Issue
In This jacob alabab-moser &
anna harvey 3
K ATHY LUO 2
pazia bermeduz-silverman 4
Utopian Visions of Blackness
Bring on the Butter
Have a Little Faith TESSA DEMEYER 6
INTERVIEW WITH TY WALKER
Slope Style?
postCover by Doris Liou
FEB 23
VOL 21 —
ISSUE 4
written By kathy luo – illustration by harim choi
What does it mean to be Christian at Brown?
Have a Little Faith
FEATURE
T
he first question many people ask me when they hear I’m a Christian is one I’ve also asked myself many times. I ask it most often on Sunday mornings, when my phone alarm rings at the unholy hour of 8:30 a.m. and I have yet again made the unwise decision of allowing myself only five hours to sleep. My body feels steam-rolled to the bed, my eyes are burning like the fires of hell, and I regret everything. Sometimes I think just the fact that I leave my bed every Sunday morning could be evidence of a miraculous God. Every time I do it, I inevitably ask myself: Why am I doing this? Why am I a Christian? My story is actually quite a common one for someone of my background. My parents were not Christian, and neither were theirs. When they joined a local Chinese-American church after immigrating from China, they did it to find a community; God was more of a side effect. But as a result, the household my brother and I were born into was Christian, we grew up attending church, and now, seemingly as another side effect, we’re Christian too. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that this story is much more nuanced. The fact is, if you’re 20-something years old, go to an even moderately liberal college, and have thought about your identity in any capacity at all, it is impossible for Christianity to be a mere side effect of your life. Ask any Christian at Brown, and one of the first things they will tell you is that keeping faith is difficult. Christians believe some crazy things by today’s standards: Even the most liberal, interpretive approaches to the Bible have to concede that one entity made the entire galaxy, took the form of some 30-year-old Middle Eastern dude, then got murdered and came back from the dead. It makes sense that any kind of public declaration of this belief raises some eyebrows and occasionally leads to direct questioning. Furthermore, while Christians believe in God, they themselves are nowhere close to being omniscient: Any Christian at Brown will also have a story for you about a time when they needed to defend their faith but couldn’t come up with the right answers. They’ll tell you about identity crises, self-doubt, and conversations they regret not being prepared for. “I was once talking with a friend, and somehow we got on the topic of life after death,” says David Shin ’20. “He asked me if we have a body in heaven, if there’s pain in heaven, and it just spiraled on. I wanted to give more direct answers, but I wasn’t the best source they could have gone to. Eventually we had to go to class.
Letter from the Editor
Sometimes I think just the fact that I leave my bed every Sunday morning could be evidence of a miraculous God.
The conversation just sort of dropped.” Mikaela Carrillo ’21 experienced something similar with a friend who had been the victim of a natural disaster. “[She] asked a lot of questions about pain, how someone could praise God when their neighbor or someone next to them had died,” Carrillo said. “I just remember feeling so helpless. In those situations, I don’t want to say anything that I’m not completely sure about. But you’re going to come face-to-face with difficult questions, and sometimes that requires being vulnerable to admit that I don’t know.” Christians at Brown engage in a daily, even hourly, battle of wits between what they’ve chosen to believe and the plethora of counter-evidence that exists around them. But in some ways, this experience of questioning and identity-building is an essential part of the college experience, Christian or not—and something many Christians actively seek as they come to Brown. “I think the Brown community has enough perspectives so that you’re exposed to viewpoints that really make you think,”
Dear Readers,
Reasons to Cry
Long weekends can be a time for
happens when something you dedicate
reexamination, whether it’s the mundane—
yourself to heart and soul falls just out of
how am I still unable to finish my
reach. Jacob and Pazia’s piece explores the
1. Getting Rick Rolled
homework?—or the more extreme what-
ground-shaking possibility of another world
am-I-doing-with-my-life existential crisis.
presented by Black Panther (also 10/10
2. No spicy mayo at Jo's
would recommend). Both my and Anna Harvey’s introspections her, and casually eating brunch next to
Rethinking everything, with this issue in
Governor Raimondo at The Salted Slate
hand,
piece attempts to reconcile two parts of her identity, while Ty Walker talks about what
4.
