents. I know kids who actually do this full time. They’re doing their homework in full OFF-WHITE apparel, entirely bought with their own money. Some kids are starting up other careers in fashion or music, at our age, using money they’ve made from reselling. This is like, serious. Not unlike the stock market, "investing" in expensive shoes to sell them later is all about risk. Sometimes, companies will release an unexpectedly high quantity — increasing the supply — and dropping the prices on resell. All of a sudden, your

potential $100 profit becomes a $15 profit. Yeah, it’s still a profit, but the effort and attention required might not be enough to justify the process. Some might call it gambling. So is investing in the stock market though, right? There’s some sketchy parts to this business. Some people operate with fake clothing and shoes; they buy knockoff sneakers for $12, touch them up a bit, and sell them for fifteen times their price. Most popular reselling websites catch these fakes consistently, but other less quality-tested websites like Amazon have a harder time. Some other people use botting software. Especially popular with YEEZY reselling, people use bots to log onto the Adidas website the millisecond new pairs drop; these bots can come in hundreds, often buying out entire launches of shoes before actual humans can have a chance at buying them. There’s no feasible way to get YEEZYs on their website anymore. I’ve literally tried dozens of times now — your only hope is to lineup in real life in front of a store carrying the new drop.

The resale market is really gonna explode this next decade, even more than it already has. Not just in expensive shoes and clothing, but also on the other side of the clothing spectrum. Younger generations are starting to care more about environmental sustainability in the things they buy, and thrifting is becoming an essential way to buy unique clothing for cheap. Whether they be from indie thrift shops or worldwide clothing donation organizations, thrifted clothing pushes young people to develop their own style and become experts at identifying value in the things they buy. Reselling and thrifting are incredibly separate in terms of price range, but both promote re-use and giving power to the buyer. For college kids, the ultimate play is being both a thrifter and a reseller. If you can follow hype clothing trends, take advantage of them, and cut a profit, while spending relatively little money on clothing for yourself by thrifting, you might be making big bills weekly. I’m not saying I’m making big bills weekly — I have no idea what I’m doing, like in general, and I waste most of my money. But if you have a good head on your shoulders, this is a fantastic way to make some extra bucks while in college; as a bonus, you’re being sustainable, learning about economics, and looking pretty cool while doing it.

engulfed PHOTOGRAPHY Serena Buscarello SENIOR CREATIVE DIRECTION Tova Lenchner CONTRIBUTING PHOTO DIRECTION Simran Gvalani STYLING DIRECTION Casey Martin, Avery Parker DESIGN Olivianne Iriarte MENSWEAR STYLING Aidan Baglivo, Jonathan Pereira, Jackson Wang

WOMENSWEAR STYLING Aya Albakoush, Alicia Liu, Hillary Nana-Adjei MAKEUP Lucia Tarro MODELING Kaela Anderson Medha Shah

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BETWEEN TWO RACES

M u s t I c hoo se ?

WRITING Kaela Anderson DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION Sarah Ceniceros To say that I felt torn between two worlds growing up is an understatement. Feeling the pressures from my Black peers in school for not knowing of something culturally relevant suddenly meant I wasn’t Black enough; while feeling out of place amongst my white friends because my curls couldn’t take the fine-tooth comb they used for their pin-straight hair meant that I wasn’t white either. For the longest time, I felt like I had to identify with one race or the other. To be Black, but not white — or vice versa. But there was no way I could be both. It wasn’t until early high school when my world shifted, and I found myself surrounded by other mixed kids. It’s possible that they were just as confused by their race as I was, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, I wasn’t alone anymore, and it felt so damn good. It finally felt as though this big, bright spotlight had been taken off of me. I wasn’t one of two people of color at the kindergarten birthday party anymore, or the only curly-haired girl at the middle school sleepover. I wasn’t alone anymore. I no longer felt like I was controlled by the confines of having to straddle two identities. I never gave the (eventual) comfort of my hometown much thought, but I knew it wasn’t common to be among such a diverse group of peers your

