A long-form magazine that intertwines the genres of news, opinion and creative nonfiction.
May 31 Edition:
If it bleeds, it leads: The uneasy relationship between children, parents and journalism
Content warning: Mentions of gun violence and school shootings. When I’m home, I go to the same coffee shop every day. Two weeks ago, I was sitting in that coffee shop alone, working silently on my virtual orientation, preparing to transfer to the University of Michigan. By all conventional measures, this was a typical coffee-getting day. A mother and her child came in and sat…
The author is still left with their hands
To the Victorians, tuberculosis was a deeply romantic ailment to be consumed by. To be rosy-cheeked, sweaty, pale and deteriorated to the point of extreme slenderness from tuberculosis was to be tragically beautiful — especially to artists, writers…
Jumping through hoops
Two days after my parents dropped me off for my freshman year, I left my Bursley dorm room and walked up the hill to the North Campus Recreational Building. I fumbled my Mcard trying to swipe in and…
In my grandma era: Trapping my worries between stitches
My hands rest on my hips as the harsh fluorescent lights flicker above my head. My gaze is fixed on the sight in front of me, taking in all of its beauty: An entire row of embroidery kits…
Coming full circle: Reflections and expectations for the class of 2024
It was June 2020, and the air was filled with anticipation. Both literally and figuratively. My family, which consisted of my mother and my younger siblings, huddled around me on our living room sofa. We all sat in…
May 24 Edition:
The unattainability of moderation
Content warning: Mentions of disordered eating and dieting. “Hi Jen, I’m sorry I haven’t responded for a few months, I thought I didn’t need therapy anymore but it turns out I do. I can do Wednesdays if you’re still available. Let me know!” I hit send, aware of how unstable that message made me seem. But isn’t that how it always goes? You think you’re…
A legacy as large as the sun
I opened the heavy, white door to my grandparents’ apartment last summer, as I had done so many times before, to find my grandfather sitting at the far right corner of the long, white couch in their living…
My experience with the reading culture at U of M
It had begun with Festifall, as I suppose many awkward or inspiring freshman experiences do. I wandered through the chaos of tables and sweaty bodies and came across one of the University of Michigan’s book clubs. The people…
May 17 Edition:
Hey hey, ho ho, humans of GEO
It wasn’t until March 15 that the news of the then-impending strike truly hit me — just five days before the successful vote to start the strike authorization process. My favorite Graduate Student Instructor suspiciously ended our discussion 10 minutes early to make an “announcement.” As I recall, the first thing she did in her spiel was apologize. Now, this is dawning on me —…
An elephant on Marine Drive
College decisions week — the shared traumatic experience that binds most graduating high schoolers. Staring at your laptop, refreshing the page every 10 seconds, with your heart pounding and throat dry; your body heavy with the expectations of…
Subway dreaming
I am 20 years old, and up until last week, had only driven a car twice in my life. When I walked into the Michigan Secretary of State at the beginning of April to take the permit test,…
Reflections on my first year
It is a crisp 50 degrees in Ann Arbor today and life feels like a time warp. Campus is in a haze as the last few days of the semester stretch out, with only moments separating us from…
The Graduation Edition
Merit scholarships sent me to college. Now, I think we need to abolish them
There’s something strange other students will do that I’ve begun to notice. Occasionally, I’ll mention my merit scholarship. This isn’t a frequent occurrence — while I believe financial transparency is important, I generally think it’s in poor taste to go out of my way to mention my scholarship to other students. Still, it will come up from time to time in conversation. I can’t, I have…
Embracing the sound of change
Snip, snip, snip. I’ve always hated the sound of scissors snipping. The metallic snip, snip, snip reminds me of imminent change, and it terrifies me. Ironically, though, as I sat on a spinning beauty salon chair last June…
The art of farewell
Author’s note: This piece is adapted from and inspired by Lydia Davis’ seminal short story, “Break It Down.” The story appears in, “The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis.” A senior in college is reclining on his front porch…
We put a little desk on the Diag. Here’s what we found inside
Canopy Magazine, a U-M student organization, will be publishing a book-length anthology of the tiny desk and its contents. There are hundreds and hundreds of anonymous entries. This piece was written in collaboration with other members of the…
A beginner’s guide to coping with change
I have a confession to make: Despite my seemingly positive travel posts and a frenzied roulette of indulgent Instagram stories, I can find no other words to describe the last five months of my life beyond “utterly taxing.”…
April 5 Edition:
Streaming, strategy and the sudden resurgence of chess
Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of smiling at my phone. My affair with the game of chess started about six days before this past Christmas when I got a text from my uncle telling me that it was time to continue our annual tradition of me telling him what I wanted for Christmas — and that invariably being the newest version of FIFA. But…
What ‘sonder’ most beautifully reveals
Sonder is a term that describes the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own; in essence, the word strikes a sense of not only sorrow due to meaning itself,…
