Cortex

After a five-month hiatus, I once again made the journey back to Singapore. This time, though, the road home was longer than usual. It began in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with a U-Haul drive to Durham. From there, my friend and I set off (well, he drove—I was in the passenger seat; I still held only a learner’s permit) to Great Falls, Virginia, where we spent the night at a close friend’s home. The next day, we made our way to Marlboro, New Jersey, where I stayed with another friend. And finally, I boarded a plane bound for Singapore, with a stopover in Doha, Qatar. The long journey home was deliberate—one made for the joy of the experience rather than convenience. I could have flown home a week ago, right after the school year ended. I miss my family deeply and can’t wait to see them. But part of me wasn’t quite ready to leave. I wanted a few more days with my friends at Duke before heading halfway across the world. This semester gave me so many reasons to miss the school—and the p...

People tell you that you can never predict what your college experience will bring. From the minute your application to a particular university is accepted, almost every college student spends hours imagining their perfect lives at their chosen university, creating lofty expectations for the presence they will have on their future campuses. But most of the time, before this image crystallizes in our heads, our college experience begins, and we actually have to figure stuff out for real. I had two years to think about what my life would be like at Duke (check out my first blog post for why I had two years to think about Duke). I used to spend hours roaming on Google Earth, trying to virtually simulate what my Duke experience would be like. I would watch Duke basketball highlight tapes, listening closely to the melody of the Cameron Crazies and wondering how my voice would fit into their symphony. I catalogued the different permutations of majors and minors I could pursue and which degre...

    The following essay is a memoir I wrote for my introductory writing course at Duke University. It describes one of my fondest memories from playing sports in high school. I hope you enjoy it.  Rally   We are in the gym early , an hour before the first serve, with our opponents , the International School of Bangkok (ISB), nowhere to be seen . That was the nature of the Singapore American School boys' volleyball team, a culture carried over decades of our school history. The program valued an almost militant-like sense of professionalism, conduct, and discipline, both on the court and off the court. It was a bit excessive , particularly considering that we were a low-level volleyball team in the middle of Southeast Asia, playing against other Southeast Asian schools. But our hope was that when our team’s ability falter ed , our culture would triumph. The hours of discipline before the game would bring us through a difficult moment.    As we walk into the ...