On Taylor Swift's Art and Actions

November 27, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

By Olivia Funderburg

Content warning: mention of sexual assault

My first Counterpoint article was about Taylor Swift. I was a first-year trying to figure out how to be a college student; now I’m a senior trying to come to terms with the person who I’ve become. On the eve of the next Taylor Swift album—and wondering if it could be the last—I’m sitting down to write about her again. I’ve never been in a serious (or really any) romantic relationship, so the reason I like Taylor’s music isn’t that I relate to most of it. I definitely didn’t start listening to her music because I’m a country fan. You can’t really choose who you love. If you could, I don’t know if I would have chosen Taylor.

Hebron: A Day in the Life

November 27, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity, Politics

By Charlotte Kaufman

Content warning: description of anti-Palestinian violence

Our bus pulled in from Ramallah to the place that people told me I should not go: Hebron, the formerly thriving capital and largest city in the West Bank of Palestine. Even members of my immediate family warned me it could be dangerous for an American Jew.

Exposure "Therapy": Being Low-Income at Wellesley

November 26, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Campus Life

By Anonymous

Content warning: mention of anxiety

The American ideology of self-sufficiency and inherent, unbounded individual potential, reinforced in many ways by Wellesley, has deeply poisoned how I perceive myself. Being poor at Wellesley has always felt like a personal failure. Why can’t I just work more hours at my jobs? Why can’t I get a job during the school year that pays better? The reality is my jobs can’t give me more hours, I already have two of the best paying jobs on campus, and I need time to devote to academics as well as taking care of my health. How can I pull myself up by the bootstraps if I can’t afford boots?

Aguas Negras

November 01, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity, Mental Health

By Alicia Margarita Olivo

Content warning: description of violence, implication of depression, mention of hurricane, flood

Being at Wellesley makes me feel like I’m wading through flood waters (I remember when Tropical Storm Allison hit home and my dad took my hand and helped me walk through the water to see the cars stuck on the street; I thought they were sharks in the deep), or that I’m carrying a weight on my chest. Now that I’m 1,806 miles away from home (if I were to walk home—sometimes I imagine society collapsing and everything going to complete shit [more than it already has] and, stuck without the availability to drive, I would walk those 1,806 miles back home) and family, bringing up any topic that might be considered Heavy seems rude.

Luisa and Luis Meet and Ariana Happens: A Wellesley Story

November 01, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Ariana Gonzalez-Bonillas

Content warning: binary language to honor how Luisa and Azucena experienced Wellesley

August 1990.

Luisa arrives at Wellesley, Purple Class of 1994. The Latinas that Azucena had adopted and helped to grow in turn adopt and care for Luisa. Luisa majors in Latin American Studies, becomes a Mellon Mays Scholar, and struggles to learn how to be at a predominantly white institution. Soon, she will find a companion in her struggle who knows what she is going through, too.

Kamala Khan: The Ms.-Ing Piece of the Marvel Universe

October 31, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity, Arts & Culture

By Padya Paramita

Content warning: mention of Nazis

On the day after the 2016 US presidential elections, a queer international student of color found herself at a comic book store face-to-face with a superhero she had never seen before. In encountering Kamala Khan—known by her superhero alias, Ms. Marvel—I discovered a girl much like myself: brown, Muslim, fighting demons, trying to find a balance between Americanization and her South Asian roots.

Three Flakes, Then Four: John Green's Turtles All the Way Down

October 31, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Mental Health, Arts & Culture

By Samantha English

Content warnings: description of anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder

When I was fourteen years old, I bought The Fault in Our Stars at a Barnes and Noble in Darien, Illinois. It was a hot summer weekend, and I spent the afternoon in my grandmother's air-conditioned basement curled up on a blow-up mattress, falling in love with John Green's most recent novel of the time.

Falling (Back) in Love with Peter Parker

September 27, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

By Samantha English and Olivia Funderburg

Content warning: implication of anxiety and claustrophobia

Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen Spider-Man: Homecoming or Captain America: Civil War, read with caution.

The original Spider-Man was created in 1962 by Stan Lee, who had noticed a rise in teen comic book readers and a lack of teen comic book characters. Most Marvel characters were adults at the time—take, for instance, Iron Man and Captain America, who both have origin stories linked to war even if their comics were written with a young audience in mind. Lee wanted a teen character that young people could identify with. He created Peter Parker, a fifteen-year-old New Yorker who loved science, was the victim of high school bullying, and, because of a radioactive spider-bite, spent his after-school hours protecting people on the streets of Queens in a mask and spandex.

When Marvel decided to incorporate the character of Spider-Man into the complex, multi-character, multimillion-dollar Cinematic Universe, the company finally took Peter Parker back to his roots

Wellesley's Remix Through Student Voice

September 27, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Campus Life

By Amanda Wahlstedt '20

If you weren’t aware, college freshmen have been known to party and test the limits of their newfound freedom. “Wellesley,” you may be asking, “where are all the parties?”

For the last two years, the answer has been, “off-campus at MIT, Babson, Olin, or Harvard.” Small dorm kick-backs happen, but there is no school-wide event for Wellesley siblings to celebrate the milestone of a new college semester together…or at least there hasn’t been one since the Class of 2020 got here.

Let's Talk About Therapy

May 17, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Mental Health

By Sophia Temkin '17

Content warning: implication of depression; mention of attempted suicide, sexual assault, and anxiety

The first time I went to therapy, I was in second grade. The last time I went to therapy was about a week ago. I think I’ve spent more years in weekly therapy than not.

50 Things

May 17, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Campus Life

By Allyson Larcom '17

Everyone talks about the infamous “50 things” list at Wellesley. In four years here, many of us have checked off a lot of those quintessential Wellesley adventures. A few of us have really done all fifty. All of us, however, have had many, many adventures that don't appear on that famous list.

Growing with Wellesley

May 17, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Campus Life

By Kanika Vaish '17

It’s two weeks into my first year at Wellesley, and I and myself sobbing in the middle of the night in the quad courtyard. I won’t get into why I was crying—it would take me a long time to explain. But most Wellesley students know that there are few places on campus where you can cry and keep to yourself.

The Hate U Give: A Mirror and a Window

May 03, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture, Identity

By Olivia Funderburg

The Hate U Give follows 16-year old Starr Carter as she navigates the ins and outs of being a teenager: from friendships and sometimes fighting to boyfriends and maybe taking the next step. But Starr’s life is more complicated than some 16-year olds’ are. She has to navigate living between two worlds: the black neighborhood she calls home and the elite, predominately white high school she attends. Starr’s life quickly becomes even more complicated when she is the only witness when her childhood best friend Khalil, unarmed, is killed by a cop.

Another Umbrella Email

May 03, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Mental Health

By Anonymous

Content warning: explicit descriptions of depression, death, suicidal thoughts, drowning; mentions of ableist terms describing mental health conditions

The hood on my raincoat comes to a point where all the water streams down. It’s streaming down into my coat. I am drenched, but my umbrella is in my bag.

I didn’t use it because at least when I’m drenched and miserable, I’m feeling something.

The Freedom Project: A Student Fellow's Perspective

May 03, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Campus Life, Politics

By Margaret Flynn Sapia '19

Given the abundance of this year’s news articles, emails, and Facebook posts, I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting to read another Freedom Project story. I’m sure that the temptation to set down this magazine and do something else (like take a walk, eat some pie, or hide away with your Netflix account) is overtly compelling. Even as I sit down to write this, I’m having trouble knowing what to say. The last thing I want to do is polarize or inflame an already heated campus division, especially so close to the end of the year. However, the dialogue surrounding the Freedom Project has been missing a perspective.