The weight of a piano performance
Writer’s Note: I’m not sure it makes sense to write on music without hearing it: it’s like raving on the compositional merits of a photograph without physically seeing the thing. Sometimes we don’t have a choice — due…
March 29 Edition:
Overconsumption is coming for real life, too
I spent this year’s Spring Break in Utah with a group of 11 other University of Michigan students, most of whom I hadn’t met before. We embarked on a trip with the Michigan Backpacking Club, and had been paired together based on our preferred spring break destination and daily hiking distance. The plan was to spend a week driving through the southern part of the…
Words from a failed advice columnist
My first time writing an advice column was without submitted questions — just me, alone with my computer, spitballing at the screen. It was my senior year of high school, my final column, a last-ditch effort to leave…
To be a 16-year-old girl at summer camp
At the age of 16, from 4 to 5 p.m. for the better part of two weeks, I sat on a damp towel in Franklin, Mass. reading aloud to some of my cabin mates at an Armenian summer…
School’s out! Your stress isn’t
“Breaks always come right when you need them”– a wise person once told me this. Over the course of my college career, I’ve heard this phrase time and time again, whether it be courtesy of similarly stressed university…
The Origin Edition
From the editors: The origins and future of The Statement Magazine
Origins, when we manage to unearth them, seldom clarify the cobbled nature of the present. Instead, they often string us along a path of imagined priorities, allowing us to feel qualified in recognizing how the past must inform our current agendas. In the spirit of the Origin Edition, we write to our readership as the editorial team of The Statement — The Michigan Daily’s weekly…
The tale of two Red Light Districts
Ann Arbor is a small, Midwestern metropolis, home to many families, faculty and students stretching from near and far. It is a city comprised of almost all loyal Wolverines dedicated to the act of rambunctious tailgating for football…
Where I am from
“Where are you from?” I’ve heard this question a million times. What presents itself as a simplistic question leaves me consistently dumbfounded and bewildered. Where am I from? I could say that I am from Ohio since I…
Finding myself in memory’s corridors
The air looks different, almost imperceptibly, like the edges of colors have changed. The sky seems more vivid, trees warmer, taller. Is that possible? The buildings seem to shimmer with red halations — but not a western, lustful,…
The gory, less greedy, Midas touch
The Journal of Psychiatric Research asserts that 2.82% of 18 to 29 year olds have a skin picking disorder, which makes skin picking most prevalent among college-age students. By my count, as someone with a skin picking disorder,…
March 15 Edition:
The weight we carry: college journalism’s untold grief
The first time I ever had to carry grief that did not belong to me was the day I began to report on survivors of former University of Michigan Athletics doctor Robert Anderson. Over a span of 37 years, more than 950 victims reported thousands of incidents of sexual abuse and misconduct at the hands of Anderson, remaining as likely the most sexual abuse allegations…
Architecture’s subliminal languages
For my last semester at the University of Michigan, I decided to enroll in an architecture class through the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. I’m an English major, but every so often I would hear the…
Twisted traditions and my grandmother’s legacy
I open my eyes, disoriented with what feels like lead eyelids. After a two hour nap, my boyfriend reaches up to turn the lamp on — covering us in a familiar warm light I’ve seen plenty of times…
The Immersion Edition
One bi man’s journey into his comedic identity
I’ve always been not so great at beginnings. Whether it’s adapting to a new place, writing a script or starting a new relationship — or as I’ve recently discovered — writing a joke, I struggle to get settled as quickly as I’d like, or immerse my audience into what I describe. But maybe this struggle with setup is a good thing. As I’ve also recently…
Team 47 and my urge to cartwheel
Most days I don’t have time to, but when I can manage it, I like to go home for lunch. It’s a good break, not only from the competitive atmosphere of our campus, but also from all the…
How to run a half-marathon without training
According to history, legend, or something of the sort, the first marathon was run by the ancient messenger Pheidippides who ran 26.2 miles from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to proclaim victory over the Persians. Immediately following…
The existential dread of self-improvement
I’m a heavy sleeper. I wake up everyday feeling like I’ve been bulldozed over, rolling around and fermenting in my consciousness, like a grain malt steeping in the darkness. Sometimes, especially recently, I’ve been carrying a sapped, dragged…
February 22 Edition:
Guff etymology
guff. noun. Trivial or foolish talk or ideas. Synonyms include: nonsense, humbug, malarky. /gǝf/ “Tyra, having sat through hours of Zoom meetings, was completely disinterested in the guff coming out of Martin’s mouth.” If you look in any official English dictionary and search the word “guff,” the above noun will appear with its condescending connotations and old-timey air. It’s not the most common word of…
Say eh: Deconstructing the Midwest accent
My friends have told me I don’t seem like I’m from Michigan. I was born and raised in a quiet town on Lake Michigan and both of my parents are natives of the western side of the state.…
Snap judgments: Survival skill or perpetual flaw?