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I FELT OVERLOOKED, MISUNDERSTOOD & UNDERREPRESENTE

whole life. Life was good at home; conversations were easy. There was no need to code-switch — something I’d later discover would be the epitome of much of my college career. I finally felt like my sense of being was coming together. The slang frequently used around my high school by other Black kids was somewhat of a comfort to me, as I was able to be a part of something that meant more than just sayings or phrases; this was culture. I felt like I had tapped into this Black culture I had sought after for so long as a child. I’d later find out that my life wouldn’t go on like this forever — I’d have to experience loneliness once again. I went to college, and life as I knew it shifted

completely. I moved to Boston. Yeah, Boston — a white-ass city filled with universities that lack a representation of students of color — but I digress. Though I’d summoned up the courage to leave Montclair, the place I called home, and embark on a new chapter in my life, I wasn’t ready for the drastic transition involving diversity — or lack thereof — that no one had warned me about. I found myself rejecting my surroundings. Barely anyone was Black. What was I to do? I felt as though I had lost a piece of myself because, honestly, I did. I’d lost this sense of culture I’d obtained and now I would just have to live these next four years constantly waiting to come home to see people who I could talk to, people I could relate to. Was the lack of Black people around me an adjustment I was going to have to accept? But hey, maybe I was being a little dramatic. But I really didn’t think I was. Maybe I could find a place in Boston where I could expand on this journey of “finding myself” or whatever is supposed to happen when you get to college. It

was hard though. I felt so small. I felt overlooked, misunderstood, and underrepresented. During this time I even asked myself if I cared too much, if I needed to stop talking about race and my place in this world and where I fit in. Who would think that everyday speech, even in the same language, but rooted in such different cultures, would affect me so profoundly. Who was I supposed to have Black banter with, who was I supposed to talk about hair with, and what was going on in Black culture? My dialogue shifted completely, though the conversations were

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I’LL CONTINUE TO REFUSE TO ACCEPT SOMETHING WHERE I CANNOT TRULY BE MYSELF 106

still rich in meaning, it felt lacking in substance (substance I cared about nonetheless).

switching wasn’t something I could just ignore; it felt forced.

If I were to talk about being Black or Black culture with my white friends, it was likely that I would need to further explain what I meant or things would simply go over their heads. And honestly, it was exhausting having to constantly teach about things I found quite obvious — it was something I wasn’t used to. It wasn’t just the vernacular, but in fact, my day-to-day dialogues had begun to shift. My conversations with my white friends seemed to be geared towards certain topics as well. Code-

Finally, I began to grow comfortable at school. With getting into the flow of classes and co-op, there was enough to distract me from what was still picking away at my discomfort. I thought that maybe I could just treat these four years as this interim period before I moved back home and my “real life” began. So much so, that gradually my code-switching wasn’t something I noticed anymore — and that kind of sucked.

Had I truly lost who I was? Did this mean I was giving up on this seemingly lifelong identity crisis I thought I’d finally begun to sort out? I didn’t even notice I was living in these seemingly parallel universes that I once cared so much about. As I try to navigate my personal beliefs, and my identity in this brown skin of mine, I’ll continue to question my surroundings, and I’ll continue to

refuse to accept something where I cannot truly be myself. Though these times of confusion and honestly general (almost) quarter life crisis will go on for god-knows-how-long, I know for certain through the struggle with my own identity, I’ve begun to find myself and the person I’m becoming.

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ONE PERSON'S TRA WRITING Preston Reep & Elsie Wang PHOTOGRAPHY Kristen Chen DESIGN Hanna Cormier MODELING Camryn McAllister, Elsie Wang

In the late 19th century as the industrial revolution began, so did the mass production of clothing. As prices went down and production went up, consumers started to get rid of their excess clothing to make space for new styles. The disposed clothing made it to places like secondhand thrift stores, funded by Christian ministries. Since then, thrifting has evolved from a charity program for religious ministries to a sustainable treasure-hunting lifestyle for fashionistas. So the question remains, how did thrifting take this major leap? How have thrifting trends helped boost the topic of sustainability to the forefront of fashion? We went around to the most popular thrift/vintage stores in the Boston area to speak to the people working and living in the industry to see what they think.

