Columns

CHOUNG | Popping the Cornell Bubble

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The bubble will soon pop as my flight leaves the airport, and the magic from Ithaca will fade as I enter back into the real world. Going back home means reconnecting with your childhood and viewing things you once took for granted from a new perspective. Home may not be as familiar anymore, but there’s now just a new aspect of it that you have the privilege to explore. 

break

OLGUIN | Thrown Back Into Normalcy, As if This Were a Normal Year

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This year seems to feel no different than any other academic year we had. Except for the fact that it’s characterized by a very different reality from 2019 – a global pandemic, a worsening climate crisis and global economic crises. I was swallowed as a sophomore and spit back out as a senior, and I’m still trying to process the past year. I find myself a little more emotional than usual – both missing home, friends and family in sunny California. And yet clumsily trying to absorb as much of the treasured time I have with my friends in an arrangement that seems unlike the ones I will encounter after May. 

Opinion

DERY | Home: A Futile Attempt to Resume Life Before College

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While America pretends that turkey is edible every Thanksgiving, my hometown friends and I unapologetically devour plates of delicious home-fried chicken. Last week, we perched ourselves on the familiar living room couch, cheered as we watched the Cowboys lose and grasped ketchup bottles in-hand: a refreshing tradition that started long before college. Back then, what I now revere as my hometown traditions were the standard. So, by the time I visited home over this break, after planning my days and nights in advance, after hyping-up “the return” for weeks, it all seemed contrived, almost artificial — canned like the gravy we weren’t eating. I felt out of place at home for the first time.