Essays

Have you ever been hard-at-work on a project and then glanced at the clock and realized 5 hours had flown by, but it only felt like 30 minutes? And you were so in-tune and focused that your perception of time made the hours evaporate? Conversely, have you ever sat in a class where every minute felt like an eternity; and you kept staring at the clock yearning for it to be over? I'd choose the first option any day of the week...

Let me tell you a story about how someone stole my $2,500 Macbook Pro last year. This was my first run-in with a digital cyberthreat. A year later, I’ve still been unable to retrieve it, and the FBI Internet Crime sector has failed to assist the case. To start from the beginning, I grew up selling a lot of electronic devices on eBay. I got really good at it, and my friends/family always sought to me for selling their used goods. Due to this semi-proficiency, I continued to utilize the platform because I had never encountered any game-changing issues. Well, clearly, I jinxed myself...

The term "storytelling" is paradoxical. The narrative of the word "narrative" is a sort of inception. As in, the very story of the comprisal of stories is a narrative within itself. Confusing? Yeah, probably. I've always been fascinated by the art of storytelling. Although many people assimilate the phrase as a verb, I've grown to comprehend it as a big-picture concept. The very fact that human beings have the mental capacity to recount large encompassed stories is nothing short of extraordinary. Whether it be through literature, language, film, music, photography, writing, etc., we have been sharing trillions of stories throughout all of human existence.

Airstrip One, the fictionalized version of London, in George Orwell's provoking novel - 1984, is staggeringly similar to the America we know in 2020. It is inarguable that this year is one of the most unique, appalling, and critical periods of time that anyone alive has ever experienced. Due to many reasons, and a significant contributor being the COVID-19 pandemic, societies have faced momentous loss, hardship, and consequence. However, that is not all. 2020 America has come to many profound realizations of critical societal issues, holes in the technology system, social constructs, and law & order across the board. All of which fall under gargantuan sectors of how a first-world country functions.