“It’s the mecca,” Desiree Parker, a current sophomore, says of life at Howard University. We are catching up over the phone, and while I sit alone on the barren steps of Low after dark, I hear the laughter of friends waft from behind her voice—reaching my ears all the way from D.C. She is definitely not alone when she says, “It’s a place where people of all walks of life can come together to find a salvation on one common ground.” This is the first taste that I get of life at a historically black college or university, and it leads me to wonder what I am missing out on...

It’s a rainy Thursday evening at the beginning of October, and a group of students is hard at work in Hamilton 516, solving climate change. At the front of the classroom, long sheets of bright yellow paper are spread out on the floor as students sketch out an outline of Manhattan with chalk. Soon, that outline will be filled in with black and blue paint, representing the areas of New York City that will be severely flooded if sea levels continue to rise. But 516 and its inhabitants—the Columbia/Barnard Sunrise Movement hub—are far from grim. As Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” (a protest song from the 1960s, the one that goes: “... stop, children, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down ...”) threads through the speakers, what you get instead is a sense of hope. ..

In the first episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (Welcome to Hellmouth), Buffy learns that she has supernatural powers that allow her to fight vampires, demons, and a whole host of otherworldly creatures. The first time I watched this episode, I was 10 years old. My mom and I used to sprawl out on the couch and watch episode after episode until one of us eventually fell asleep. Now, a decade later, I’m about four readings behind and haven’t started studying for my midterms yet, but thinking maybe I should rewatch an episode of “Buffy.” 10 episodes later, I’m deep in the Wikipedia page, reading the backstory behind the characters, subplots, and motivations. ..

Like light on the Hudson River, John Jay Dining Hall changes throughout the day. Subtle shifts create distinct moods. There’s the 9 a.m. tranquility of a weekday morning, the buzz of lunchtime activity, the strange experience of a 4 p.m. post-class snack break, and the heart-pounding anxiety of navigating crowds for dinner during a theme night. Over the course of its 11 and a half hours of operation, John Jay oscillates between extremities of peace and chaos...

An arrow whizzes by my head—it narrowly misses. As I spend that moment fixated on the near-death experience I’ve just endured, my pursuer appears, promptly taking away any relief I may have had. He wields an iron sword and proceeds to mercilessly assail my character, who I’ve customized to look like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, winning the battle. In the process of all this, he screams, “easy, easy dub,” exposing me for the noob I am...

As I sat in my hot car on a sunny morning, eager to surprise my boyfriend with homemade cinnamon rolls, I had no idea that he had a much grimmer surprise for me. ..