Aswin

  The moment you start college apps is when you realize it’s the real deal. You feel like you have been preparing the last 4 years for this, yet you still feel unprepared. The classes you took, the extracurriculars, SATs or ACTs are all preparations, but now, you’re  starting an application process that will shape and decide your future, it’s a terrifying process.  I’m sure everyone can relate that the pressure is undeniable. Your whole high school experience feels like it’s being summed up into essays and transcripts. The “what ifs” to torture your mind: What if my essays not good enough? What if my essay doesn’t have stylistic choices? What if I don’t have good grades or enough extracurriculars? And finally, what if I don’t get into my dream school? This is when your realize your life just became real, this is the first step for becoming an adult, living on your own, making your meals, you feel like your next steps are in your hand and you don’t want to screw it up....

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :     I would like to thank the whole classroom for making AP LANG fun, especially my friends Shiv, Janav, and Shovik. You guys made English class an unforgettable experience. From the first day to the present , you infused each class, everyday with laughter, and creativity, transforming what could have been a boring class into the most fun times of school. I’d like to thank Shiv with his iconic energy drink each morning, for his jokes and enthusiasm which never failed to lighten the mood, turning every parter workshops into enjoyable challenges. I’d like to thank Janav, your insightful comments and encouragement made me feel confident to express my opinions too. I’d like to thank Shovik, for his jokes and comments that made everything more amusing, keep on doodling dinosaurs !!   Together, y’all made me regret not choosing to sit in your guys table from the start of the semester.      I would also like to thank our teacher, whose gui...

  In the huge landscape of the internet, where countless articles, videos, and headlines catch our attention, there’s a curious phenomenon: watching contents labelled, "dangerous" or "non-violent." Whether it's a warning     or a promise of peace that you can feel, whatever it may be, these labels cause us to have a magnetic pull on our curiosity. But why do we feel that we have to click on them, even when we know they might lead us to become unsettling ? Well the answers to that might be 3 points listed below   The Thrill Of Something we Don’t know : Humans are wired to seek out excitement. The possibility of encountering something dangerous or non-violent increases our sense of curiosity. Causing us to be drawn to the unknown, curios to explore and expand our understanding of the world.  The Desire for Knowledge : As the last reason finished of with, we always have a desire to expand our knowledge. Knowledge is power, and clicking on content labeled as dangero...

  Rewilding, in its core, is about restoring balance to our natural ecosystems by reintroducing native species, creating habitats, and allowing nature to reclaim areas impacted by human activity. This idea holds immense potential to improve our world in many ways. Down below are 3 of the many ways rewilding could improve our word.   Restoring Biodiversity: Imagine the heartwarming sight of a once-empty landscape now thriving with life such as birds chirping, butterflies fluttering, and native plants thrivings. Rewilding allows us to reconnect with the wonder of biodiversity, connect back with our nature, preserving the web of life that sustains us all. Logically, diverse ecosystems are more resilient to threats such as disease and climate change. By reintroducing key species and restoring habitats, rewilding helps safeguard our planet's biological diversity for future generations. Extreme Climate Change: Picture a vast expanse of forest, absorbing carbon dioxide from t...

  Subject: Urgent Report from the Future: Earth’s death   Date: April 7, 2024  To: Leaders and Humans of the 21st Century, the year 2024  From: Aswin, Environmental-Research Institute(ERI) of 2074 Dear People of the 21st Century,  As a representative of the ERI from the year 2074, I bring an important message from the future. The EARTH is going to die. Our world stands on the brink on environmental collapse, an event that was set in motion by the actions and decisions made by of those who were before us. These decisions made in your time by you people has eventually led us to the funeral of our world. It hurts and scares me to say that there won’t be an earth after the year 2080, 6 years from now. Fifty years ago, in your time, warnings about consequences of environmental degradation were brought to the public. Scientists, activists and citizens gave you many alarms about effects of exploitation of natural resources, air pollution, water pollution and the destru...

Cancel Culture is very common in our society. We all know someone, a celebrity or a friend that has been canceled somehow, and with that being said, the question being posed, is cancel culture an effective method to hold individuals accountable for their actions ? Well it depends on various perspectives. Firstly, what is cancel culture ? Cancel culture refers to the practice of canceling public figures or common individuals after they have done or said something that is considered offensive, controversial, or harmful. It might sound like it’s a useful method but it has its pros and cons.   Cancel culture can hold individuals or organizations accountable for their actions, especially when some fail to address their behavior. It can also serve us a method for social justice or accountability for people with a lot of power. For example, a famous NBA player, Ja Morant was suspended and fined from the NBA because of an incident where he showed his gun on a live stream. This wasn’t liked...

  Ever since I was born, I had what some would call superhero identities. My first years of preschool, I didn’t care what the teacher called me because I was too young to realize that my name was being mispronounced but around second grade, it started to affect me. My name is supposed to be pronounced Aswin - us/win which is different from how it’s spelled. But I don’t know what the right way to pronounce it is anymore. My name has been pronounced so many different ways that I forgot what the right way is. My first grade Indian math teacher, with her really thick accent pronounced it as us/win, my 4th grade Indian-Australian teacher pronounced it as Azz/win, I have no idea where she got Z from, after I moved to the states, my PE teacher pronounced it as Ush/wins, he added a S to my name, but the most common pronunciation was Ash/win which is I am now used too. When lived in India, when someone asked my name, I would pronounce it as us/win but in the states I pronounce it Ash/win, e...