Someone taking your clothes out of the washer
were precipitated by food: Nigella for
(10/10 would recommend) for me. Kathy’s
3. Getting a C on an exam you studied for
Saanya editor - in - chief
5. When there's a melted Tide Pod on your favorite shirt 6. The Tide Pod meme 7. The old Taylor is dead 8. Buying textbooks 9. When it's sunny out and you have class 10. Seeing a doggo on the Main Green
2 post–
NARRATIVE David Ferranti ’19 said. “The best conversations I’ve had with other people about faith are ones where we both were able to recognize that we thought a lot about this beforehand. We’re not children having an argument, we’re adults having a conversation. The Christian faith for a believer is a choice, and for the nonbeliever, it’s also a choice.” Sometimes the word “faith” is immediately associated with religion. But applied more generally, faith is a pretty universal human experience. Every day, we make choices that test our faith. When we get in cars, we need to have faith that its parts are working properly, that the engine will run without interruption, that we will reach our destination in one piece. When people enter a relationship, they need to have faith that the other person cares for them too. Faith is necessary for so many things, and yet, it can be challenged and broken: Getting into an accident can cause people to hesitate the next time they have to drive, and a bad breakup can destroy someone’s faith in love for years. But it's that fallibility that makes it faith at all — we must first be willing to extend ourselves to receive anything in return. Faith in a religious context works the same way. Sometimes, especially in moments when I struggle to see God, I wonder why He doesn’t just toss blatant miracles at us so we would never have to doubt. But then, I wonder about how much vibrancy such a faith would have—whether it’d be out of true love for God or simply out of a lack of other realistic options. “I’ve talked about it with my non-Christian friends, and it’s difficult for them to understand what it means to me to have this faith,” said an interviewee from the class of 2020, who asked to remain anonymous. “I think we as humans have a tendency to box off sections of our lives and give certain sections to certain things. But being a Christian, you can’t give half of your faith. You have to give everything to God. I think that vulnerability is very difficult for people to have.” From that point of view, the difficulty of being a Christian is not simply due to the occasional discomforts—it’s hard because in those moments, faith has to persist anyway. Of course, a more passionate faith is also a more invested one, and this degree of investment is accompanied by an equal amount of risk. Said one interviewee from the class of 2019 who has asked to remain anonymous, “A lot of Christians at Brown are also liberal, so they have to handle the baggage of Christianity often being in confluence with conservatism. So they might not want to show their faith, because they don’t want to be treated like that group. It sucks, because that’s not the way that Christianity is supposed to be.” It’s an intellectual journey. Being at Brown has challenged my faith, but the college’s spirit of inquisitive learning has also been a great encouragement. Recalling her conversation with her friend again, Carrillo says, “Although I didn’t have the answers I wanted for her, I was grateful to have that opportunity. There are mysteries and things about God and the world that I can’t fully know. But
at Brown, people take initiative with what they’re learning, and they think a lot about what they believe. That’s made a difference in my own spiritual walk. It’s not just routine, it’s thoughtful thinking and really wrestling with hard topics.” Christians at Brown also seek to build faith through campus community, which is more varied than one might expect. “I was surprised by the Christian community at Brown,” said Tom Hale ’19. “It was larger and more vibrant than I expected.” Several Christian groups meet on a weekly basis to have meals together, listen to messages concerning the Bible and faith, and build community through other events like movie nights or off-campus outings. At these gatherings, which can vary from 15 to 50 people, diversity comes through various geographic, cultural, and experiential differences, as well as more technical divisions through denomination, such as Catholic or Protestant. Although Brown has a reputation for being one of the most liberal universities in the nation, many Christians at Brown have also expressed