If It Feels Good, Wear It
I work at a not-so-conventional boutique in downtown Santa Cruz. Walk in, and you’ll find paper-white walls, a speckled tan linoleum? floor, and black metal racks filled with clothes curated from Oakland to Uruguay. It would be boring, if not for the bright clothing and…
Love: What We’ve Got to Do With It
An orange sea washed over the steps of the California State Capitol. Students several years my junior, adorned in orange shirts, glasses, and hats, held up handmade signs as they rallied for proper relationship health education. This “Orange Day of Action,” named after the signature…
Back in Print Two Years Later: What the Return of Campus Publications Means to Me
On Wednesdays, we’d watch the sunset from the Press Center patio, scarf down takeout from Tam’s, and gather around our desktops as newspaper pages were laid out by Ella Apuntar, our then-production manager (and to me, an absolute wizard). I joined City on a Hill…
36 Hours in Santa Cruz: Things to Do and See
As a Bay Area kid, I grew up going on frequent trips to Santa Cruz, from Boardwalk outings with my parents to annual trips with my high school’s marching band to compete in the Santa Cruz Band Review. The city became imbued with wonder and…
The Californian Privilege in Abortion Access and Proposition 1
Every woman in my life, including myself, has had a pregnancy scare. What felt like cramping, never-ending nausea, and dread in the pit of my stomach are all symptoms of a period and of pregnancy. Their uncanny similarity only added to my stress, causing me…
The Magical Mysticism of the Warriors Mini-Ball
To the Golden State Warriors, size doesn’t matter. They don’t have staggering size, with only one active player standing above 6’9” and they run less pick and roll than almost any other team in the NBA. Spearheaded by the all-time great Steph Curry on offense…
New Learning Environments Should Mean New Learning Accommodations
I noticed the problem during my very first college final. Despite the hours of time I had to take the multi-part exam, I found myself sweating and panicking as I neared the last twenty minutes and still had an entire essay question to finish. I…
An Ode to my Girlhood
This past week I celebrated my birthday, and, like anyone confronted with the idea of aging, have spent the past few days restlessly excited for the person I’m going to become. As I find myself crawling toward womanhood, this feeling has intensified. All of my…
Beginning in the Middle: Making up for lost time as a Second Year
For everyone who graduated from high school before me, moving away for college and making new friends was the starting point of a new chapter in their lives and bookends the old chapter at home. I’ve been going to school there for a year now….
The Case for Romance Novels
I have a literary confession to make: I’m addicted to romance novels. It began in sixth grade when I first picked up “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer, then “New Moon,” then “Eclipse,” and finally the exhilarating conclusion “Breaking Dawn.” I read the series three more times…