Gary

People. Lots of people. Lafayette Square, illuminated by the dim street lights. Chow is packed as usual. It is freezing, yet the tables outside are filled, using heat lamps as a final lifeline. Tattooed and pierced, the waiters speed through their intermittent routes. Gary lurks. Across the street, Petars welcomes the young to dance and the old to decay. Diamond Dave wails. Back at Chow, the madness is incessant. A few single, middle-aged men sit at the bar watching the basketball game. The rest of the population is coupled, dating and married, young and old. The fresh faces of energetic new parents starkly contrast those of the seasoned veterans, a glimpse into the future. Children have graduated and the guard has been passed. This isn't the same town I grew up in.

Twisted: College Admissions and the Warped Interpretation of Self-Worth

I sit here pondering my future. Millions of college-bound students do the same, though I'm one of the few nerdy enough to write about it (like the title?). No, I wasn't accepted by Harvard or Princeton. I wasn't personally offended either- I'm sure hundreds of kids far smarter than I were denied as well. But therein lies the problem. No one but the admissions officers themselves know what qualifies certain candidates and axes others. In fact, I doubt they could even define the ideal applicant. Boston College was impressed with me enough to invite me into the Honors Program, whereas Vanderbilt merely added me to the purgatorial waiting list. According to Forbes' latest list of the top colleges in America, BC ranks 26th while Vanderbilt comes in at a very respectable, but much lower, 53rd. Such a nonsensical situation shows why students beginning the application process should avoid putting too much stock in rankings... These are my scattered thoughts as I prepare to leave for college, but the real point is that acceptance or rejection to a particular college should have absolutely no impact on one's self-confidence. Do I feel I deserved to get into H or P? Yes, I probably did. I am, however, still going to attend an incredibly fine institution, BC, and in the end, I believe I'll be much happier on this path. Besides, there's always graduate school to give me a second shot at the behemoths. But for now, screw them- I'm headed to Boston.

List of Books I Read in High School

Here is a list of all the books I read during my four years of high school, assigned and for fun (note: this is completely off the top of my head, so it is likely I am missing a few). The highlighted titles were books that were not assigned...

Catch-22

A Clockwork Orange

Heart of Darkness

Cat's Cradle
Breakfast of Champions

Blood Meridian

In the Garden of Beasts

The Devil in the White City

The Stranger

No Exit

Death of a Salesman

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

The Great Gatsby

A View from the Bridge

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Crucible

The Road

Persepolis

The Music of Chance

On the Road

Brave New World

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Fahrenheit 451

Slaughterhouse Five

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Candide

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Martian Chronicles

The Color Purple

Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth

The Things they Carried

Lord of the Flies

1984

The Time Machine

The Catcher in the Rye

All Quiet on the Western Front

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Black Swan Green

The Inferno

Into Thin Air

Pretty solid list, I'd say, though it should probably be longer. I didn't get into reading until junior year. I'll be back soon with a top ten list, as well as a list of the top ten books I hope to read in the near future.