December 2020

By Elissa Adams & Lalain Javaid

By Nanya Kondrella

Happy Holiday Season! My family is Hindu, so we normally celebrate Diwali during the October-November time period. Hindu holidays operate on a lunar calendar, so there is no set date for each holiday. This year, Diwali fell on November 14.

On November 14, I woke up around 8 am and took a shower. Then, I came down and prayed. Afterwards, I helped my mom prep for a small prayer later in the day before we went out to celebrate Diwali. On most Indian holidays, my family and I do not eat meat or eggs. The day went on as normal until sunset. Right before sunset, we have to light the diyas. They symbolise good triumphing over evil. After we lit all the candles and diyas around and outside the house, we went to get dressed for the party. We wore new clothing and before we left, we left all the lights on to make sure there was no darkness in the house. Due to the pandemic, we limited our celebration to a small gathering with some family friends who live nearby. At their house, we talked, ate good food and lit some fireworks.

Diwali is celebrated every year to symbolize how good always trumps evil. It is a holiday that celebrates how the Good Gods defeated the Evil Gods. For us, Diwali is spent with loved ones and being thankful for all the good in our lives.

By Olivia C. Nguyen

The drive to my grandmother’s house was a long one, and I had spent it falling in and out of sleep on that cold day. When my family and I arrived at the house, I can remember a flickering light catching my tired eyes. On the small sill of a window covered in spring’s cold fog, a single red paper lantern sat quietly. Within it, a small candle was lit, casting a red glow. My eyes widened in anticipation, and my previous fatigue was nowhere to be found. From the outside, the only noticeable change in my grandmother’s house was that sole lantern, but I could feel that something else was different.

On that day in February, I realized a part of my identity, and to this day, I celebrate and love it with all my being. There’s something special about dressing up knowing you’ll be inside all day, something special about making a grand feast for fewer than fifty, and something special about Lunar New Year. In my case it’s Vietnamese New Year, also known as Tết. It always falls somewhere between January 21 and February 21, the time of year windows frost over and cozy socks encase cold feet.

Important celebrations are always held in my grandmother’s residence, as she is the elder of the family and the matriarch. While my sister and cousins played in the foyer, I helped in the kitchen, kneading and shaping dough with my grandmother. The spread consisted of foods that changed each year, but the staples that stay are egg rolls, bánh tét, xôi gấc, fruit tart and mooncake. After dinner, the family disperses. My father and older uncles gather with grandfather to talk about politics and memories from the Vietnam War, my mother and aunts go off to find the younger uncles and present potential suitresses, and I follow my cousins to catch up, as we only see each other every so often. Later, we’re called to the foyer to pray and candles are lit for our ancestors and deceased family members. The ceremony lasts for a somber thirty minutes, involving chanting and singing. When the candles are blown out, the ceremony is finished. Next is the most known part of Lunar New Year, the bestowing of lucky money. Each person gives red envelopes, called Li Xi, to each person, while saying their well wishes for the recipient in the new year. To end the celebration, the family plays “bầu cua tôm cá,” or “gourd crab shrimp fish,”. The odd-sounding tradition is a gambling game, betting, (who would have thought?), the money received earlier. It consists of foul play, mockery, and shouting at the dice tosser, but the game is (usually) all fun and laughter.

When the clock nears midnight, forget the trip home, it’s the trip out of the house that’s the most arduous. Knowing it may be a long time till I see everyone again always makes the goodbyes more difficult. Nonetheless, when I step out of the heated house, though the air outside is colder than inside, an unmistakable source of warmth keeps me smiling, as I know there will always be next year’s Lunar New Year. As I drive away, the red paper lantern flickers, as if waving farewell.

By Medha Satti

Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m in my last year of high school, or the fact that I’ve had too much extra time on my hands during this quarantine. I’ve indubitably become very nostalgic for pre-high school, pre-pandemic years. Amongst the many movies I’ve consumed, one particularly stood out to me: A Little Princess (1995). If you aren’t familiar with this movie, it’s about a young girl named Sara Crewe, whose widowed father is a British WW1 soldier. While he’s away, she’s sent to a New York boarding school. She makes the best of her situation by telling her friends stories from her time living abroad. Things take an unfortunate turn on her eleventh birthday, when Miss Minchin, the stringent headmistress, tells her that her father had died in the war. She goes from being treated like a princess at the school to paying for her education by working in servitude. Watching it now, it feels like a combination of Cinderella and Matilda.

The movie has a sentimental value because I essentially grew up watching it. It was exciting, remembering what I’d felt when I was younger and comparing it to my thoughts now. Now, I appreciate the historical accuracy, for one. The backdrop of war tensions, seen through an oblivious girl’s eyes, was dramatic and tear-jerking. The cinematography was breathtaking: from the scenes shot in nature to the ones in the school, a myriad of shades and focus. The actors were phenomenal in their roles and the music amplified every feeling. But, I think the part that really comforted me was the plotline. Like a good movie, it had its ups and downs, but in the end, A Little Princess has proven to be a timelessly poignant and magical experience.

