On & Off Campus Blog

I feel every beat. I hear every emotion. Music makes me feel alive. After a long day, music reminds me of what life still has yet to bring: tragedy, pure happiness, love, heartbreak, and endless nights. The things that you live for and the things that you dread. The lyrics paint a story in your head, whether it’s familiar or not. You hear the artist’s pain, their happiness, their overall emotions through the power of each word. Music is like poetry that you move to but, instead of reading, you listen.

For my Senior Spring Project (SSP), I’m currently taking Dr. Lippard’s course, Beyond Our Echo Chambers. The course, following in the non-profit Braver Angels’ footsteps, tries to inspire productive dialogue between liberals and conservatives; in this case, the liberals are BB&N seniors, and the conservatives high school students from the Sam Houston High School in Louisiana.

"What do you plan on studying in college?" asked the nice woman at the register in Marathon Sports. I paused, not knowing how to answer. I hadn't been asked this question yet. While I've come across the, "What schools are you looking at?" question, this was foreign territory.

On my first day of school in Japan, I distinctly remember after lunch all my classmates began to flip their chairs onto their desks and push their chair stacked desks to a corner of the classroom. I was puzzled. What was going on? Why were they making space? Were we going to have a dance battle?

Now, I wouldn’t like to call myself the typical fashion analyst. And in no way could I say that I have the credentials to do so. However, from someone who is simply and utterly a big enthusiast for vintage fashion trends, I do feel like I can confidently say that TikTok has impacted not only my personal sense of fashion, but also, the fashion of teenagers around the United States. Here’s why: