February 2012
10 posts
Desiree
With one semester of classes over and two more to go, I’ve been thinking a lot about my experiences so far in Tel Aviv, which has also led me to think about the experiences I brought with me upon my arrival.
I arrived in Israel with a sort of naive optimism that has been a product of the life I’ve been fortunate enough to live so far. It’s my past positive experiences that have allowed...
Rachel
Confidence: Wear It Like Make Up
Over the years, I have struggled to maintain a healthy self confidence and body image. Society places demands on us that one could deem impossible. These strictures force us to be self-conscious and completely obsessive over our weight, our make up, our diets, our clothing—everything. Because of this obsessive compulsive behavior, we get so stressed and...
Kevin
Throughout the past year and leading into this new one, I have often thought about the moments that have come and gone. However, this reflection has normally been about each individual moment, rather than the whole collection that has led to the chaos, fear and excitement that took place over 2011. At least until now …
As I graduated from Berkeley last May, I thought to myself: What do...
Meredith
I’m the middle child in my family. I have two sisters. Being the middle child, I have watched my older sister and my younger sister go through a lot. I admire my older sister and what she has overcome. She struggled for years with a social anxiety disorder without knowing it. In college she really struggled at first and had to go through therapy and medication. My older sister was able to get...
Vinit
I’ve recently been asking a lot of my colleagues in Teach For America to describe their experience thus far in one word. The results were somewhat expected—challenging, stressful, and rewarding came up often. I realized a few days ago that I hadn’t really applied this same standard of analysis to myself; if I could describe my Teach For America experience in one word, what would it be?
I...
Desiree
I saw a quote circulating on Facebook this week that I really, really loved. It was by Ira Glass, producer of This American Life, and it read:
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s...
Natasha
Today I was asked for directions by three people within 10 minutes of each other. And you know what? I knew exactly where they needed to go. That is a major accomplishment in my book on two accounts. The more obvious: I know my way around New York City after 6 months. The less obvious (but more important): I look like I know my way around New York City after 6 months (aka I walk the walk and...
Willi
Life is silently laughing
I could argue that my youth couldn’t have been any more perfect. Treeforts, pool parties, sports, friends, a loving family and a Great Dane named Cleo molded me into the tall, goofy self that I wake up with everyday. Why did I get so lucky?
Today is February 8, 2012 and I ride my bike through the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina for a living. I ride bikes and get...
Amy
In Defense of Leftovers
extra, residual, surplus, unconsumed, eaten, untouched, unused, unwanted
I’m the kind of person who likes to hang on to things. Oh no—not like a hoarder; I always throw away those old newspapers and keep my supply of spare grocery bags to a minimum. But I have a lot of stuff. Stuff that I swear “means something” when my mom accuses me of being a pack rat. Books,...
Morgan
Where did you car come from? Did you build it yourself? Did you pump the oil from the ground?
How about your clothes, where did they come from? How did they get to you? Unless you made them by yourself, you have no business arguing that there should be less government involvement in your life.
With all the attention the Tea Party is getting, and the backlash by those opposed to it, I have...
January 2012
9 posts
Desiree
The Year of the Unicorn
We were lying on my bed on a lazy Friday afternoon in Berkeley, waiting for dinner to be called downstairs. It was May; my friend and I had turned in our final papers and bought our caps and gowns, which meant that these lazy afternoons were numbered. I didn’t like thinking about the end of things, because I didn’t really like taking risks. That’s...
Doreen
Sometimes I wonder what I would do without the Internet. Like if the Internet suddenly blacked out. What if all mobile phones disappeared? Or computers just gave out?
Then, I remind myself, these are pointless and passing thoughts. Why? The world is changed. Get used to it. Consumer technologies are in hand, all the time, anywhere. Sure, New York City’s subway system, with its despicable signal...
Noam (Israel)
Hey everybody, my name is Noam. I’m just like you, a regular 22-year-old Israeli guy who has just started his life. I play soccer and work for Tel Aviv’s City Hall. Besides that, I’m also a pizza boy, riding on a bike for you to get your delivery.
My story starts on December 25, 2011.
I had another delivery shift to complete, this time delivering Asian food. Everything was quiet and the time...
Shaimaa
I’m sitting at home, just outside of downtown Los Angeles in the neighborhood of Echo Park. I live in a 98 year old building that we think might have been a boarding house in the early 1900s. The floors creak and you can hear nearly every movement in the apartments above and below us at any given time during the day. The kids in the building run up and down the fire escape, families scrape...
Casey
I can feel the platitudes tense and gather, summoned from all directions by this title and topic I’ve chosen to try and write about. I’ll do my best to keep them at bay. Many of my friends and fellow students went on a study abroad program during college, and the words and phrases that return from these trips with my friends are remarkable for how similar they are to the last person to return,...
Desiree
At the risk of writing a story that could be filed appropriately under the category of “First World Problems,” I’ll go ahead and admit it: This week, I found myself feeling overwhelmed and alone.