Hair pulled up in a haphazard ponytail, I tightened the drawstrings on my pink pullover and trekked through the wind up the stairs to the North Quad dining hall. Stomped, was more like it. I’d forgotten my headphones, and…
The real cost of energy
It’s a cold gloomy morning, the bright sun barely peeking through the mass of dark clouds that hang low in the sky. I want to get up but can’t. My body has become immobile as a result of…
February 15 Edition:
A community nexus: Profiling libraries and their staff
Many people associate libraries with dullness and rigidity. Librarians have long been associated with a stereotype of harsh and inflexible figures; libraries revere the old and are “out-of-touch.” I’ve hardly used the library. For most of my life, I have had little understanding of how a library might be of use beyond a place to borrow books, or for those in need, a place to…
Redefining cult
Content warning: mentions of suicide and religious abuse. On March 26, 1997, as the comet Hale-Bopp reached its nearest point in orbit, 39 members of a new age religious movement known as Heaven’s Gate downed a mixture of…
Academia’s cartel norm: Theories and origins of plagiarism rules
How many unique words in a row must I write before I have created a de facto attribution right? For every twist I take, a source or example will be cited, due to the intrinsic attribution right granted…
Breaking away from college rankings
I remember Tuesday, April 6, 2021, well. It was Ivy Day, an occasion when many Ivy League colleges and other selective universities release their admissions decisions, and certainly a day circled on the calendar for many bright high…
The Love Edition
On a Wednesday in a cafe: Meet-cutes and the complicated art of college dating
On a snowy Wednesday afternoon in January, I’m curled up in the corner of a coffee shop with an open book and shivering hands. As I sip on a steaming latte to recover from Ann Arbor’s arctic wind…
Studying abroad, staying together
B and I decided we’d try to stay together. Close, but not touching, we sat with our legs crossed on B’s pink and blue coverlet. Her entire room was Danish-pastel themed. Our relationship was only a few months…
Rom-coms: a distorted reality
I, self-proclaimed, am a hopeless romantic. Far too much of my free time has been spent overindulging in the typical rom-com movie fantasies. Two strangers meet, perhaps stumble into each other in that oh-so-whimsical way, fall in love,…
Lots of love: A reflection on the relationship between culture and love
One of the first concepts introduced in Physics 240 at the University of Michigan — Coulomb’s Law — has a lot more to offer than just a description of the physical world. The law, critical to the understanding…
What is love? A peek into the five love languages
I’m going to tell you the truth — I’ve never been in love. It’s not that I don’t know what love is. I mean, I’ve seen it in movies: the young damsel in distress saved by her shining…
February 1 Edition:
Nature is (almost) free: Inclusivity in outdoor communities
At the start of each semester, the University of Michigan deposits $500 into my bank account for “textbooks.” Inevitably, I end up spending this sum on something decidedly non-academic: clothes, knitting supplies, overpriced candles. This year it was an Osprey 50L backpacking pack for my upcoming spring break trip to Zion National Park. Osprey is the brand of choice for many backpacking enthusiasts because their…
James Webb and the direction of the human gaze
There’s an image of space that they call “Pillars of Creation.” It looks like the hand of a god. Your eye traces the forearm of gas coagulating into amorphous peaks of cotton candy space dust. Spectral, gargantuan, ghostly,…
How legalized betting has changed the way we watch sports
Five years ago, in a 6-3 split decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act’s (PASPA) prohibition on “state authorization of sports gambling schemes” was a violation of the 10th Amendment.…
The anti-woke hoax
Several years ago in an Advanced Placement Language and Composition class, I read “Language in Thought and Action” by S.I. Hayakawa. Most of the book’s contents have admittedly slipped my mind, but one topic that has stuck with…
Restructuring my ambition & other beginnings
If you had asked me what I wanted most in life just one year ago, I would have buoyantly responded with: a book deal and a successful writing career. As my aptitude for setting professional goals stretches back…
January 25 Edition:
How to underachieve and feel okay about it
The world was hushed and dark. Shadows softened the edges of my room and the sun creeped closer to the horizon. I imagine that before my alarm jolted me from deep sleep one early Wednesday morning, some manner of a perplexed look rested upon my face. I’ve been told that when I sleep, it appears as if I’m thinking. But when the chimes of my…
On casual homophobia at the University of Michigan
Note: All names have been changed, and stories have been truncated when appropriate to avoid the possibility or implication of repeating the message relevant in each encounter. As a student at the University of Michigan, I’ve rarely witnessed…
