In case you forgot, corona right now is hitting different. School’s out, all activities are canceled, and your parents aren’t letting you leave the house except to play basketball at the local park (I told Josh I’m grinding but still can’t make a layup). APUSH assignments, conversations over dinner, and even articles about dogs like Patch all have been consumed and held hostage by the news and coverage of this virus.
I’m not gonna lie: besides not being able to see my friends, I’m loving this e-learning lifestyle. I wake up at noon, finish a school day’s worth of work in less than an hour, then have the rest of the day to chat with friends or play video games (or, in many cases, do both at the same time). Teachers are grading assignments more leniently than ever, and every missed homework assignment, Zoom appointment, or test question can be easily excused by a “technical error.” Honestly, from a purely academic and productivity standpoint, the twists and turns of day-to-day life have seemed to straighten out tenfold.
Yet, at the same time, a lot has been lost to void of these “unprecedented times.” To be honest, I could care less about graduation (I didn’t even buy a cap-and-gown, remember?). But things like middle-school reunions, college visits, and precious last moments with your lifelong friends before journeying off to university? Those truly feel like treasures stripped away from me.
With all of these moments left for speculation, that’s not to say things haven’t happened here at home since school’s been out. Remember the countless late nights of League scrims and Minecraft ridiculousness? Or doing (extremely makeshift) workouts with backpacks stuffed with textbooks and chromebooks? Or Zoom-ing with the lads to share in experiencing the rewards of years of hard work and dedication?
Bro, I’d eat that.
It’s these moments of isolation that seem to make connecting with those you care for most so special. In case you forgot, Allen and I trekked on a loop around the neighborhood, snapping quick selfies at each house we passed. We caught Chen cheffing, Josh balling, Jeff gaming, and Brian refusing to leave his house to avoid risk. Oh, and Wang not attending, as usual.
Big Blind Baller (Source: my iPhone)You still aren’t good at cooking (Source: my iPhone)
Finally, you got the time to reconnect with old friends who you hadn’t seen/talked to in so long. Calling the ISSYP guys from the past summer in the middle of the day, with kids from all around the world (and the chaperone, Dan!) was easily the highlight (so far) of the quarantine. To know that people from Turkey, India, Canada, and Ghana were all dealing with issues similar to you almost unified us in our fight to stay safe.
ISSYPers (Source: my iPhone)
Well, I’m about to go upload a video and duo with weyuijoko. I hope you are having fun wherever you may be.
As many of you know, I’m a huge animals guy. To me, pets and animals in the wild are the world’s most purest form of life: their primitive, oftentimes adorable, and, best of all, can’t talk back to you (not in English, anyways).
So, when the COVID-19 quarantine began, I, unlike most of my friends and family, wasn’t too upset. Patch, my dog, would be accompanying me for the next three weeks (hopefully longer) on the couch. Not only that, but the schoolwork that used to take eight hours could be crammed into three without the distractions of other human beings around me. In fact, this whole virus outbreak seemed to make me more focused and productive than ever.
Or so I thought.
You see, this past Tuesday, my sister texted me a news article that would begin to invade my every waking thought until this present moment. Amidst shocking statistics about the number of infected Americans or mortality rates, this was the most unprecedented of them all. Most shockingly, with my sister, Jessica, being a practicing allergist in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, I never thought a professional doctor would be willing to share this earth-shattering news with her closest coworkers, let alone her immediate family.
“Penguins Toured An Aquarium That Closed Because Of Coronavirus Concerns. The Videos Were Exactly What We Needed.”
The front page of this life-changing article (Source: The Washington Post)
In a three-part Twitter-thrille consisting of seconds-long clips of penguins strutting the hallways of the Shedd Aquarium, I was briefly transported to paradise. Watching those short (compared to most of us), waddling, flapping birds mosey along dolphin exhibits, information desks, and exotic fish aquariums was truly a sight to behold.
