I will always have to choose between pursuing my passions in the United States of America and being with my family. If I choose one, I can’t have the other.

How one city changed my views on the concept of home

Like my accent, my home is blended. Instead of a bundle of discrete experiences in one city, home subconsciously grew into a collection of dynamic nuances in multiple places.

So why am I sitting here, over a year into college life, writing about the lowest low of my life? Why at Penn, do we hide the lows and pretend to be thriving? And why has Penn crushed all my hope that this attitude will ever be resolved?

It’s too easy to fixate on our frustrations about this institution; week after week we opinion columnists criticize or lament an aspect of Penn’s culture or administration. So, what exactly is it that makes us lucky to call this place home?

Through the endless strive for superficial professional success, Penn students forget that, at the end of the road, happiness is truly found in the minutiae of everyday life: not a one-off position or achievement, but a consistent facet of life that is not taken for granted.

Internal struggles during my first year as a published writer

But, are our consulting clubs so important that we don’t have time to help a middle-schooler learn how to read?