How boarding school altered my perception of the college experience
Walking out of the Chemistry Building after finishing my last final of the fall semester, I did what could only be considered to be, at the very least, necessary: I fist-bumped myself. Pow! It’s a little thing I…
When your pet grows old
Part of the hardships that many college students face while away from home is the potent sense of longing, perhaps for a specific person, place or pet. Since I stepped foot on the University of Michigan’s campus, there…
Reckoning with State Street’s changes
When I walk along the newly renovated State Street in Ann Arbor, I feel contradictory emotions. Sometimes I see the curbless road, the string lights and benches, and think: how nice. When I’m driving, however, it feels like…
January 18 Edition:
Rethinking our digital future
In the last 24 hours, my six friends and I collectively sent 374 texts in a group chat coming up on its five-year anniversary. And this was a slow day. Calling Tinder matches “pen pals,” all-caps play-by-play reactions to the new “Matilda” movie, pictures of people we haven’t spoken to in years that seem to reappear all too often. Texts like “im wearing a headband”…
Trying for a world beyond language
When I was younger, I lived in Tiāntán, Běijīng. I was walking distance away from the Temple of Heaven — a sacred place — but my Eden was a rectangular arrangement of shrubs in the courtyard of my…
So, what do you want to be? A reflection on career choice among college students
I think the very first thing I can remember wanting to do for a living was be a dinosaur. I was about 4 years old with a very limited conception of what “work” and “money” and “healthcare” were,…
In Armenia’s eyes: returning home as a foreigner
Writer’s note: I intentionally wrote this piece as a celebration of Armenian identity — or at the very least, an exploration of it — as I rarely see Armenians or Armenia covered in American media without a strong…
Going public with picky eating
Content Warning: Mentions Disordered Eating It shocked my parents when their little girl, the kid who frowned at “Spongebob” boxed macaroni and cheese and lied about having a peanut allergy to avoid peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tore…
The Sex Edition:
The Statement 2022 Sex Survey
Here marks the closing chapter of a fall semester that, to many University of Michigan students, was characterized by a series of Tinder hook-ups, bouts of religious guilt, the occasional trip to University Health Services and a whole lot of “doing it.” We here at The Statement know this because we asked, just as we have done for the past 10 years. Indeed, on this…
Sex in the classroom
Though they both take up space in our collective consciousness, sexual encounters and academic spaces typically reside on opposite ends of the campus spectrum. It’s what makes this 2006 Daily article about how to have sex in the…
Love notes from an asexual girl
There’s a succulent on my windowsill. I’ve been trying to propagate it for about a year now. But I’m starting to discover a distinct lack of green in my thumb. When I was fresh out of high school…
Let’s talk date parties, pseudo-consent and transactional sex
“He tried to kiss me like eight times,” my friend said as she casually took a sip from her iced coffee — her mascara from the night before smudged under her eyes. “He did what?” I asked. “I…
Sex or scripture? The Madonna-Whore complex
Sex, in a sense, has become one of the most commercialized phenomena of our evolutionary biology. Evolving for over 2 billion years, the first archaeological record of penetrative intercourse dates to 385 million years ago between prehistoric fish…
November 30 Edition:
Behind the University’s signs of the times: the art in navigation
Mason Hall had a wayfinding problem. “At best, it was confusing,” the University of Michigan’s Lynne Friman, LSA’s Capital Project Manager and Designer, admits. Her recent credits at the University include redesigns at the Science Learning Center and the Modern Languages Building. She also has been involved in creating the interior of the Museum of Natural History. Now, Friman is one of the people tasked…
‘Do something:’ On the one-year anniversary of the Oxford High School shooting
Content Warning: Descriptions of gun violence and familial death. It’s hard to be the picture of resiliency when you’ve been knocked down and can’t get back up. I wish people would realize they’re walking over me, continually pushing…
More than a fraud? The guilt of being a fake activist
All my life, I’ve wanted to be the one who stands on the pulpit and delivers the victory message. I’ve dreamed of marching up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial like Martin Luther King Jr., telling America that…
‘On the cutting edge:’ Professor Perry Samson through the lens of Climate 102
Throughout his long and illustrious career in meteorology, not everything went to plan for Perry Samson. In fact, he never planned on becoming a meteorologist. He had every intention of becoming a rock star. “But they expect you…
‘Tis the rush to the season: holiday joy or capitalist ploy?
