off the beat

I had to adjust to a few things when I moved to Berkeley: getting over the time difference, dealing with my student visa, being independent for the first time and growing used to a snowless winter.

When I came to college, I was torn, debating whether I should go by “Sakura” when I’d gone my entire life as “Berkeley.” How hard would it be to adapt?

Today, fear is the No. 1 asset of the current administration. You might say the business-minded Donald Trump has monopolized fear. Slowly, he injects it into the market, directing it towards one group or another.

In a culture proliferated with MILFs, it seems that society’s acceptance of them only extends as long as a teenage boy’s arm as he reaches for his pre-masturbation bottle of lotion.

I broke up with him while we sat on the steps outside my apartment building. He was so distraught and emotional that he immediately started throwing up in the grass next to the sidewalk.

It seems like an absolutely ridiculous perspective to have given up on my aspirations because I didn’t achieve my lofty expectations of true success. Yet, for the longest time, I completely forfeited any of my childhood’s ambitions, simply because they hadn’t followed my expected timeline.

My heart races, my chest feels hot and my fingers tingle. The voice in my head is me — or rather, it’s my anxiety telling me that I can’t and shouldn’t write.