that this diverse community has helped strengthen their faith during college. “I didn’t grow up in a Christian family,” Stella Lee ’19 said. “But another family took me to church, and they would pray for me. As I got older, I also got very close with a group of Christian friends that I could talk to. Now most of the relationships I have with Christians are through the friends I’ve made at Brown.” Lee, a junior, didn’t start to actively engage in Brown’s Christian community until this past summer. Nonetheless, she says, “The community here is the best so far I’ve had—it’s not hard to be integrated. Whenever I’m struggling with something, I bring it up to my community and see how they can encourage me through faith. Seeing how much trust they put in Him is really encouraging. I have a reminder through other people.” However, sometimes inclusion in one community means difficulty in fitting into another. The interviewee from the class of 2020 said, “I was once asked to go to a party, and I just couldn’t go. I know I’m a representative of my fellowship and God, and my friends know I’m a Christian. I don’t think things like drinking are necessarily wrong—it’s only when it makes you act in a way that you normally wouldn’t that it can get difficult.” “To find the community requires effort, energy, and maintenance,” she admits. “It’s one of the hardest yet best decisions I’ve made coming to Brown.” Finding belonging, dealing with existential crises, and worrying about the future—Christians and non-Christians at Brown tackle a lot of the same issues. At the end of the day, everyone puts their faith in something, and everyone will have it shaken sometimes. I’ve learned that what matters is not how often you’re shaken, but how willing you are to respond to it. For me, I guess part of that response has been 20 years of getting up on sleepy Sunday mornings. I love sleep more than almost anything else in life. So I think that has to mean something.
Bring on the Butter
Nigella-Approved Meals By anna harvey
The night before second semester began, I dropped my suitcase in my room, grabbed my empty backpack, and trekked through the rain to Eastside Marketplace. I was back on campus early, one of the few on my floor and the first of my friends, and I was hungry. I could have rustled up some plain pasta and upped the nutrition quotient with the few peas from the bottom of the bag I’d left in my freezer over break, provided I could hack apart the icy lump that encased them. It might have worked, brightened up with a little bit of pepper nicked from the open container in the communal kitchen, but I was in a cooking mood. I was in a Nigella mood, actually. According to Nigella, I was about to make one of her “proudest creations,” and I needed linguine, thyme, garlic, mushrooms, and a lemon. So to the supermarket I went. Nigella Lawson is arguably the paragon of home cooking, especially in an era when all Food Network seems to show is high-octane competitions involving wicker baskets filled with rooster feet and ostrich eggs and far too much puree. Nigella is different. Though she is the daughter of a British lord and was educated at Oxford, she shuns pretension in the kitchen, preferring a primarily English-Italian hybrid style of cooking that is rooted in the revamping of domestic bliss. She leapt onto the culinary scene in 1998, the year I was born, with the publication of her first book, How to Eat. She is unfussy, decadent, comforting, and unabashedly joyful. Nigella delights in the “ritual disemboweling of the lemon” in an episode of her early 2000s cooking show, Nigella Bites. The second season of this show is compiled, in full, on YouTube in a video that clocks in at just over four hours and 47 minutes. I fell in love with this video, along with the pirated versions of her later series, alone in my dorm room freshman year, when I didn’t have access to a kitchen. Watching Nigella exclaim over the smell of nutmeg, “which in large quantities is a hallucinogen, but in small quantities induces a wonderful feeling of...well-being,” I, too, felt well—like I could handle the uncertainty of young adulthood if only my breakfast were properly spiced. So spice I did (with cinnamon, as I soon discovered the smell of nutmeg induces in me a feeling of queasiness, not wellbeing). One of the first episodes in the second season of Nigella Bites begins with a recipe for mashed potatoes. First thing in the pan: a healthy splash of cream—milk is acceptable, Nigella concedes, as long as you do not even CONSIDER anything less than full-fat. Then go in boiled potatoes, butter, and salt. Nigella begins to mash. As she mashes the potatoes, Nigella looks lovingly at the golden rectangle of butter shimmering in the silver packet