It was suddenly clear that the two-month honeymoon period had ended, though it was still the same Tel Aviv and I could still safely say that I had fallen in love with my life here. Every day continues...
Erica
You do not need to be an accomplished physicist to know that it is possible to stop time. Anyone who has ever sat in a hospital waiting room knows this to be true. Minutes dripped like honey into the hot tea of hours, melting slowly into each other. As I stared at the clock on the wall for the countless time, I reminded myself that today time will take forever, and there was nothing I could...
Casey
I wrote an article for the magazine I was helping to found. It’s called Freepile, a magazine for residents of the Berkeley Student Cooperatives, a student housing organization. I decided to write a piece about a standard incident in the large house I had once lived in, Casa Zimbabwe, called CZ Inertia. Simply, when a group of residents try and gather to get away from that fortress on a hill,...
Afsaneh
I attended a conference today where the speaker was talking about a subject that most of the audience already knew enough about. But what made me sit and listen to her lecture was her passion for the subject matter.
I was amazed at how passionate she was. I was looking at her as she excitedly walked back and forth across the stage and kept asking whether anyone had any questions.
Then I...
December 2011
10 posts
Michael (Canada)
It’s Never Too Late To Follow Your Passion
Ignoring My Passions In The Name Of Practicality
I was always a nerd. I was always cracking jokes in class and getting in trouble for distracting the others. I was always one of the best writers in school. I always participated in speech arts.
But then I graduated and, of course, had to go to University. That’s the thing you do after high school,...
Desiree (U.S.A.)
“Hi, I’m Desiree!”
I’m a 22-year-old American Jew, straight out of college and with no concrete job prospects ahead of me, spending a year studying in Israel. In other words … I’m kind of a walking cliché.
I haven’t served in the Israeli army, nor will I pretend to completely understand the nuances of the history and politics of this country, and yet here I am getting a master’s degree in the...
Selina (U.S.A.)
Today I thought I lost my iPhone, and I didn’t go looking for it. I stood in the law school library and looked out the window as the bus carrying my dropped phone drove away. And then I went to a desk and started to read.
This could be interpreted as a depressing testament to the pedestal upon which studying has been placed, but I think it is an affirmation of the ability to snatch freedom in a...
Ashley (U.S.A.)
So, here’s the deal: my life is pretty awesome. I am pursuing my ever-evolving dream of being a comedy writer, which was preceded by dreams of being a journalist, and of being a pink flamingo. I love my job, my friends and where I am at in life right now. Basically, I appreciate everything and it makes me super happy. If I were religious, I would probably be an “everything happens for a reason”...
Tia (Canada)
And they do it with so much Adorable
From spending the day with kids to hanging out with my Korean teachers (some of whom have kids a few years younger than me) to partying into the night with other foreign teachers who are mostly in their 20s, I’ve learned this: we’re all pretty much the same. And we all want the same things: to be heard and to be loved.
I’ve learned that you can make a...
Karen (Colombia)
In Judaism there’s a famous saying by Rabbi Akiva: “Love your fellow like yourself.” It seems to be a simple line when you read it, but it comprises a deep complexity that if able to overcome, would lead us to a less conflictive world. This idea that exists in many religions and cultures throughout human history and is commonly associated with “the golden rule” (one should treat others as one...
Desiree (U.S.A.)
Every time I see a sunset, I remember a particular autumn afternoon in Berkeley.
I had just descended upon the stairs leading to my co-op, finishing the last leg of a running feat that inevitably included traversing the 45-degree slope leading to my house, and all I could think of was the comfort of the living room couch and the taste of a glass of water.
As I made it to the final step, I...
Zach (U.S.A.)
I find myself wordless on what it is I want to write, so in many ways this prose piece/short story serves as a personal narrative. I find that in prose you can trace a person’s thoughts, and there is nothing more personal than knowing how someone thinks in succession:
Cold has awakened me. It is winter, and the crisp air burns my lungs. Ironic, I thought, how frigid breath is personified by...
Patrick (Kenya)
‘Huu (pronounced who) mwaka!’ (This Year)
2011 has been quite a year of observations for me. I have had the privilege to meet, interact and work with different people, some of whom I intend to continue getting to know better, while others …
Here they are:
*Wazuri-The Good
People who are focused, go-getters and they know what they want in their lives; they know what they are working...
Alysha (U.S.A.)
I don’t usually do things like this. I don’t keep a journal or a blog, and all of the memories I think are worthwhile are captured by a camera. But, I like this idea—and the person responsible for it—so here goes. I’m going to write about how I came to be in Israel studying archaeology. It isn’t necessarily a sad story, nor a funny or happy one … It’s really just about how it happened and I guess...
November 2011
15 posts
Kate
I don’t consider the internet my “roots.” It didn’t birth me, certainly, nor clothe or feed me or walk me to elementary school on sunny days. But, in a way, it did raise me, in the way that is unique to my generation and impactful in all of the ways that parents fear and open-information activists applaud. It has, in all its wisdom and anarchy and good and bad intentions, taught me countless...