I was entranced. My ELA and APUSH homework went by the wayside as I looped the clips over and over. While the world was crashing and burning around me, these penguins were just too damn funny to watch. By the end of that Tuesday, I had found closure and contentment in my imprisonment to my home, computer, and phone.
The adventure continues! 🐧🐧 This morning, Edward and Annie explored Shedd’s rotunda. They are a bonded pair of rockhopper penguins, which means they are together for nesting season. Springtime is nesting season for penguins at Shedd, and this year is no different! (1/3) 👇 pic.twitter.com/VdxN3oQAfe
Part one of three of this cinematic masterpiece. If I could give extra credit points on Rotten Tomatoes, this is where they’d all go. (Source: Shedd Aquarium)
All jokes aside, this stunt put on by the Shedd Aquarium was, in reality, healing in its own right. Essentially, because of the massive closings of tourist attractions, the Shedd Aquarium staff allowed the penguin exhibit to roam free, transforming the exhibit to the expeditionists. Seen as a lighthearted, uplifting pick-me-up in these dark, unprecedented times, tens of other zoos/aquariums have put on similar shows, streaming exhibits online or walking their own rare species around the block.
While this easily has to be one of the cutest and funniest videos I’ve ever seen, it also showed me the power that your mindset has. In a way, I’d argue that these video clips, blurry footage and all, will heal millions of people worldwide, whether they have the coronavirus or not, blessing them with entertainment and giggles to combat their recommended isolation and distancing. Though completely meaningless and (probably) against all Shedd Aquarium policies, this short news article was truly something special that I felt I needed to share.
Link to original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/17/penguins-coronavirus-shedd-aquarium/
When it comes to my closest friends, our hangouts usually consist of doing one of the following three activities: playing Spyfall, playing Canadian Fish (see Jeffrey Cheng’s blog), or just acting stupid in general (see all of Eric Wang’s blogs). Be it guessing locations, guessing half-suites, or guessing who the hell stole Eric Wang’s Minecraft potatoes, I guess it’s time for me to round things off by explaining a go-to for spending quality time with the lads.
In essence, Spyfall is an online, real-time “Guess Who.” After joining a game on spyfall.crabhat.com with your friends, every person except one is given a predetermined location and role from a displayed list. The last person is deemed the “spy” of that round, and he/she is not informed of the location nor the roles of the other players.
The objective of the game is to rat out the spy without giving away the location solely through asking and answering questions. If the spy figures out where the rest of the people are, he/she wins. If the non-spies can determine who the spy is and accumulate a majority vote, they win.
Seems simple, right?
Simple screen, simple concept, not so simple game-to-play. (Source: Apply World Today)
Not so fast. The problem with asking extremely revealing and obvious questions is that, with each clue you drop, the spy can hear it, too. With that being said, the dominant strategy, in general, is to ask misleading, referential questions that only a few other players would know the deeper meaning behind in order to single out the clueless spy. Puns, childhood memories, and inside jokes are all fair game, forcing every person in the game to expand their craniums to stay afloat.
Yet, the scope of the game spans far beyond just the content of the intense Q&A session, as it’s often easy to forget that your teammates/opponent are all sitting within ten feet of you. Staring too much at the list of locations as if you don’t already know where you are? Suspicious. Slow to get a reference that directly relates to your past because you “didn’t hear it correctly the first time”? Doubt.
Grinning stupidly all of the time and acting clueless in general?
Unless you’re Josh Tennyson, I think we’ve found ourselves a spy.
(Yeah that’s right, celebrate. Source: Brian Zheng’s New Years Party)
Thinking back, Spyfall brings me closer to my friends not because of the present, but because it allows us to relive our pasts. It forces me to make near telepathic connections with each individual player, transcending the childish roleplaying and scenarios our phones spit out to us. It creates drama, frustration, and skepticism, all while sitting quietly in a friend’s car.
