Sender's Junior Year

What has been most challenging thus far in your reading of Song of Solomon?             The most challenging aspects in reading Song of Solomon is the effect of being thrown into  the narrative without much context, or being referenced to something vague that hasn’t been explained just yet. Another difficulty when reading the book is piecing together the relationships between the characters, but more specifically, the extent to how true/unbiased one character’s perception of another is. This is an important thing to keep in mind while reading the book, since we the readers have to distinguish between fact and fiction since the omniscient narrator won’t do it for us. Another challenging aspect when reading this book is grasping the environment of this time period, since our daily lives are much different than the lives lived by these characters in the 18th-19th century.         ...

              My first name (Sender) is an English-pronounced version of my name in Mongolian. Сэндэр is how it would be spelled in Mongolian, and it comes from some random Mongolian song that my mom likes. The song is about a young baby named Сэндэр and how it spiritually grows up in Mongolia (I guess). Mongolian songs are very spiritual and tied to the daily culture, therefore, there is a strong sense of culture and pride of being a Mongolian in my name. My last name (Munkhgerel) is my dad’s first name, a common trend rooted deeply in Mongolian culture. When I immigrated to America at the age of two, my name changed to Cindy up until 2nd grade. Cindy was my “American” name, but I still use it to this day at my job and as my Starbucks name. My name was Cindy up until 2nd grade because that’s when I moved to Skokie from Chicago. It went back to Sender when I got to Skokie and remained the same when I moved from Skokie to Wilme...

America runs better when ideas and opinions are questioned and asked to be defended by hard evidence, but to what extent should this dissent be limited? For example, one can't shout "fire" in a crowded theater due to a "clear and present danger" even though the 1st amendment protects people's freedom of speech. There are also many regulations present in school and business codes that limit speech as well. During a news conference on the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump called on Jim Acosta for questions, CNN's chief White House correspondent. Acosta "challenged Trump's use of the word 'invasion' to describe the [migrant] caravan and asked the president if he thought he had demonized immigrants." Trump averted the question by trying to answer questions from other journalists, but Acosta persisted and this time asked about "possible indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller based on the ongoing investigation into T...

More than 5.7 million people each year end up in intensive care units (ICUs) at hospitals due to a wide array of life-threatening issues. Some of these patients are in the ICUs to find comfort as they reach the near end of their lives. But some of them, like Paul, are too depressed to see the end of their lives and believe that they'd benefit more by ending their lives quicker using euthanasia.  Euthanasia is defined by Merriam Webster as " the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (such as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy". Euthanasia is synonymously called mercy killing or assisted suicide. Paul asked his physician E. Wesley Ely  "but can't you help me die, Doc?" after detrimentally facing lung fibrosis and pneumonia. He had no family nor friends that could comfort him through this difficult time, but he found joy in listening to Lord of the Rings...

Elon Musk — commonly known as the chairman of the billion-dollar company Tesla — was forced to step-down from his position and pay a $20 million dollar settlement. The reason? The twitter tweet he uploaded on August 7th was illegal because "it's illegal for a director of a public company 'to knowingly or recklessly make material misstatements about that company,'" according to a Harvard Law School professor (Quinn).  Click here  to read more about the illegality of his tweet. Elon Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast earlier this September for a casual interview. About two hours and ten minutes into the podcast, Elon Musk can be seen smoking marijuana inside tobacco, after Rogan tauntingly asked him if he couldn't do that "because of stockholders". This was legal at the time because their interview took place in California, a state that legalized the recreational use of weed earlier this year. Consequently, this stirred a lo...

Sant Boi, a town in Spain known for its huge mental health hospital is seeking to eliminate mental health taboos using graffiti. For many years after the hospital was founded in 1855, the small community has been subject to discrimination for being known as the town with the "crazy" people. Artists are trying to break the silence surrounding taboos of mental health by "re-graffiti-ing" the wall that separates the hospital from the other parts of town. Before, the wall had been covered with messy scribbles and words. Now, they cleared the walls and painted carpets with interesting designs as a way to invite people to the other side. Out of all the things these artists could've drawn, why choose carpets? What's significant about a carpet draping over a wall? How do these carpets metaphorically try to invite townspeople in and patients out to the town? Click here for the full article