"I think I'd be really good at being famous." "Why are you tenderly holding my water bottle?" "Living vicariously through my friends is my aesthetic." february 23, 2018 3
NARRATIVE
ARTS&CULTURE
Illustrated by Lisa Fasol
Utopian Visions of Blackness Black Panther Re-Imagines Realities of Race and Power By Jacob alabab-Moser & pazia bermeduz-silverman "When I bought the tickets to see Black Panther with my close friend, sister, niece, and nephew, I knew I was about to witness history. After the movie, we all shared our thoughts. My niece described many scenes as “powerful” and “spiritual,” and it was clear we all agreed. With all of us identifying as Afro-Latinx, we felt personally touched by the film’s recognition of Black Power." -Pazia Bermeduz-Silverman
next to her bowl, considers for a moment, and slices off another generous pat. She explains, looking at the camera, that extra butter is essential, “as what I’m doing here is seeking protection from life, solely through potato, butter, and cream.” These kinds of maxims permeate each episode and really Nigella’s ethos as a whole. Food is a glorious, nourishing thing, able to ease heartbreak, boost confidence, and make even the most mundane of Mondays magnificent. Whether eaten in the company of friends and family or on the couch in front of the
with “fat stodges of white plastic bread, please”—no small-batch sourdough here. Nigella often works with fresh ingredients. (Indeed, some of the majesty of watching her cook is seeing how she combines piles of vibrant vegetables into one heaping, colorful dish.) Even so, she also embraces processed food, the kind some of her contemporaries would look down upon. (Though she’s an American icon, and one I also adore, Ina Garten’s dejected “storebought is fine” comes to mind when really, everyone watching knows it isn’t, not really.) Nigella sings the praises of simplicity, of ease, even if that means cutting the occasional corner. For her, any cooking is better than no cooking, and that message rings true throughout, whether she’s making a sandwich or a souffle. Her style instills confidence in even the most timid cook. For example, when whipping up a flourless chocolate cake she remarks, “It’s better not to be scared of egg whites—if you’re too scared it does somehow permeate its way into the cooking. You just have to relax,” flicking her wrist as the camera pans to foam swirling together with chocolate, chaos with calm. By the time I settled my bounty on the gritty countertop of the Perkins third-floor kitchen and rolled up my sweater sleeves, the rain had stopped, and cool air filtered in through the open window.
Nigella sings the praises of simplicity, of ease, even if that means cutting the occasional corner. television, cooking is the ultimate act of caring—for others, but also for oneself. “Roast Leg of Lamb, For One” is one of her most famous recipes. If Nigella says so, we all deserve to eat something prepared well and seasoned with love. And we all deserve to delight in watching her smother a hock of meat with red wine and rosemary. I am starting to believe it for myself. Despite the extravagance of a roast leg of lamb, particularly for someone on a student budget, what makes Nigella so near and dear to me is her avowed informality. In an episode called “Trashy,” which comes about midway through the master YouTube compilation, she prepares a peanut-butter-andbanana “Elvis sandwich.” It is easy, something one probably doesn’t even need a recipe for, but it is fun and comforting to watch this woman, a cook far more experienced than I am, stick a knife into a jar of peanut butter and slick it across two pieces of white bread to create a sandwich like the kind so many of us brought to kindergarten lunch. As she unwraps the bread, she makes it clear that this is not a gourmet dish, insisting that it must be made 4 post–
Taking a deep breath, I began chopping mushrooms, tossing them with thyme, lemon juice, tiny minces of garlic, and glug after glug of golden olive oil. I boiled my pasta, fishing out long strands every couple of minutes to check for doneness and also, to relish in the process, the chemical transformation from hard stalk to chewy noodle. As I assembled my dish, saving half for leftovers, I remembered another Nigella quotable: “All pasta is good, that’s the universal rule.” Indeed, I thought, with pasta, anything is possible. And then I took a bite.