And when the spy is unveiled, with pointed fingers lashed out towards suspects, the game may come to a close, but the newly formed bonds of friendship and uncovered memories don’t. The long, once-boring car ride had been transformed into an all-out mental battlefield, and the winners and losers alike relish in the hardfought war they’d just experienced. As the final hands are raised and a majority consensus is reached, there’s only one question left to ask as we finally reach whatever destination we’d traveled to.
In case you didn’t know already, I’m not usually a movie type of person. I fall asleep through horror movies, text through Lord of the Rings watchings, and pester my nerdiest friends during Avengers movies as I struggle to figure out which superhero is who (the online summary of all past movies I read before going didn’t include pictures).
So, you can probably guess what my reaction was when my friends asked me to watch a “cinematic masterpiece” called Parasite which, only after sitting down, I realized was completely dubbed in Korean. Needless to say, if I didn’t get to (try and) play basketball and grab dinner prior, coronavirus would probably have had to do as my excuse for the night.
But, after watching Parasite, I can safely say that it is easily the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life.
Even with it lasting until near midnight and having maybe 10 words I could understand, Parasite was definitely an eye-opener (literally). Source: FandagoNOW
For those of you who also won’t watch movies until they win an Oscar, Parasite tells the story of the Kim family’s struggle to survive economically. Through a series of ingenious (or what we would call “big brain”) schemes, each member of the family lands themselves a job in the upper-class Park household. However, throughout the duration of the film, we watch the moral and interpersonal conflicts between the rich and poor create a black comedy that draws striking parallels to classic stories like “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”
Rich vs. Poor? Person trapped in a basement underneath wealth and prosperity? Must be déjà vu. Source: Goodreads
While I know next to nothing about film techniques, my AP Lang/Lit mindset couldn’t help but notice the countless symbols and extended metaphors this seemingly impossible, fantastical plotline contained. In what is completely my personal (and most likely, uninformed) opinion, I’d say that this movie is making a social commentary and archetypal characterization on the divisiveness between rich and poor.
The poor Kim family is impressively intelligent. They are smooth and persuasive with their words, quick on their toes to cover up holes in their plan, and, for the good first half of the movie, play the Park family like a fiddle. Yet, this brief sense of utopia and acquired prosperity doesn’t last for long. In an eerie, twisted (clockwise) series of events, the Kim’s are left to watch the Park’s enjoy the superficial pleasures of life that they were so close to sharing.
Yet, the Park’s, in my opinion, are nowhere near as deserving of this life of luxury as the Kim’s. They are gullible and spoiled through and through, never having once needed to worry about the struggles of life that the Kim’s fight through everyday. With housekeepers and drivers that help keep their lives running smoothly, the Park’s seem quick to blame and judge people doing the work they never have had to do.
So, when we look back at this movie’s horror-esque title, we really have to wonder who the true parasites really are. It’s obvious that the poor Korean family, invading and hosting the body of the Park’s dream house, resemble the word “parasite’s” biological roots. However, the Park family, when we take a closer look, reflects this very same parasitic behavior. For all of their gluttony and materialism, what have any of the family members truly created by themselves, save for a couple ugly drawings of a “ghost” and an affair between a high school sophomore and a grown adult?
It seems as if, behind the lavish cupboards of plum extract, the dirty, smelly depiction of the Kim family can be directly reapplied to the Park’s.
Hearing Roxanne the lunch lady’s words pierce through the white noise of the small caf, I couldn’t but stare down at the six cardboard-esque chicken nuggets on my styrofoam plate. For the past three-and-a-half years, I’d been eating the exact same thing each day of the school week. And, considering the quality of the Sodexo/Aramark lunches that have ingrained themselves into the lunchtime diets of high schoolers nationwide, Roxanne’s wishful words (as well as the chicken nuggets) were impossible to digest.