This year on Nov. 1, I woke up to sunlight pouring through my bedroom windows. I could see beautiful orange and red leaves cascading through the autumn breeze. With my morning coffee in tow, I stepped onto the…
November 16 Edition:
In defense of my old friend, Death
Content Warning: mentions of death, homicide, suicide and graphic descriptions of bodily mutilation and trauma *** I remember the beauty of last week like it was yesterday, when all the fresh and crunchy leaves were still littered across the Diag and the wind lacked that extra bite. I frequently find it difficult to engage in my favorite pastime — stopping to smell the figurative roses…
The real fake IDs of UMich
Two months ago, I received an unexpected direct message on Twitter. It was from someone I had never met but vaguely recognized from the University of Michigan Twitter-sphere. “I think my roommate found your fake,” they wrote. “It…
Social hierarchies on campus: Why Greek life isn’t unique
Standing in the late afternoon sunlight amid a crowd of university students, I observed the scene before me. Music blared from a DJ stand I couldn’t see, swallowed in a mass of bodies decked out in maize and…
Give me a sign: Touring Ann Arbor’s signage landscape
Political signage around Ann Arbor, though often a year-round affair for many students, protestors and organizations, has been amplified by the midterm elections, from splashes of “Vote Yes on Prop 3” signs across the Diag to yard signs…
The art of stand-up comedy
It was leg day at the gym. Still damp from a rushed shower, I, with soreness, sped over to the Canterbury House on E. Huron Street on a weekend night surprisingly warm for early November. I was about…
The Color Wheel Edition:
For this new special edition, the Statement writers were randomly assigned one color from a palette of options (purple, yellow, green, blue or orange) and were tasked with incorporating that color in some way in their columns. The result: a collection of narratives in varied shades — testimonials to goldfish and yellow lights and Mother Nature and everything in between. Scroll to experience this literary rainbow.
A love letter to yellow
Fall used to be yellow. Much less the color of the leaves and more the color of corn in my hands. I have a hazy memory of walking through a corn maze with my family when I was eight or nine. I remember shucking cobs and leaving the husks on the paths, marking the ways we’d been. I remember the way the corn towered over…
‘Everyone’s a critic’ — The deterioration of criticism as an artform
A few weeks ago, I woke up and found myself in desperate need of a hair mask. I glared in the mirror and noticed crinkles and curls and split ends in places that were once populated by a…
The purple personality
Scientists estimate that humans can see about 18 decillion varieties of color. That’s 18 followed by 33 zeros. With a virtually infinite array of options to choose from, picking a favorite would seem like a time-consuming, maybe even…
Feeling kinda green: Reconciliation for our archetypal outcasts
A wig of unknown origin still sits at my apartment’s kitchen table. Face paint bottles sprawl across the counter where two of my housemate’s habitually make coffee. Just moments ago, a hairbrush belonging to a friend of a…
An ode to goldfish
Does anyone else remember Darla Sherman? You know, the girl with the braces holding the dead goldfish in that tiny plastic bag in “Finding Nemo”? If you can recall her in your mind’s eye (or your nightmares), you…
November 2 Edition:
Deconstructing the hometown visit
“Hometown”: a word with a seemingly straightforward definition, bringing to mind elements of one’s childhood and the relationships that shaped it. In college — especially a college with a large student body, like the University of Michigan’s healthy diversity of in-state versus out-of-state students — the concept of a hometown adopts an entirely new meaning. This is precisely because every student’s perceptions of their hometown…
iPartied with Matt Bennett
Upon walking into The Fillmore in downtown Detroit, one is greeted by many vestiges of the past. An illuminated marquee lined with individual light bulbs juts out from an ornately decorated facade. Inside, geometrically pieced archways soar over…
Let’s reach beyond ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Women’s literature and the Dobbs decision
Over the summer, hometown boredom encouraged me to preemptively browse through my fall 2022 courses and their corresponding reading lists. Since I’m an English major, each of my classes offered an abundance of novels to potentially fill my…
Pursuit of solitude on this bustling campus
At times, Ann Arbor grows restless: Students pass one another carelessly and in a hurry. Each bustles noisily, but none pause to listen. Sights and sounds of half a hundred comings and goings whittle me down to the…
