Columns

The Christmas tree—a pagan tradition ingrained in a Christian holiday. Perhaps it is a sign of the commercialization of Christmas along with Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman. However, a Christmas tree is a sacred holiday tradition that should not be taken lightly.

It’s funny—I’ve spent these past three years trying to ignore the legacy that my brother, Varun Sivaram, left behind. I’ve gone to great lengths to make my own path and pioneer my own route to success, carefully avoiding all the activities he partook in (which, I assure you, did not leave many options).

It’s the beginning of the end. After a decade of heated duels, audacious rule-breaking and the ultimate struggle between love and hate, Harry Potter’s adventure finally is coming to a close.

17. For me, this used to be a golden number, the age I craved to be. Though it holds no particular real world value (it is neither the driving age nor when you become a legal adult), I would always try to imagine what I would look like and how I would act when I finally reached this magical time in my life.

From birth until I was almost 6, I could have been easily mistaken for a boy. My clothes consisted mainly of neutral colors because my mom believed that I looked horrendous in girls’ clothing, especially with my chubbiness and baldness during my first few months. Even after my hair finally grew out, my mom insisted to have it cut a little shorter than shoulder-length, making me appear as a shaggy-haired kid.

“Are you French?”
“No.”
“Are, you, like, a hermaphrodite?”
“Nope.”
“Well, then, what’s up with that forest growing on your legs?”

"Stop complaining; freshmen don’t have homework.”

This was probably the most common phrase said to me during my first year of high school. As a lowly freshman, whenever I heard it, I would just nod my head and keep quiet. I remember my junior and senior friends would get annoyed if I even so much as mentioned having work. Excusing myself early from Robotics to toil over something like a pop-up book in World Geography was unforgivable.

If there is one thing in the world I absolutely cannot get enough of, it’s Harry Potter and everything that has to do with Harry Potter. I don’t mean the Harry Potter character himself—I much prefer Draco Malfoy or the Weasley twins—but the whole franchise itself. However, if there is one flaw in the perfect world of the Harry Potter franchise, it is the movies.

It disappoints me that Microsoft's spell check does not recognize “fangirl” as a correctly spelled English word. It is the word that my life has revolved around since I discovered the volatility of the Internet in middle school, and it sums up who I am in a neat seven letters.