The movie has the largest opening for an African-American director, the largest Presidents Day opening, the largest three-day opening for February, and the largest Monday opening in boxoffice history. Its economic success is inevitably tied to its groundbreaking move toward dispelling racial stereotypes, increasing POC and female representation in Hollywood, and above all, changing the institutionalized idea that light is good and dark is evil. But the social justice championed by Black Panther is not apparent in its original inception. The first superhero of African descent, the comic book character Black Panther originally appeared in the 1966 Fantastic Four No. 52 by Marvel creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the same year, the United States witnessed the rise of the Black Panther Party, though Lee has said that the two names were unrelated. But what started as a mere coincidence now has become a compelling connection; the 2018 film’s main objective largely aligns with that of the revolutionary party: to imagine a Black utopia. The film envisions an alternate reality through Wakanda, an uncolonized African country that appears underdeveloped to the rest of the world, but is actually extremely wealthy and technologically advanced as a result of vibranium, a locally found precious metal. Its society is predicated both on cutting-edge modernity and deep tradition. One of the film’s early scenes involves a ceremony in which the Wakandan kingdom and its five tribes crown T’Challa, the son of the recently deceased king, as the next ruler of Wakanda, or the so-called Black Panther. What follows is a complicated series of events that pose a threat to the new king and to Wakanda, intertwining the country’s dark past with its uncertain future. References to contemporary popular culture appear throughout, especially ones that have origins in social media networks—“What are those?!” says Shuri (Letitia Wright), T’Challa’s sister—a reference to a 2015 meme popularized by Black Vine, Twitter, and Instagram communities. Black Panther’s temporal paradoxes represent a reckoning of Africans’ and African-Americans’ troubled present reality — one marked by racism, violence, and division — posing the possibility for change, specifically through the vehicle of PanAfricanism, an ideology born from the Black Power Movement that envisions global unity for all people of African descent. The African-American character of Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) touches on the disparity between being African and being of the
LIFESTYLE
Black Panther's temporal paradoxes represent a reckoning of Africans' and African-Americans' troubled present reality — one marked by racism, violence, and division. protagonist Rey wears all white and beige while antagonist Ren wears all black, even covering his face in a black helmet. Also groundbreaking is the movie’s emphasis on Black-made technology, which demonstrates the prominence of African and Black intelligence and challenges the stereotypes of “primitivity” and “genetic inferiority” often used to describe folks of African descent. “Guns…so primitive!” scoffs General Okoye (Danai Gurira), the fiercest warrior in Wakanda, in one battle scene at the supposedly technologically advanced weapons of her white male enemies. She then attacks them with her vibraniumpowered spear. When the media does show Black as powerful, too often it is attributed to some “magic” that Black people are born with or possess inherently, while white protagonists have only their own merits to
help them achieve a similar level of power. This further fetishizes Blackness, differentiates it from whiteness, and delegitimizes Black power and intelligence, especially since this magic is often depicted as evil (e.g. voodoo). Black Panther pushes away from this trope of the “Magical Negro,” a term coined by actor and director Spike Lee in 2001. Wakanda is a powerful and “advanced civilization” because of technological advancements, not special powers. When Shuri heals a wound on CIA Agent Ross (Martin Freeman), he remarks that the speed of his recovery could only be attributed to something like magic. “Not magic,” Shuri responds. “Science.” Wakanda also challenges representations of women as physically weak and unintelligent; General Okoye is ranked as the strongest warrior in Wakanda and Shuri as one of the country’s most intelligent. However, it should be considered that non-Wakandan female characters in the movie, such as Killmonger’s girlfriend, are used as plot devices and easily killed off whenever a man so pleases. Moreover, Wakanda is still a heteronormative, patriarchal society in which only men are ever considered for the throne. With little regard to the reality of intersectionality, the film largely discards queer narratives and its feminist narratives could be seen as secondary to those of race. The film’s conclusion offers a start to the reconciliation of various conflicting themes. T’Challa, with Killmonger and his wish to aid African Americans in mind, creates a community center in the heart of the Black community of Oakland. He states, “Wakanda will no longer watch from the shadows. We can not. We must not. We will work to be an example of how we, as brothers and sisters on this Earth, should treat each other. Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: More connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe.” As two people of color, one of us Blackidentifying, we felt personally empowered by Black Panther, in that it offers solace, an alternate reality to the contemporary American experience blemished by expressions of white supremacy and hatred. As Black Panther shows, the world we live in is by no means postracial. And although we still have a long way to go — both as communities of color and our representations on screen — this film represents progress by paving the way toward a better future. Illustrated by Nayeon Michelle Woo
African diaspora. Although Killmonger did not choose to leave Wakanda, the Wakandan people still see him as an outsider, just as some people of the diaspora feel like outsiders in African countries although their ancestors were forced to leave the continent. “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships,” Killmonger says to T’Challa. “...cause they knew death was better than bondage.” Aside from being one of the only mainstream films to feature a Black superhero and an almost entirely Black cast, Black Panther also makes a strong aesthetic statement; it is one of the only movies to feature a “good guy” whose costume is black. U.S. history (colonization, slavery, Jim Crow, and the prison-industrial complex) and current media and Hollywood contribute to the problematic notion that white equals good and black, evil. In the past, putting skin color aside, “good” characters appeared light and “bad” characters dark. A recent example of this can be seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the only movie in history that had a more successful four-day opening than Black Panther. Although the actors who play Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are both white,
february 23, 2018 5
Slope Style?
Ty Walker '20 on the Winter Olympics and her Snowboarding Future interview By tessa demeyer Ty Walker has been hitting the slopes ever since she first took up snowboarding at age seven. Because slopestyle was not recognized as an Olympic sport until the 2014 Games, Walker began her career in the halfpipe, training slopestyle simultaneously while growing up in Vermont. At 14, Walker debuted professionally. After hearing that a slopestyle competition would be held in Sochi, she shifted her focus to solely training slopestyle for the two years leading up to the Games. An injury hindered her performance at the Olympics, leaving her out of the finals, but Walker found redemption in 2015, winning the gold medal at the inaugural women’s Big Air World Cup. An ACL tear in March forced her to take time off, and she decided to begin her college experience at Brown. Walker completed a year-anda-half before taking all of 2017 off to train for the Pyeongchang Olympic qualifiers where four athletes were selected to represent Team USA in Korea. After five events, Walker missed out on the four-person team by one spot and returned to College Hill to continue pursuing a biology degree with plans to attend medical school. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Read the full version online. Why did you choose Brown? I had never even really visited schools before I applied. I had really good grades. I had a good SAT score and just kind of applied to 13 schools or something like that...I did want to go to school on the East Coast because my family is definitely really important to me, and I have a little sister I love going home to see…I’d spent so much [time], especially when I was like 14, 15, 16, 17 even, not at home. I didn’t even live at home. I lived out west. I liked Brown because I liked the open curriculum aspect... When my mom showed up on campus to pick me up from ADOCH, she had wanted me to go to a different school, I think, but then she showed up, and she was like, “I know that you really want to go to Brown. All the people around here look like they’re your people. I bet you want to go here.” What’s your take on Team USA’s performance and the snowboarding runs put down in Pyeongchang [as of February 20]? I know the [overall] medal count is way down; but in snowboarding, we’re killing it. We’ve had four events, and we got four gold medals for slopestyle men’s and women’s [and] halfpipe men’s and women’s. That’s Jamie Anderson, Red Gerard, Chloe Kim, and Shaun White. That’s pretty huge for us. Overall we do have a really, really competitive team on the snowboarding side. They can only take four people to the Olympics for each country, and it was so hard to watch [because] in the United States we