While thrifting itself has been a common practice for lower income shoppers since its creation, thrifting has risen to mainstream popularity as the public opinion of secondhand shopping gradually evolved. According to Forbes, multiple factors played into the rise of secondhand, from media exposing the fashion industry as being â&#x20AC;&#x153;second only to the oil industry in regard to the amount of damage it causes our planetâ&#x20AC;? to online influencers promoting their vintage finds on social media. These factors have been effective, working together to cause the downfall of fast fashion brands like Forever 21 and Barneys New York, resulting in bankruptcy for both in 2019. With more coverage upon topics like environmentalism, consumers look for ways to reduce their fashion carbon footprint and make a small difference in the toxic industry. Brands such as Patagonia, Reformation, People Tree, and BITE all promote ethical and sustainable fashion.

Thrifting has evolvedd from a charity program for religious ministries to a sustainable treasure-hunting lifestyle for fashionistas.

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ASH IS ANOTHER'S However, brands that have ethical backgrounds and are sustainable in their creation often have steeper prices. That drives away a large group of consumers, unable to afford brands that are good for the environment. This is where thrifting and vintage shopping come in. Raspberry Beret is a sweet little consignment store found in North Cambridge whose motto is “Local, Sustainable Style”. With a colorful selection of vintage clothing and affordable prices, it is the perfect place to find fashionable vintage clothing for a fraction of the retail price. Operating in the greater Boston area since 2005, Raspberry Beret believes in reducing “the stress the fashion industry places on the environment." They source all of their goods through consignment, exceeding 4,500 regular participants from the Greater Boston area, New Hampshire and New York. Rachel Higgins, the manager of the Cambridge store, delved into her perspective of sustainability and thrifting. When asked how she got into secondhand, Higgins responded that she has always been a sentimental person, stating “I just love the revitalization of people’s things, their energy, their memories and their sentiments that are attached to their things." And just as every one has a different reason to get into secondhand, there are also a wide variety of stores that support shoppers. Raspberry Beret specifically carries a multitude of consigned high-end labels that would normally carry a high price tag, but instead sell at a fraction of the price despite often being brand new.

TREASURE

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Styles from the '80s and '90s have been re-popularized through the return of low-rise jeans, grunge and turtlenecks.

They promote a very “quality over quantity of business." It’s because of stores like this that customers can buy name brands while also being economically friendly. This strategy of taking used or out-of-season clothing and reselling at a more affordable price has also been implemented by big retail companies. Nordstrom, in a new initiative called “See You Tomorrow”, is selling second hand luxury goods in their New York flagship store while also allowing customers to bring in their own luxury items in exchange for Nordstrom gift cards. By buying and selling used clothing, top luxury retailers like Nordstrom encourage ethical and sustainable shopping to a large consumer base. For those who don’t necessarily shop secondhand to find branded clothing, there are options such as Goodwill, Buffalo Exchange, and even online thrifting through apps like Depop and Poshmark. These options have been on the rise as the younger population has started to recycle older styles. Styles from the ‘80s and ‘90s have been re-popularized through the return of low-rise jeans, grunge, and turtlenecks. Stores like Forever 21 have been producing a lot of fast fashion items yet have not kept up with these trends. Because of that, stores like Goodwill and Buffalo Exchange are becoming the mainstream places to rediscover clothing.

Stores like Forever 21 have been producing a lot of fast fashion items yet have not kept up with these trends. Because of that, stores like Goodwill and Buffalo Exchange are becoming the mainstream places to rediscover clothing. 110

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Buffalo Exchange has two locations in the Greater Boston area in both Allston and Somerville. Created in 1974 by Kerstin and Spencer Block, the store also buys, trades, and sells used clothing. One thing that makes them a bit different from the average thrift store is their way of sorting through clothing that sellers bring in. They hire “shoppers” who are knowledgeable in the latest trends and select specific pieces from the clothing and accessories people bring in. Speaking with some of the sellers waiting in line at Buffalo Exchange, many of them are looking to recycle their wardrobe. By turning their clothing into store credit, they are able to then use that credit to buy other secondhand clothes. One seller stated that it made them feel “less guilty about shopping” when they brought in items they no longer needed. Once considered “junk shops”, stores that sell secondhand goods are now being hailed as trendy and environmentally friendly, and while this is a great step in the fashion industry, this may just be the beginning of a larger social problem. As secondhand shops are becoming more popular, it’s inevitable that prices are rising. Donation-run thrift stores such as Goodwill and The Salvation Army, that were once predominantly meant for lower income families, are now populated by many middle-class income shoppers searching for brands or unique finds. Some have called this a link between charity and capitalism as thrift stores are slowly gentrified or priced-out. However, the opinions about this topic are still in the making.

