On Monday, February 19, 2018, from 12:49 p.m. to 1:27 p.m., I lived life in the fast lane for the very first time. It was, in a word, exhilarating. For those 38 minutes, I was light and swift and streamlined. My skin was clean and soft. My legs were strong. ..

June 4 isn’t my birthday, or a holiday, or the date of some major milestone in my family’s past. I will not celebrate it this year or the next. And yet June 4 is a date that comes up in my conversations more frequently than any other: It is probably when your library books are due. ..

A is for activism

Early one morning in June 2017, I walked into the eighth floor general chemistry teaching laboratory in Altschul Hall, where I worked for 10 weeks over the summer, to find water streaming in through the ceiling. This was more than just a drip—it was coming down with the ferocity of a rainstorm bouncing off an awning, creating several puddles on the floor below. Bewildered, my research group and I did what any of us would do in this situation. We contacted Facilities Services and Dr. Kenise Jefferson, the laboratory and facilities administrator for the chemistry department, for assistance. We took some videos with our phones. We stood and watched in awe as the water continued to rain down from above. Dr. Jefferson remembers the incident well. ..