centre? what centre?

When students achieve school or national colors in sports, their teammates cheer the loudest. During inter-house sports events, even the winners of opposing teams are celebrated. But when it comes to academics, success is often met with quiet resentment rather than applause.

I’d woken up the same way since 2012: at five o’clock in the morning, tired after escaping a madman in my sleep and hopeful there were leftovers for breakfast. That morning, however, felt like I’d woken up on the wrong side of the bed: I noticed a primary school girl wearing a white blazer. Immediately, I knew her parents were unreasonable people.

Hollywood's nerd is instantly recognisable: they're the loner, the outcast, the one who chooses books over parties. However, their sad social life often stems from something deeper — their non-conformity. This character usually rejects societal norms, standing apart from their peers in ways that make them an outsider.

The changes started slowly: swapping " sorry " for " my bad " and developing a sudden interest in basketball. Our English teachers dismissed Americanisms as “ improper English ” and mocked the accent as if it were a bad joke. Their tests demanded that we correct “ socialize ” to “ socialise ” and provide the British English equivalent of “ pop .” In the classroom, American English was something foreign — something to be corrected.

The controversy around public bathrooms began when people started to care about who used which bathrooms. Some argue that women should use women’s bathrooms and men should use men’s bathrooms. Others agree. However, no one can definitively say who is a woman and who is a man.

Nature is like a spiderweb — every thread connected to something larger. It functions beautifully on its own, yet to me, its very complexity has always pointed to something greater: God.

Since I moved, I've been finding spider webs around the apartment, but no spiders. I've even started checking deliberately because I'm an arachnophobe — and unforeseen spiders are the scariest ones.