Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
April 4, 2025

Voices

Hopkins is a diverse university where an incredible mix of cultures, academic interests and personalities coexist and thrive. Here is the section where you can publish your unique thoughts, ideas and perspectives on life at Hopkins and beyond.

COURTESY OF HAILEY FINKELSTEIN Finkelstein expresses her gratitude for being surrounded by inspiring peers at Hopkins.

The people make the place

By HAILEY FINKELSTEIN | 4 days ago

Last week, I was riding the bus to the med campus with a friend when we started talking about why we ultimately chose to go to Hopkins. In explaining her college application process, she told me that she had only applied to schools that would excite her to attend; there were no “just in case” safeties on her list, she was content to try again in the next application cycle if it meant preserving her desire to attend a college where she could constantly have intellectually stimulating conversations with her peers.

JIYUN GUO / DESIGN & LAYOUT EDITOR Mulani reflects on how writing for Voices allowed her to document personal growth and process emotions.

On writing my Voices column

By YANA MULANI | March 27, 2025

Writing my Voices column has been really therapeutic for me. It’s surprising, because I’m someone who has tried and failed to get into journaling for her whole life, which I’m sure is not a unique experience. But I’m also someone who has been drawn to books and reading and writing for her whole life, so I guess I just had to find a form of journaling that works for me. 

COURTESY OF KAIYUAN DU Du describes how an eating disorder impacted her life and how she has learned to heal her relationship with fitness.

My goal weight of 2025: Strength

By KAIYUAN DU | March 13, 2025

For years, I’ve let numbers define me. The number on the scale. The number of calories consumed. The number of minutes spent exercising. It was a battle I fought silently, a war waged against myself, my body and my mind.

COURTESY OF LANA SWINDLE Swindle tells how unintentionally disclosing vulnerable information gave her a new perspective.

Accidental oversharing: Getting comfortable with embarrassment

By LANA SWINDLE | March 13, 2025

Unbeknownst to me, however, I, with that one click of an Outlook “Send,” ended up submitting four pages of drafts on this poem with all my personal thoughts on the  subject matter: my ex-boyfriend. I was blissfully unaware of this for a while. But when workshop rolled around two weeks later, I realized my mistake. 

COURTESY OF ALYSSA GONZALEZ Gonzalez criticizes the way newspaper headlines describe President Trump’s acts.

I hate the New York Times

By ALYSSA GONZALEZ | March 11, 2025

On Election Night 2024, I went to bed feeling something I hadn’t felt in years: hope. Surely, I told myself, America has learned its lesson. Surely, we are a nation of progress and reason. I even reassured my friends — Don’t worry. We’re waking up to good news. 

COURTESY OF BUSE KOLDAS Koldas considers the possibility that she might never be able to settle down.

Working to settle down, but what if I never get there?

By BUSE KOLDAS | March 11, 2025

When my parents and I decided that I would study college abroad, we signed a silent agreement: Long breaks were for them; otherwise, I was free. Despite quietly signing this tacit negotiation, deep down I’ve known that I had to give up summer holidays to internships and research programs eventually. I dismissed this thought and made it my future self’s problem to breach the contract, yet when I got accepted to the intern abroad program I applied to, I knew I couldn’t postpone the discussion any further. 

COURTESY OF LINDA HUANG Huang describes how she found balance while working at a bubble tea place.

From customer to crew: My boba barista experience

By LINDA HUANG | March 8, 2025

I started working at BobaPop in January, motivated by nothing but pure curiosity and my love for milk teas — specifically brown sugar lattes. I thought: Hey, I like drinking boba, so why not try making it? How hard could it be to make drinks and take orders? Turns out, pretty hard. 

COURTESY OF GABRIEL LESSER Lesser describes how he explored the unfamiliar despite his fears.

From Charles Village to Fells Point, the world is our oyster

By GABRIEL LESSER | March 7, 2025

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve eaten oysters in my life, mostly because my mom is allergic to them, but a couple of weeks ago, I found myself eating an exorbitant amount of them with some college friends because of a 75-cent deal. There I was with my friends, ecstatically ordering oyster after oyster and laughing away, thinking, will life always be like this? 

COURTESY OF ARNAV LAKHIA Lakhia describes his developing understanding toward health equity.

Why the social side of healthcare matters

By ARNAV LAKHIA | March 5, 2025

If there’s one lesson I can share with any Hopkins student, it’s that healthcare inequality isn’t just an abstract issue — it’s a daily reality for many of our neighbors. Even outside HCC, we all have a role to play in this fight.

COURTESY OF RILEY STRAIT Strait describes the decision to spend a Friday night at an entertainment park.

Pretend, pretend against the dying of the light!

By RILEY STRAIT | March 1, 2025

By nature of circumstance, college students are forced — for the first time in their lives, for many of them — to become serious spenders. I should clarify: serious spenders, rather than serious spenders. They must retire from free-ride public schools and low-wage part-time jobs, the biweekly paychecks which they spend in one day online shopping and paying too-high upcharges for DoorDash or other food delivery services; now, they have tuition and textbooks and Lyft rates — plus tip — going to their volunteer or shadow positions, and they’re lucky if they have the time to supplement this hemorrhagic spending with a student job or federal work study. 

COURTESY OF KAITLIN TAN Tan realizes the significance of slowing down in life.

On slowing down

By KAITLIN TAN | February 27, 2025

Allegedly, moving slowly is yet another way to calm the nervous system. I think I first came across this idea in a short-form video where a flash of text crossed the screen, hovering over an image of a person going about their day. This text would say, “slow down,” after which, the individual would be relieved of all this tension – their shoulders would drop, they would unclench their grip from the steering wheel (how they were filming while driving, I still don’t know). 

COURTESY OF LINDA HUANG Huang explores the dilemma between staying on campus and going back home during the weekends.

A Lunar New Year reflection

By LINDA HUANG | February 18, 2025

The dining table was overflowing on the Tuesday evening — sliced century eggs placed in a flower shape, crisp-skinned Peking duck, steaming vegetables in pork broth: These dishes were full of the taste and smell of home. My grandmother ladled out bowls of hot fish soup, reminding everyone that in Chinese, “yú” (fish) sounds like “abundance.” We displayed the Lunar New Year Gala on TV in the background with (less funny than usual) skits that we half-listened to while passing around plates of dried tofu snacks and pastries. It was a warm familiarity I had missed. For one night, it felt like I had never left for college.

COURTESY OF LANA SWINDLE Swindle acknowledges that receiving constructive criticism is hard but necessary to improve her writing.

Writing seriously, or learning to

By LANA SWINDLE | February 18, 2025

I have been writing stories for a while now. I cannot remember for how long. Some time in elementary school I decided I wanted to be a writer, after some endless iteration of another Disney-inspired handwritten short story of mine. Though my writing looks a little different now, this future aspiration has not changed. 

COURTESY OF YANA MULANI Mulani leaves the idea of New Year’s or start of the semester resolutions behind and chooses to welcome change when she truly desires it.

On resolutions, New Year's and not

By YANA MULANI | February 14, 2025

This semester is different because it’s my last one — whether that’s “last one ever,” or just “last one as an undergraduate,” I don’t know. But, for now, it’s my last one. There are so many options for what comes next, probably more options than I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m going into it with fear and nervousness but, above all, what feels like excitement.

COURTESY OF KAYLEE NGUYEN Nguyen describes how she understood the importance of listening in conversations.

The wind and I: How to listen

By KAYLEE NGUYEN | February 13, 2025

It’s a running joke between my friends and family that I’m always talking to the wind. The breeze hears my bitterness, my overzealous conversations are lost to the zephyr, the gusts gather my grievances and my chattering chases the currents as they’re scattered like secrets never meant to be uncovered. Being at a school filled with big personalities and opportunities that I could barely even dream of, I often feel like I’m even less heard.

GODOT13 / CC BY-SA 4.0 Mendpara describes the struggle of focusing on one thing while wanting to accomplish everything.

Wanting to do it all, but afraid of choosing one

By AASHI MENDPARA | February 4, 2025

My day is spent floating through classes and meetings and conversations and responsibilities. I get home, make dinner, try to do work with my roommates even though 9 times out of ten, nothing ever gets done. And then comes my favorite part of the day: the few moments I daydream about all I want from life. 

MIKE PEEL / CC-BY-SA-4.0 Oh describes her attempts to find a balance between reflection and progress.

No end to infinity: Introspection and Ishiguro

By GRACE OH | February 3, 2025

British author Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day is my favorite type of book. Instead of a fast-paced plot with witty one-liners and gritty characters, the mind space accompanied by the story is a bit like having an entire afternoon to run one errand. Eventually, the task has to be completed but there seems to be an abundance of time to meander while daydreaming, prod at a few things that catch your attention and stumble across a memory to unravel. You pause. Bracing yourself, you tug.

DOK1 / CC BY 2.0 Finkelstein talks about her attempts to overcome seasonal depression and enjoy winter.

Under the winter security blankets

By HAILEY FINKELSTEIN | February 1, 2025

As much as my seasonally depressed tendencies would like me to fall into the slumber of the hibernators, I have been trying my hardest to show myself kindness this winter by forcing myself into the cold. I am doing my best not to put my life on pause just because the sun sets at 4:30, no matter how uncomfortable that may feel.

COURTESY OF RILEY STRAIT Strait tells the story of his first part-time job at a pretzel shop.

Do I have to get a "real job"?

By RILEY STRAIT | January 29, 2025

Just as people scrutinize the skies under which they were born to determine their star chart — to figure out why they are a caretaker, why their last relationship didn’t work out or why they can’t eat raw carrots but only stewed — one can extract an unfathomable amount of information based solely on what they wanted to be when they were kids. Or at least I think so.

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