Desiree
Sometimes, you just have one of those weeks. The ones where you:
a) didn’t get the job you were holding out for
b) watched as your laptop— with four years’ worth of files, music and photos — died for good
c) got sick from standing in the rain during a day-long tour in Jerusalem, and, to top it all off
d) went on the worst date of your life, even after going into it with...
Jeremy
I’m sitting on my bed listening to Brooks & Dunn, propped up on vertical pillows, which rest against my headboard. The window is slightly open barely revealing a grey sky, which has unrelentingly drenched my nightly adventures the last couple of evenings. It is not raining quite yet, but the cool, crisp air crosses my naked chest, and I can tell a storm is coming. A lazy day. Perfect for...
Evan
On October 25th, 2011, a switch inside me finally flipped. When the city of Oakland decided to exercise overwhelming force to disperse an innocuous encampment of concerned citizens doing nothing worse than staying in a park after hours, I decided that it was time for me to start using my time, my skills and perhaps even my body to defend the freedoms of assembly and expression.
This was a big...
Lorenz
Noise. Whether it is the incessant honking of cars, the chanting hawking of wares by street-side peddlers, or the firecrackers going off every night for a wedding somewhere in the city, noise surrounds you in Delhi. The noise becomes so ambient, the screeching honks become so normal that the white noise of the city in Delhi is unlike any other I’ve ever experienced before. Therefore, any trip...
Desiree (U.S.A.)
In the spirit of reflecting, I decided to revisit a column I wrote about two years ago. It detailed my personal struggle with stress, but the real reason I come back to it from time to time is not because of my own personal epiphanies, but because of the advice I had received from my dad.
It was mid-March of 2009, and I was already feeling particularly overwhelmed with classes, applications,...
Robert (Germany)
“Never give up hope!”
It is such a simple maxim, but it is nearly impossible to act on, especially when there is no hope left.
Two years ago, suddenly and out of nowhere, every day started becoming a little darker. At the very beginning, I hardly noticed at all that things were becoming worse. “Everybody has bad days,” I told myself, silencing my upcoming fears. I did not have any reason to...
James (England)
I have a job. An actual, real, 35-hours-per-week, tangible job. I work the much-lauded 9-5 (including a leisurely one hour lunch), Monday-Friday, with the usual perks: a contributory pension scheme, flexible working hours, 25 holiday days per annum et al. Even better than that (and this is where I pinch myself), it’s a job that I actually enjoy!
I must admit, the transition to being a “proper...
Viola (U.S.A.)
The last two months have been like a thick, five-layered dark-white chocolate truffle cream pie, laden with caramelized almonds, sugar dusted macadamia nuts, fresh berries, topped with mountains of whipped cream, and drizzled with sweet honey.
Delicious. Breathtaking. Indulgent. And too much.
Too much. So much that it’s taken me on a digression further from myself than I’ve ever strayed....
Ted (U.S.A.)
I finally know what to write!
I was asked to write about my thoughts and experiences for the “Water the Roots” project, something that was to be more than an uninspiring live stream of my life. I gladly agreed to participate as I have been living in frustration and dissatisfaction with my post-college job hunt process. I had so much to say about it with the hopes that others who read my post...
Desiree
Note: This is the story of “Water The Roots.”
I’ve begun to get used to a certain type of silence when among friends. It’s the silence of companions staring at their smart phones as they “check in” on foursquare, “tag” the friends they’re with in a Facebook status, “tweet” about what they just saw or heard, and, while waiting for...
Amy
I used to have tons of stories to tell. For some inexplicable reason, my mom used to send tape recordings to my grandma of my younger self reading from my favorite books. A few years down the road, in fifth grade, I remember sitting by the cubbies on Monday mornings and giving my ever-patient best friend a play-by-play of the previous night’s X-Files episode. Miraculously, she was still my friend...
Lillian
5 am is a lonely place to be. Get up, shower, get dressed, make coffee, leave house. Driving to work, I listen to a sad FM playlist I seem to have concocted simply to reinforce my own misery. I resent the red lights that prolong this daily crusade, the green lights that propel me faster towards the work day, even the yellows that force me to make a decision for which it is far too early: do I...
Clare
In the past few months I’ve come to realize that I have a habit of doing things for the wrong reasons. My life choices have been guided by a kind of invisible hand of expectations and social perceptions; I do things, to a certain extent, because I like the idea of them. This isn’t to say that I don’t thoroughly enjoy these choices, in fact I would say I have few if any real regrets in life so...
Marie
Humans have a tendency to want. We want everything, but we don’t know why we want it. Wealth, fame, prestige, those are important right? They make these little lives of ours meaningful, impactful. If we achieve them we will really matter. Sometimes we wake up in the morning and wonder, “What are we even doing here? What’s the point?” But then we remember, we are striving for success, we have...