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While some people correlate thrift stores with food banks, meant solely for the lower income, there are others who believe that thrift stores are a place that is simply an option of recycling and keeping clothing out of landfills. Ultimately, thrifting seems to be a trend that is on the rise. As climate change and saving the planet is receiving more attention, sustainability and secondhand seems to be finding its place. As long as people are donating and selling their used clothing, keeping it out of landfills, there will also be those who buy and find a use for it.

Ultimately, thrifting seems to be a trend that is on the rise.

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HANDLE WITH CARE

WRITING & PHOTOGRAPHY Henry Abrams DESIGN Sarah Ceniceros

IT’S A WELL-KNOWN FACT THAT NO TWO PEOPLE HAVE IDENTICAL FINGERPRINTS. EACH PATTERN IS MADE DISTINCT WITH DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF LOOPS, CURVES, OR SWIRLS; SOME SLIGHT DEVIATION FROM ANOTHER WHICH MAKES IT UNIQUE. OUR HANDS ARE IN MANY WAYS THE SAME — THEY INHERENTLY REFLECT THE ENVIRONMENTS WE HAVE GONE THROUGH AND THE ENVIRONMENTS WE STAND IN TODAY. AS NO TWO PEOPLE LIVE THE SAME LIFE, NO TWO PEOPLE HAVE THE SAME HANDS.

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This is an era when appearance is indicative of power, social class, and opportunity. Features such as a strong jawline or symmetrical profiles typically denote beauty in Western society. Is a baseline for what a hand â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; look like to be expected? Well, maybe not.

HANDS ARE OUR STRONGEST TOOL TO INTERACT WITH THE WORLD

With labor comes calluses, mental lapses bring scars, and even more can be said about the rings, watches, and the shades of polish which decorate our nails. These identifying little tidbits simply imitate our experiences in a more open fashion than any other natural characteristic we hold. And it makes sense as for many, hands are our strongest tool to interact with the world, our sense of touch which allows us to act on what our vision, sight, taste, and hearing cannot.

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WE LEAVE OUR HANDS B Hands come in a variety of shapes and sizes; you could have short fingers and big palms, or skinny fingers and slim palms. Softer, smoother, and younger looking hands may even be considered a feminine preference, but there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a specific hand-type thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s immediately or necessarily assigned to beauty or identity. And so without this forced societal idea of what should be, and unlike the scrutiny and cosmetic alterations that we put the rest of our bodies through, we leave our hands be, preserving their environmental imprints. The wear from our surroundings remains on our hands as indications of experiences to be looked upon and remembered.

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It is the intricate little memories such as these that are embedded in our hands: the calluses that decorate the fingertips of a guitarist; the muscular fingers of a pianist; the splotches of blues and the streaks of charcoal that decorate a painterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hands; the scraped knuckles of a friend who is learning to skateboard; the green circles that remain after you take off a favorite ring; the scarred and bloodied hands following an attempt to garden.

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ING ONGOING ON ORIENTATION ORIE

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NGOING ONGOING ENTATION ORIENTA WRITING & MODELING Dipshika Chawla PHOTOGRAPHY Alexandra Chua DESIGN Victoria Verrecchia Humans are creatures of habit. According to the Daily Mail UK, people regularly visit a maximum of 25 places at a given period of time but these 25 constants change over time and if a new place is added to the list, another disappears. Despite our habit-loving instincts, we elect ourselves for severely drastic life changes that potentially uproot the entire basis of routine and familiarity we built; an easy example to follow for many is the transition to University. Today, our physical and mental mobility is unmatched and is enabled by endless social constructs and structural factors. Think about accessible travel, the World Wide Web, and relatively pro-change global attitudes. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no surprise that we do not navigate the world the same way as animals in nature, but we surely carry our very own mechanisms to orient to the multitude of environments we constantly engage in. Do you ever find yourself reflecting on the endless places you have to be on a busy day or through a busy week? Do they include your creeky greater Boston residence, long commutes, place of fitness, the overcrowded grocery store, a dreaded course at school and the irresistible Friday night party?