By Alexa Muller

The science behind the Aurora Borealis Phenomenon, also known as the Northern Lights, is arguably as fascinating as their gorgeous visuals. The colorful lights are a result of collisions between atmospheric gases and charged particles from the sun, electrons and protons from the sun’s atmosphere that sail to the Earth on “solar wind.” No, “solar wind” is not a figurative, poetic phrase, but a literal phenomenon confirmed by 1950s atmospheric research. You may be wondering, Why do the Northern Lights only happen...well...in the North? Well, these brilliant lights can not only be found in Northern skies, but also in regions near the South pole, also known as “Aurora Australis.”

The poles of the Earth actually have a weaker magnetic field than the rest of the planet. This weaker magnetic field enables a higher amount of charged particles from the sun to slip into the atmosphere and react with Earth’s atmospheric gases. In the rest of the planet’s regions, the magnetic field is strong enough to deflect most of these charged sun particles, which is why auroras are special to areas near the Poles. The collisions between sun particles and atmospheric gases emit the lights that we regard as the Northern (or Southern) Lights.

Depending on the types of particles involved in the collisions, the lights can vary in color. The most frequent collisions are those including low-altitude oxygen molecules, which produce greenish-yellow lights. On more special occasions, glowing ruby red lights appear as a result of collisions with high-altitude oxygen molecules. Collisions containing nitrogen molecules produce lights in the blue and purple shade-range. In North America, the best places to watch the Northern Lights are Alaska, along with the Nunavut, Northwest, and Yukon territories of Canada. The most ideal setting to observe Northern Lights are at midnight in more remote areas with less light pollution. If you are ever lucky enough to gaze in awe at these curtains of color, hopefully you will also be able to appreciate the science occurring before your eyes!

Source:

https://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html

By Alexa Muller

In order to understand why we dream, it is first important to understand what dreams are. Dreams themselves are images, thoughts, or feelings that one experiences from patterns of sensory information. They can occur during any stage of sleep; however, they most often occur during Rapid Eye Movement (REM), the sleeping stage characterized by the most brain activity. Dreams during REM are typically described as surreal, colorful, and vivid while non-REM dreams tend to be more realistic and are sometimes in black and white.

There are multiple theories on exactly why people dream. For instance, the evolutionary theory states that dreams give us an opportunity to learn how to deal with threatening situations. In other words, the dream acts as a test run for decisions, allowing us to review and analyze events in our life so that we learn from our experiences.

Another popular theory is the memory consolidation theory. Through research, scientists have found an association between memory and dreams. Their research suggests that dreaming may be vital in strengthening memory and information recall. In this theory, memories themselves are a byproduct of memory reorganization that happens during sleep.

However, the most popular theory to explain dreaming is the mood regulatory functions of dreams theory, which states we dream to solve and release emotional issues or tensions, and dreams reflect our emotional state of mind. For example, dreams about being chased are thought to be a result of avoiding something in one’s life. Similarly, dreams about flying are thought to reflect a desire to escape the realities of life.

Despite many theories and speculations, scientists actually do not know for certain why we dream. Even so, we can still appreciate the wonders that come with dreaming, and the adventures they take us on every night.

Sources:

https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-dream-135609#:~:text=Dreams%20are%20patterns%20of%20sensory,in%20a%20state%20of%20paralysis.

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/dreams

https://www.verywellmind.com/understanding-your-dreams-2795935

By Elissa Adams

Over the years, I have struggled to find an identity--but after learning about blood in Anatomy, I have found an entity that I can relate to and aspire to emulate. What I most identify with is a cell or a corpuscle, such as an erythrocyte. Why? Because in the face of the unsettling threat of oblivion, it doesn’t lose sight of its purpose.

This threat of oblivion would be difficult for erythrocytes to cope with if erythrocytes were conscious. The lifespan of an erythrocyte is only 100 to 120 days, after which it becomes fragile and useless. Thus, it has merely months to fulfill its purpose in life. It does not have a name or an identity or any sense of individuality. As a single entity, the erythrocyte has no legacy. It does its job, transporting oxygen and helping its human not die, but as an individual, it does not matter.

As a human, I am no different. No matter how much of a difference in the world I try to make, I will die. My body will eventually degrade and I will be forgotten. Generations of my descendants will die and soon all of humanity will perish, and the sun will engulf the earth. Even if it takes millions or billions of years, all traces of this civilization will be gone. Humans are just erythrocytes, helplessly floating through plasma and trying to make something of our lives when in the face of eternity, we are nothing.

So, what’s the point? If I am doomed to be consumed by the void like an erythrocyte being consumed by a macrophage in the spleen, why should I even care to exist at all?

Once again, I look to the erythrocyte for answers. What the erythrocyte does is make the most of its existence. It optimizes its resources and plays to its strengths--its biconcave disc shape, for example, is ideal for gas transport, so it transports oxygen. It does not let its own impermanence interfere with its function--in fact, the opposite is true. It has at most 120 days to be the best erythrocyte it can be before it fades into oblivion, so it does the most exceptional job that it can.

I aspire to be like the erythrocyte and to make the most of the hand I am dealt--because I’m only here for a short time, so I may as well be the best that I can be. Though the sentience of the erythrocyte is debatable, I have still learned something from it: that even if my legacy is insubstantial, I can still look at what I’ve been given in life and make the absolute most of it.