You see, stumbling into my final year of high school, I was struck with tragedy: off-campus lunch, for me, was a no-go. For first semester, at least, all odds were against me. I had lost my ID card, had never applied for a parking pass, and had peer tutoring three days a week and college applications suffocating the other two. In fact, the only off-campus experience I had that semester involved a class-ditch, a quick trip to Chicken Lit, and a sneaky returning and smuggling of former student Benji Kan back into the building disguised as a current Huskie. Safe to say, for $7.99 and hours of panicked text messages, those five chicken tenders with Yummy Sauce were hardly worth the work.
Second semester, however, is what has really opened my eyes to this liberating school policy. Nowadays, shriveled up chicken nuggets have been replaced by savory Panda Express orange chicken morsels. Frozen pizza slices have gone obsolete in the midst of customizable Mod Pizzas. Plastic-cheese nachos have been upgraded into fresh, homestyle Taps burritos.
Yet, while the food is undoubtedly tastier, off-campus lunch has managed to satisfy much more than just my taste buds. To me, off-campus is a hallmark NNHS senior privilege not for its meals, but rather its sense of freedom. For years, the seven-forty-five to three-ten block of time for North students has been dictated and governed by long, droning bells and some (absolutely garbage) music. And, while certain classes have, without a doubt, been extremely informative and engaging (one of my favorite classes lets me write blogs about off-campus lunch, how cool is that!), to say that doing ceramics or swimming units is a good use of fifty minutes would be flat-out lying. Yet, with the final-year gem of off-campus, the monotony of (for the most part) useless lectures and worksheets is sliced in half with a quick Chipotle run, speeding away from assassin targets, and sharing precious last moments with high school friends you may not see for years starting next fall.
Even more abstractly, the term “off-campus lunch,” intrinsically, can be a bit misleading, as the possibilities for this period of freedom span far beyond just a mid-day meal. With this brief, fifty-minute-long “get out of jail free card,” I’ve heard countless stories of quick naps at home, high-intensity gym sessions, and failed attempts at the infamous Sonic Challenge. Hell, a couple of friends and I even have a group chat dedicated to honing our nonexistent basketball skills at Nike or Abbeywood park during our sixth period downtime in a long-anticipated match against some former-Panther, current-Redhawk students. Not only is off-campus lunch a great way to destress after a (seemingly unavoidable) failed attempt at an ELA test, but it fosters activities and challenges that are oftentimes hard to come by in a busy high schooler’s free time.
An example of our (hopeless) dreams of breaking ankles and swishing threes (please ignore the group chat name and profile picture). (Source: my iPhone)
Looking back, I’ll be the first to admit that my initial impressions of off-campus lunch were wrong. In reality, it can dish up some delicious meals, create time for relaxation and leisure, and (with chicken tenders and a North alum who really wants to say “hi” to Mrs. Moore and Mr. Kim) connect old friends with new perspectives and environments.
So, as we come down to the final months of senior perks before being once-again thrown into different schools as clueless freshmen, I hope that you take Roxanne’s advice to heart.
I mean it. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve spent a good portion of the past three-and-a-half years doing physics. Competitions, summer programs, research, you name it: anything with a chance to test my knowledge and learn more about the world is something that I’m all for.
But, obviously, that’s not true for the majority of high schoolers, and it’s not hard to see why. Be it tedious homework assignments, test proctor errors, or just a lackluster teaching and learning community in general, you might as well bid your chances of loving physics in high schools like Naperville North FAREweLL (typo, sorry! :)).
Well, not so fast. See, call me a weirdo, but this semester I’ve decided to create a YouTube channel catered towards AP Physics topics. In a sort-of ASAPScience, MinutePhysics-esque style, I try my best to explain some of the most confusing physics concepts in a couple of minutes. In essence, it’s a useful crash-course tool for you, and even better senioritis cure for me.
Before starting, however, there was some research that needed to be done on what truly makes videos like these so helpful. According to Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching, there’s three main components that make an effective educational video. Here, let’s dive right into my (early) attempts at checking the boxes.
