Aryan's A-Z

  To Belong in this World By: Aryan Mukherjee “ You Belong”. “Love Yourself”. “Be Yourself, Because Everyone Else Is Taken”. I see these words strewn from poster to poster, plastered along the walls of every classroom and sprung to life from the vapor of the teenage breath on the mirrors of their school bathrooms. But just like vapor, those words of feigned encouragement are chiseled into your brain for just a few moments before disappearing along with the rest of the day’s grievances, and belonging acts as myth portrayed only in the most fanciful of legends that you hear before being tucked in to sleep at night. Splash! The water curls its arms around me and I am lurched forward into a spiral of lightning fast strokes, as thunder chants my name from all sides. As I just barely snag the gold medal, a rush of paparazzi spawns in, from mobs of clout-hungry stans to clusters of random civilians whose piqued interests morph them into my number one fan despite not even knowing my na...

 The Environment at Stake      I saw the snake and I became a statue. Petrified, it was like Medusa had laid her cold, degrading stare upon me and it was all I could do but pray I would survive. Inch by inch, I braved myself to step back, until my foot caught hold of a twig on a tree and I was instantaneously sprung into motion, a single twinge sending thousands of volts of adrenaline down my back and compelling me towards taking decisive action. The velvet red kingsnake’s beady eyes batted in curiosity, and its black and white rings danced hypnotic mazes through my eyes. I screeched like a newborn who was deprived of his favorite toy, and my reaction beckoned the chuckles and forward strides of an administrator who was watching over us that day. “Don’t worry, he’s harmless,” the director spoke with a warm smile made warmer by the fact that only a handful of kids were present to witness my utter cowardice. At the time, that was like telling a vegetarian that tortur...