Finding the fairy tale
If I were to imagine the least magical, least romantic place on Earth, it would be a dark, sticky basement full of people who may or may not have showered in the last 48 hours, bobbing their heads…
The Immersion Edition:
In this special edition, we’ve challenged the Statement writers to ‘immerse’ themselves in new experiences on campus. The result: a collection of testimonials shedding light on the campus’s less-explored marvels, from witches to ballroom dancing to the posse of Jehovah’s Witnesses stationed on the Diag. And the Daily’s Photo team was there to capture it all.
“The grid in the green:” Envisioning a better North Campus
There’s no singular campus experience, but there are a few moments that are iconically “Michigan” — walking through the Diag, studying in the UgLi, going out to the less-than-pristine bars on South University Avenue. Until recently, I had never noticed a common thread between these scenes, but now their similarity strikes me: all of them take place on Central Campus. The fact that when we…
Canvassing the canvassers — Evangelicals, voting drives and more
I think that one of the easiest things to do on a college campus is ignore people — I know this because it’s something I do all the time. When I’m going to class, or to a friend’s…
Waltzing my way through ballroom dance history
“Have you ballroom danced before?” a girl asked, as we waited outside the studio door. I shook my head, a reluctant smile appearing on my face. “Not yet, but I am about to.” In my creased, worn, white…
My first swing at golf: Lessons from the green
Between my fourth and fifth failed attempts to land a hit on the seventh hole of the afternoon, my friend declared with a laugh: “This article is going to be an attack on golf.” For a time, I…
Sitting face-to-face with one of Ann Arbor’s witches
My fascination with witches was born out of reading “The Crucible” my sophomore year of high school. I read aloud the voice of Elizabeth Proctor to the class, my voice trembling as I pleaded with the judge for…
October 19 Edition:
From the ‘U’ archives: Halloween, through the decades
Photographs and research collected courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library. Note, some of the following photos may contain students in culturally appropriative costumes. Halloween is a breeze down the back of a thin black cape you thrifted not an hour prior to a candlelit party with friends. Halloween is worrying about the right brand of fake blood to use for your crisp white shirt that…
In conversation with Groundcover: Ann Arbor’s street paper
“Something is being made in this room.” I hadn’t heard many other people speak as passionately about a space as Groundcover News editor-in-chief Lindsay Calka spoke of their office. I descended late Monday morning into the basement of…
Digital ads: The struggle between gratuity and privacy
Around every online corner, someone is trying to sell you something. Advertisements for Grammarly play before, during and after YouTube videos. Online shopping ads show up on social media, streaming platforms and message boards. These ads intrude our…
America’s obsession with staying young
Prior to this semester, I only used the term marathon to describe 26-mile-long runs and a 24-hour viewing of Harry Potter movies. Now, as a sophomore in college, I can add three consecutive days of exams, several all-nighters…
The rise and fall of genuine hobbies
Last month, I applied to a study abroad program in Paris and had to fill out an application with an “activities” section. My heart sank. I got the same feeling as when a professor, attempting an icebreaker, asks:…
October 12 Edition:
It’s great to be a Michigan voter; students’ path to the polls
In 1969, you could be denied voter registration at the Ann Arbor Clerk’s Office if you weren’t “conservatively dressed.” Or if your answer to “Where did you spend your last vacation?” implied any sort of family connection or financial dependency. Or if you told the clerk that you would call your parents if you were seriously ill or had some sort of emergency. For the…
Ethnic businesses transformed Ann Arbor strip malls into cultural meccas
In late August, I learned that an old friend with whom I had lost contact was coming to visit the University of Michigan. When thinking of a place to meet, a common friend and I blurted out the…
On the right to be forgotten
When I was a freshman in high school, I read some book that I can’t quite remember the title of, knowing only that it started with the words “You’ll never be remembered like Caesar.” I hated that thought.…
Rediscovering Ann Arbor
