My younger brother has always been my shadow, both my biggest burden and my biggest blessing. We shared every toy and childhood memory until the 2020 port blast carved him into someone else. I watched him retreat into a shell of PTSD and anxiety, a twelve-year-old who couldn't sleep alone or let our parents out of his sight. While my brother found his footing again, the world shifted once more. To be frank, I find it difficult to be here while Lebanon is falling apart. Ther

Beams flick from leaf to petal, skipping softly, half-aimless,their mellowed shine stitching a dappled constellation across the forest floor. I watch the light shiver through your silvered hair, trembling, uncertain,as if it senses the slight unravelling of your being. Mottled bark loosens, slips from the towering gums,from the pendulous hush of wattles- And in its quiet shedding,I see your skin begin to remember, every year it has carried,your face freckled with the slow fat

In November of last year, I had to leave campus and temporarily stop my studies due to an unexpected health issue. This meant that I would have almost 6 months off; no class, no deadlines, no exams. To those who are in the midst of an academic crisis, this may sound like a dream, but no one prepares you for how strange and unfamiliar having nothing on your schedule feels. At the beginning of my leave of absence it felt like there was this huge mountain in front of me. How wa

Anyone who has taken Introduction to Art History probably recalls the stress of studying for the final exam and having to remember every single artwork in the textbook. I remember flipping through The Story of Art, desperately trying to memorise all the paintings and sculptures, and slowly coming to a realisation. Of the approximately 370 artworks depicted in this book, covering almost the entire history of Western art, there was only one single artwork made by a woman. Conve

河中行 躺在吊床上，仰望着看不见的星空——我闭上眼，通过你的眼睛看——同样的树，同样的天空，同样的粒子。 你从第一道光就存在，你也会在我的结束后还在。 睁开眼——细胞更新，分子和原子悄然替换。接触到我视网膜的光子，已然不复存在。 闭上眼，我是永恒的。睁开眼—— 我将重新、第一次注视这个世界。 A walk in the river Lying in a hammock, I gaze at unseen stars. I close my eyes, and see through yours— the same trees, the same sky, the very same drifting particle. You have existed since the first light, and will remain long after my end. I open my eyes: cells renew, molecules and atoms silently replaced. The photons that met m

Who are you, and where do you begin and end? What are the boundaries of your self, where you know for certain that something is you, belongs to you, and has been made by you? Although these are difficult philosoph ical questions, I am not only asking them as an abstract hypothetical, but because they have a deep urgency. The question of who you are is at imminent risk of being surveilled, stolen, and sold to the highest bidder on the data auction. In fact, this is not just an