The bonds that create a strong and effective educational video (Source: Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching)
Cognitive Load
The first component of any good academic video is, naturally, it’s academics, or what’s known as the cognitive load. Now, while there are multiple types of loads, the one I tried to isolate was the most valuable: the intrinsic load, or raw information. With a whiteboard and marker, I tried to illustrate, detail, and diagram fundamental formulas and concepts that would show up on people’s tests. How I did? That’s up for you to decide.
(A short video describing one of Maxwell’s most famous equations: Gauss’ Law. Source: Physics Done Phast)
Student Engagement
The next aspect of quality education content lies in the student engagement, or the “fun” factor. Vanderbilt University claims that this aspect–sharing the allure and captivating aspects of the subjects taught in classrooms–is often what’s lost in translation in our fifty-minute periods. Yet, I hoped to combat this issue with a dash of humor and heavy pour of self-deprecation. With embarrassing cutouts of my face and an illustration of my dog who continues to pester me throughout each video, I try to make the blandless of a whiteboard more vibrant with some personality and a good ol’ laugh or two thrown in the mix.
(I surely hope this video was engaging. Only one way to find out, I guess. Source: Physics Done Phast)
Active Learning
Finally, the last component is described as features that students find directly related to the topics they’re studying. While my editing and tech skills still prevent me from adding interactive questions, buttons, and keys, I have done some digging on the classes I make my videos for. Asking for formula sheets, textbook problems, and MasteringPhysics worksheets (all with teachers’ permission, of course), I tailored my content to hit home when it comes to the AP curriculum.
No matter whether my videos align with professional college educational research studies, I still have a blast making them. While the end goal is to cover all concepts covered in AP Physics 1, 2, and C, my meager two-video-long channel repertoire has a long way to go.
I guess that, before you leave, there’s only one thing left I need to say.
Please subscribe.
Link to Physics Done Phast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOjnndPveFarl-YNIolL3EQ
Works Cited
Brame, Cynthia. “Effective Educational Videos.” Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University, 6 Nov. 2019, cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/effective-educational-videos/.
What is your favorite food? Maybe it’s a juicy burger with fresh lettuce, onions, and tomatoes, a buttery toasted bun, and a side of fries – crispy and salty on the outside but smooth and fluffy on the inside. Perhaps a pizza: with warm, soft crust, gooey, stringy cheese, and perfectly roasted vegetables or meats on top. And for the sweet tooths, what about a rich, moist chocolate cake with hot fudge pooling in the center, topped with an ice cold scoop of sweet vanilla ice cream?
Hungry yet? Just you wait. (Source: Unsplash)
Now, though these foods are delicious and can make us feel satisfied and happy, there is one substance in all of them that can potentially be the cause of obesity, fatty liver disease, and countless other diseases: MSG, or monosodium glutamate. However, while MSG has become best buds with my taste buds, MSG is a dangerous substance that, when consumed in excessive amounts, has many harmful health repercussions.
MSG, not cocaine. It’s a lot more accessible, a lot more addictive, and tastes a lot better (wait… what?) (Source: Chatelaine)
So, what exactly is MSG? Well, MSG is a seasoning whose origins lie in Asian cuisine. It has become such a staple in Asian kitchens that each country has their own translation of how it tastes. Japanese people call MSG’s taste “umami,” and is crowned one of the five fundamental flavors of our world, a taste paired side-by-side with salty, sweet, bitter, and sour.
According to my parents, who were born and raised in China, foods with MSG, or “weijin” in Chinese, were described as “xian”, which means “deliciousness”. However, this once-Asian seasoning has since, like my own family, immigrated to America, and is in almost every single bag of chips, bowl of instant ramen, or high school lunch that you eat.
Serving a stir of sweet and savory sensations, MSG takes the cake when it comes to flavor.
Now, although a little bit of MSG isn’t harmful, if we were to eat a whole spoonful of it, what would we feel like? In large quantities, Mayoclinic actually states that there is a wide variety of symptoms we could experience from consuming large amounts of MSG, coined the MSG Symptom Complex. Examples of these symptoms include headache, sweating, chest pain, nausea, and weakness.