I fell back in love with Ann Arbor, unintentionally, on a run. I was training for an upcoming half-marathon, and I ventured farther and farther away from campus to get in my miles, seeing my endurance improve gradually.…
The narrative of BookTok
From a bird’s eye view, I think that TikTok is a difficult platform to digest and even harder to discuss broadly, possessing so many sides, shades and issues that are always growing and evolving. Part of that evolution…
The Fiction Edition:
Day in the life of two campus squirrels
The squirrel is a staple of the University of Michigan’s culture. They make their homes in almost every corner of Ann Arbor, causing mayhem among themselves and providing entertainment for the people who walk through the city’s streets…
Red Water, Clear Water
Content warning: Descriptions of animal abuse, violence, blood, murder and suicide. Sometimes she daydreamed so intensely she would almost turn into a fog. Margot was 15. She turned into a fog that day, the day that it happened.…
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
My friend Rina is a real estate agent. Her retouched face stares at me from billboards at several intersections in the city; next to her right cheekbone is text that reads, “#1 Realtor in the Metro Area and…
Carter’s Four Rules For Being a Ghost
Rule One: The instant I open my eyes I start to disappear. It’s a pull that starts in the tips of my extremities and starts spreading me apart like I’m ink diffusing into water. Something about this new…
A house for flies
Old houses are difficult to live in. Extreme heat and chill come from bad insulation, partially due to aging window sills with painted-over handles and shitty screens; summers can be especially problematic. Radiators melt shoe soles and burn…
September 28 Edition:
Sex, drugs and rock n roll: How we fall in love with addiction
CW: Mentions of substance abuse, physical assault, glamorization of addiction. “Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a family, choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments, and choose leisure wear and matching luggage.” That is the opening monologue delivered by narrator Mark Renton from one…
Demystifying Ann Arbor’s train station
For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard trains in the night. Railroads snake all along the Mississippi River, through Memphis, past its hallowed streets of soul music. The tracks run up the Hudson, through Rhinebeck, past…
Students are paying to do unpaid labor; What the ‘U’ can do
I like to joke that I came into college as an idealistic liberal arts student and came out with a job in big tech. One day I was taking classes in political theory, philosophy and English rhetoric. The…
The sanctuary of online games for the awkward child
I consider myself a gamer. Not in the typical way of being the newest X-Box buyer, discord user or Twitch streamer, but, rather, in a more metaphorical, nostalgic sense. So, correction: I was a gamer. It began in…
Is there an expiration date on childhood?
Sometimes things grab my brain, grip it tight and refuse to let go. I try to go to class, eat my lunch and hang out with my friends, but the thing holds fast. The case of a prehistoric…
September 21 Edition:
Tales from the Biological Station: Femininity and gender expression
My friend Jill is sitting behind me at a library table as the sun gets closer to setting in the distance, just past the lake, surrounded by a haze of trees that serve as a reminder that we are in the middle of nowhere. We’re supposed to be reading something for class, and I remark that the author has continually connected the idea of femininity…
The gate-keeping and co-opting of jazz music in America
Imagine this: You’ve just seen a photo of the most appetizing fettuccine pasta, smothered with Alfredo sauce, on someone’s Instagram story. You don’t know the person well, but the food looks scrumptious; you have to know where they…
In defense of freshman girls
As students settle from the flurry of school-sponsored and not-so-school-sponsored Welcome Week activities, we gaze back lovingly on the rites of passage that characterize that coveted week: meeting people in our dorm, sweating in bikini tops and unbuttoned…
The summer I discovered public nudity
I confronted public nudity for the first time when I was 13, spending three weeks at a sleepaway camp in Yosemite. I mindlessly walked into the women’s bathroom and was immediately greeted with a posse of naked bodies.…
A major mistake
My love affair with white coats began when I was a teenager. I was obsessed with medical dramas like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Untold Stories of the E.R.” Although “Grey’s Anatomy” was a fictional dream world of high-powered careers…
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