had five or six girls getting top-10 finishes in Dew Tour this season leading up to the Olympics, which are huge events for the international snowboarding community...To still not be able to go [to the Olympics] because your country can only get four spots, and then there’s someone from Slovakia who gets to go [because] they’re the only athlete from their country, that’s definitely tough because you realize that you’re a more competitive athlete but still can’t perform on that stage. Going into slopestyle, I was kind of disappointed to look at the course. Even on the men’s side, Red [Gerard] did a great run, but the runs in Korea were not as technical as even the runs in Sochi.…It was a great run, super stylish [and] definitely maxed out the ability of that course, but I don’t think that it showed the absolute best or most technical riding that could be done. I’m not at the course, but it didn’t look like people could get speed for the jumps. It didn’t look like the jumps necessarily had the pop you need for bigger tricks...To not be able to show that on the Olympic course is tough because that’s why people work on those tricks—to be able to do the craziest trick and win the Olympics because of it. On the women’s slopestyle side [which Jamie Anderson won], that was just so sad to watch because the weather was so bad...On any other day, even on a training day, we wouldn’t have gone out to snowboard in those conditions. Then you see the runs, and again, so much less technical than Sochi, and that is so disappointing because, at least from my perspective, the level of riding from Sochi to Pyeongchang has gotten so much higher.…My heart breaks for the girls...That’s their full-time job, and they dedicate four years to being able to put down their best runs at the Olympics on that course and then they show up there and don’t even have the opportunity to do that. What was it like representing Team USA at the 2014 Olympics? It was such an honor. Again, that’s kind of cliche. I think everybody uses that, but there is so much honor that goes into it.…You represent your country, but also you represent those lower communities that you came from. I had this honor of representing that small regional snowboard series that I came from when I was a kid...There’s so much respect that you get from becoming an Olympian, which is really cool, but then there’s so much that comes with that, like wanting to represent those communities well and wanting to do best by those communities. What’s going through your mind when you’re waiting at the top of the slope? That is so hard. It changes all the time. Sometimes I’m like a nutcase, and other times I’m so chill. At these Olympic qualifiers, in the first couple ones, I was like, “I need to go out there and do well. I need to put down my runs.” I play a lot of rap music to be super confident...At the top before you go, tuning everything out and not being alone with your thoughts is big...The first couple events I was so stressed [about] putting down my runs, visualizing, really locking in what I was going to do and trying to create this sense of confidence. You need to almost
“Imagine a world in which the least qualified, most morally bankrupt presidential candidate in U.S. history somehow won the election and started systematically destroying the democracy-protecting institutions we thought to be unimpeachable.” —Spencer Roth-Rose, "To Mock a Tyrant" 2.23.17
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Illustrated by Pia Mileaf-Patel
ARTS&CULTURE
remind yourself that you’re a boss and that you’re going to do it. Toward the later events, it kind of shifted to this sense of “doing your best is all you can do.” It’s a trend among Olympians to get a tattoo of the rings. Do you think you’ll get it done? I have them! I didn’t get them when I first went, which is really funny because I always wanted them, but I was still 16. What was I going to tell my parents? My dad was always really supportive, but my mom isn’t supportive of any tattoo. I knew that I wanted to get them, but I didn’t really commit to doing it... I went in January 2017 and got them done, which was really cool. Then I had them before the Olympic Qualifications started for this [Olympics]. Do you think you’ll make a run for another Olympics? I don’t know, honestly. I’m pre-med, so the idea would definitely be to go to med school, and that’s a long process. A lot of people ask me how I balance school and snowboarding, but they’re kind of mutually exclusive. Either I’m at school studying, trying to be a pre-med student, and struggling with that, or trying to snowboard and train every day... But after this qualification process, I definitely think that there’s some feelings of wanting redemption and wanting to go back. We’ll just have to see. Just kind of let the dust settle after Pyeongchang.…Just kind of go over it with my coaches and see what the plan could be going forward and how I could make it work. That would be pretty awesome. Editor-in-Chief Saanya Jain Feature
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