While this is only a starting point to help grasp the magnitude of our diversified presence and attention in any phase of life, I think we can agree that any person has a number of environments to actively orient to â&#x20AC;&#x201D; making life nothing but an ongoing orientation, one minute to the next. Far or near, recent or old, we carry pieces from our past to equip ourselves for the future and its accompanying unknowns. Simply put, our past informs and drives our future decision-making. I was born and raised in the same city for 18 years of my life until I came to Boston. I carried every piece of my past close to my heart, as a consistent frame of reference to guide me through the unknowns. There was an evident transfer of habits and ideals between my hometown and Boston, such as how I spend my leisure time or decorate my room, or even how I like my coffee! Admittedly nothing

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an ongoing orientation, one minute to the next. remains exactly the same, I successfully (and excitedly) reoriented to everything Boston while certainly drawing inspiration to who I fundamentally am and what I represent. As an international student, the disparity sinks in when going back and forth between my hometown and Boston. It is the elements of reverse culture shock and the variance in my actions for essentially the same practices of leisure time, morning coffee (or lack thereof — I don’t drink coffee at home!) and my single-child-living private room. Most people are familiar with the feeling of displacement when moving between towns and cities, or even spending longer than 48 hours in the absence of one’s own bed. We all have points of reference for any event or object and it’s fairly effortless for us to make such comparisons due to the literal or symbolic resurfacing of ideas in life. The subconscious navigation of your social circle, learning from its members and the actions of previous social circles, is a small example of this. This might hint at the idea of personal growth and reformation, but in its broadest sense it is a type of reorientation that stems purely from your past relationships. Our environment determines our behavior, certainly. But how does our preexisting environment and the knowledge that comes from it, good or bad, shape our outlook and outreach for the next endeavor?

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On a granular scale, the different places a person goes within a day call for immense and timely adjustments. Seemingly straightforward transitions, such as going from school to work to home, often require significant maturity for the different physical spaces, people, and tasks they are comprised of. This might sound like the sought-after idea of work-life balance, and it is, except we are also thinking about the liminal space that one zones into when juggling these different roles. For me, I vividly remember how surreal it felt to return to my dorm room after interviewing for my first big-girl-job at the headquarters of an international corporation. Does my portrayed professionalism and eloquence successfully mask my nightly shenanigans and instant ramen ritual with my equally goofy roommate? Well, of course, employers are not oblivious to my age group or full-time student status, but it does make me wonder how so many of us are impressively reorienting to new and old engagements on the daily. With change as the only constant in our lives, it is crucial for us to stay in touch with the environments we inhabit, the roles we play, the expectations we chase, and the ways in which these overlay. It is terrifically common to find oneself crushed by the aforementioned transitions. While in conversation with a handful of people, I noticed a sense of identity and role crises when balancing a scientific or tactical major alongside an artistic or humanities minor; we are paralyzed in an attempt to balance completely different schools of thought.

Making life nothing but

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This is something I relate to on a personal level; Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m pursuing a major in Management and Management Information Systems with a minor in English. Not only students, but most adults face uncertainty as a skipping stone to arrive at concrete decisions, bringing me to advocate for the importance of articulating your environments and roles in order to stack them graciously. On the note of balance, it is almost impossible for many people to separate attitudes and emotions from different aspects of their lives. In a plain sense, people experience a spillover from hectic mornings into unrelated events later in the day or even days! Even technologyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s omnipresence makes

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it more important than ever for us to both orient between real and virtual life, and learn when it is appropriate to dive into the latter. It should be at the core of our policy to refresh and reset between transitions and do justice to our environments.

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