3. Hector's Dolphins 2026

Anyone Gen Z and younger is bilingual. Not in the sense that they can speak in two languages, but in the sense that they could communicate perfectly using “Bro,” “LMAO,” “😭,” and a plethora of other convoluted abbreviations and ambiguous emojis. It shocks me that, at one point in history, language consisted of actual words that actually meant what they said. Now that the Internet has arrived, we have decided that the “💀” could mean anything from this sucks to a form of laughter. This trend doesn’t just occur in English; almost every other language has evolved into this digital jargon. However, this phenomenon reveals something much deeper than just a different form of communication.  Take a moment to read your last text message to your friend and compare that to the last conversation you had with that friend in real life. Most likely, you’ll realize that the way you communicated the same meaning may have been completely different, yet your friend understood it both ways. This mat...

    This year marks my 4th year living in the states. At the mention of my recently immigrated status, all and sundry seem to say the same thing: “Your English is so good, did you grow up bilingual?” And my answer to that always had and always will be, a proud “no”.                I grew up in Myanmar, a country with its rich history of cultural traditions and most importantly, language development. Myanmar was first founded as a unified state in the 11th century by King Anawrahta . It brought together a diverse range of ethnicities to stand proud as an independent nation. After centuries of marinating history, the countryside still paints itself in the shade of its emeralds it produces while the growing urban cities tower above the flying pigeons as they flock towards the pagodas’ feeding grounds. The Sanghas pace in an undeviating line, resembling that of a strand made from saffron colored fabric while the elementary student...

808s and Heartbreak vinyl from Def Jam Shop. Pranav – Week 1: Inspirational Heartbreak Kanye West’s hit album "808s and Heartbreaks" was one of, if not the most, influential hip-hop albums ever created, yet few seem to understand the true meaning behind the album. To fully grasp the album's true meaning, we must understand what shaped Kanye West's identity during its production. In 2007, Kanye West’s mother tragically passed away, leaving him shattered mentally and emotionally.  The death of his mother contributed to his heartbreaking breakup with his fiancée, Alexis Phifer , which deeply influenced him to create this album based on his emotions. The 808s & Heartbreaks album has 12 songs. Each song helps the listener visualize West's emotions leading up to the album's production. The number one song on the album, “ Heartless, ” conveys feelings of intense sorrow and confusion, with lyrics such as “how could you be so heartless” and “you’re bringing out a...

Eternity movie poster from A24 One movie that I watched over the summer was Eternity , a 2025 rom-com starring Elizabeth Olson, Callum Turner, and Miles Teller. Honestly, I didn’t really have high expectations for this movie. I never heard anything about it. But the premise was interesting . (Major spoilers ahead.) In the movie, when people die, they arrive as their happiest self in the afterlife, which is essentially a train station for dead people. They get one week to choose where to spend their eternity, like during the Great Depression (for whatever reason) or in outer space.  Now for the interesting part: Elizabeth Olson’s character, Joan, arrives in the afterlife, and she has to choose between spending her eternity with her husband of 65 years or her first love who tragically died in battle and has waited 67 years for her .  Joan is understandably conflicted. Both men spend time with her over the week to help her decide. And she ends up picking…Karen. She picks her fr...

I was eight years old when my father took me, my eleven-year-old sister, and our Caucasian mother to his hometown in Hong Kong , China. By that point, I had been admitted to a Mandarin Immersion Program for three years, speaking broken Chinese because unlike my classmates, I did not have family at home that could help me learn Mandarin . For context, Mandarin is the primary language spoken in China, but coastal communities such as Hong Kong and Guangdong mainly speak Cantonese , a different variant of Chinese. The entirety of my Asian family is from Hong Kong, so none of them were capable of helping me learn Mandarin. When my family arrived at the airport on mainland China for our connecting flight, my father got down on his knees, looked me and my sister in the eyes, and warned us that people in China “liked to kidnap mixed children”.  He continued to inform us that we would be our family's only method of communication until we arrived in Hong Kong, because my father did not under...

Written by: Rishab Thaker

One of my biggest fears in life is never being able to sit down and have a deep conversation with my grandparents.  For some context, my parents met and got married in India and moved here to the U.S. in 2000, later giving birth to me and my older brother. Meanwhile, my grandparents decided to stay in India, as the rest of our extended family is still living there.  Growing up in Fremont, I never felt a dire need for me to learn my native language, Telugu , as both of my parents were well versed in English. In kindergarten, though, my parents enrolled me in a Telugu class for the first time, and I hated it. Almost everyone else in that class was easily able to learn the concepts and perform well on the tests. I, on the other hand, barely understood anything. I often cried in front of the class when I was put on the spot by my teacher, not because they were being mean to me, but because I felt ashamed of being the only kid who struggled to answer the questions.  At home, m...