Of course, the geniuses might argue: “If I ate a spoon of salt, I wouldn’t feel that good either.” However, studies have actually proven that there is a noticeable difference between MSG and other seasonings. In an article titled “The Real Reason to Avoid MSG: Industry Secret Ingredient for Food Addiction,” a study was conducted by the Journal of Headache Pain. In this study, half of the subjects were given salt, while the other half were given MSG. However, both groups were told that they were given MSG. The study showed that “MSG intake caused spontaneous pain, jaw aches, high blood pressure, and other unwanted side effects including nausea and fatigue,” while the group who consumed salt showed none of these symptoms, showing that MSG can have short term effects on a person’s health and is much more harmful than other food seasonings.
Who’s salty now?
But, what makes MSG harmful, and why can’t we just stop eating it if we see it on ingredients lists? The problem is, MSG is also very addictive in the sense that it makes you hungrier the more you eat it. According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, who wrote a book on the subject called Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, he says that “when we eat MSG, our cells excite themselves to death, it is what we call an excitotoxin.” I’ll be honest: eating any food stimulates our brains, as it is necessary to eat a lot to continue to survive. However, this unnaturally suicidal stimulation of our cells makes us unable to stop eating, making us crave fattier, sugary foods as well.
For example, if, after reading (and commenting) on this blog post, you were to go home and, after paying utmost attention to your new favorite blogger, make yourself a big bowl of instant ramen, you’d probably find yourself unconsciously grabbing a box of Oreos and washing it all down with a Coke. And while your body currently may seem chiseled and sculpted by the gods themselves, those foods will eventually take their toll on you. In essence, eating foods with MSG only make us want to eat more, and this is why it can be so addictive and, eventually, harmful if we aren’t careful.
Actual depiction of the effects of consuming large amounts of MSG. ‘Cept you won’t be wearing a fat suit and aren’t Thor (obviously). (Source: Entertainment Tonight)
Sadly, there is no magical cure to the symptoms of MSG. But, with it being so common in our foods nowadays, it seems that trying to stop eating it altogether may be biting off a little more than we can chew. However, according to the Mayoclinic article titled “What is MSG? Is it bad for you,” the only way to prevent a reaction is to avoid foods containing MSG. Obvious as it may seem, to minimize your MSG intake, try to be aware of the ingredients in your food. Also, when going into restaurants, you can easily ask them to not use MSG in the dishes they serve you, and, disregarding the massive pouches of Asian seasonings in my own kitchen, try to avoid using it as a seasoning at home.
As we see, eating an excessive amount of MSG can produce many harmful side effects. In the end, however, it is really all about balance. While eating tons of MSG is harmful, it is important to treat yourself and eat foods that you find tasty. Food nowadays is much more meaningful, and can be comforting or be a social event, so I don’t believe that avoiding MSG at all costs is beneficial to anyone, either. Still, it is clear that if you don’t pay attention at all to your diet, serious consequences could occur in the future.
But, in the end, that’s all just some food for thought.
Works Cited
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).” U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, 4 Jan. 2018. Web. 15 May 2018.
L.D., Katherine Zeratsky R.D. “How Does Your Body React to MSG?” Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Mar. 2018. Web. 15 May 2018.
Mercola, Joseph. “MSG Is This Silent Killer Lurking in Your Kitchen Cabinets.”Mercola.com. Mercola.com, 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 15 May 2018.
Michaelis, Kristen. “MSG Is Dangerous – The Science Is In.” Food Renegade. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2018.
