On the Road

Born and raised as an only child from an individualistic family, I always suffered from human relationship issues. Those problematic were not a problem - such problems mostly occur between intimate friends. Those that barely started to sprout have been my issues. Concerns were about, in general, how the person would think about me. How I should start talking to him, what I should address as a topic of conversation, or how I should react to the account of story he(or she) tells me. An unripe relationship obliges me to deliberate; prudence precedes my propensity, since friendship is not just a scene from a play. No one could clearly understand how a turmoil of feelings induces an agony inside one's mind in reality; understanding Hamlet is relatively easy, while sympathizing with the Hamlets of our society is not. In that, the story of the big man who can't shoot arouses a sense of affinity to me. Being aware of the way others look at me - caring too much of the perceptions of th...

   "Et Vigny, plus secret, Comme en sa tour d'ivoire, avant midi rentrait." - First introduced in its modern meaning by the French author Sainte-Beauve, the term 'ivory tower' has been used to describe an intellectual pursuit isolated from worldly concerns. And it has also been used to refer to a university. Why should colleges be called as "tour d'ivoire"? The fact implies that a number of people had been considering the university as a pioneering epicenter of an academia. Because colleges are meant to be so. Bowdoin's superfluous suppers and amenities, as Gladwell points out, contradicts the pursuit of an ivory tower. Fabulous food and astounding facilities are for hotels, not academies. Worldly pursuits must not be an ultimate goal of tuition; instead, it must be used to satiate students' intellectual aspire.    It is to pursue the virtue of the ivory tower, not to abandon necessary elements of a quality school life other than financial a...

Boiling water, when put under specific conditions, could freeze faster than ice-cold water. The phenomenon, called Mpemba effect, is a vivid contradiction between our perception and common sense. Despite seeming nonsensical, science champions its legitimacy – the warmth at first doesn’t guarantee the warmth at last. As, moral behaviors guarantee nothing in regards to one’s morality after all. One who used to pursue the virtue of conscience, occasionally, comes up to commit – or encounter – the critical downfall of morality. Moral licensing has inflicted a variety of problems on the society, and has barely revealed itself as the root cause of such problems. Gradually and steadily, moral licensing has been rising itself to the surface of our consciousness. Despite the severity of issues it has invoked, I am afraid to admit that we have no other option but to wait till it rises; only the constant awareness and patience, would let us overcome this social problem. Elizabeth Thompson dre...