Nakanishi, Y., K. Tsuneyama, M. Fujimoto, T. L. Salunga, K. Nomoto, J. L. An, Y. Takano, S. Iizuka, M. Nagata, W. Suzuki, T. Shimada, M. Aburada, M. Nakano, C. Selmi, and M. E. Gershwin. “Monosodium Glutama
It’s midnight, your parents are asleep, but you are starving. Looking through the kitchen, your initial expectations of cupboards brimming with your favorite snacks fall short. Instead, you’re left staring at the cold, barren wasteland of your refrigerator shelves, desolate save for the random ketchup bottle, carton of spoiled milk, and jar of mayo.
Damn it.
Your pride and stomach battle into the night as you contemplate spoon feeding condiments into your mouth—anything to occupy the empty expanse that is your stomach. But, eventually, you come to your senses and regain your sanity.
What the hell would you do?
Your instincts kick in: it’s practically second nature at this point. You grab the square package, sliding out the fried noodle cake and plopping it into the boiling hot water. At last, the end of your starvation is near, measured by the two-minute recommended cooking time on the Maruchan packet. Finally, you sprinkle in the oddly colored, MSG-loaded chicken seasoning onto your bowl like salt bae sprinkles coarse sea salt on a medium rare filet mignon. Slurping down your midnight snack, it tastes obscenely salty, watery, and artificial.
The fruits of your night’s worth of labor. In the darkness and through hungry eyes, it looks a lot better. I promise. (Source: The Spruce Eats)
But don’t lie. On those late, lonely nights, those instant noodles taste like a meal from a Michelin 3-star restaurant.
***
Whether it be a hungry teenager, a broke college student, or an overworked, nine-to-five adult, instant ramen has undoubtedly become a staple in kitchens worldwide since its invention in 1958. And, I mean, it’s easy to see why. With it costing an average of thirteen cents in supermarkets and taking a maximum of five minutes to make, instant noodles fit snugly into the hustle and bustle of everyday life, seasoning people’s lives with an extremely heavy, beef-flavored hand.
But, what’s so weird about this makeshift meal is that, frankly, it’s freakin’ delicious. Let’s be real: that small, off-white colored chunk of wavy noodles and yellow powder taste absolutely phenomenal. There’s countless explanations for this disparity. Perhaps it’s the fact that one bowl of Cup Noodles has forty-five percent of your recommended sodium intake, making it a scarily salty snack (that you shouldn’t eat more than 2.22… times a day for those keeping track at home). Maybe it’s due to the massive amounts of monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer that gives ramen it’s savory, artificial kick. It’s probably safe to say that ramen is not good for the body, but good for the soul.
Or, most convincingly, it could be because society adores efficient products designed to streamline the lives of everyday citizens.
See, to eat instant ramen is literally to consume consumerism (see what I did there?). Try to think of any other full meal that can be purchased by the sixty-fours and tastes exactly the same each time you make it. With American ramen companies such as Maruchan releasing new flavors like Creamy Mushroom, Picante Beef, and Oriental (ironic, I know), America has rapidly simplified this artisanal Japanese delicacy into a microwaveable, machine-made fast food product.
Other countries seem to take an opposite approach. Indonesia’s famous Indomie ramen noodles use five different flavor and spice packets to pack that South Asian punch when imitating their own national dish in instant noodle form. Japan has created an instant ramen bowl so complex it has won a Michelin Star. Costing around $30 for a pack of four on Amazon, I find these inventions to be a complete steal when compared to the dainty plates from high-end restaurants in Chicago or Los Angeles. Now, theseinnovative pre-made noodle dishes are what I call ramen.
An instant ramen bowl with a Michelin Star. That’s right, the star given to top restaurants is graphically printed on this plastic container. (Source: BudgetPantry)
In fact, I’ve even managed to whip up something in my own kitchen that can easily knock the commercial edge of a pack of ramen out of your bowl. Here’s my very own ramen creation, crafted on the basis of countless late homework nights and hungry study breaks.
Jason’s Not-So-Instant Ramen Recipe:
Heat a pot of water to a boil
Add Shin Ramen flavor packet and noodles
Cook until noodles separate from the clump
Stir to combine, then carefully crack an egg on top of your pot
Place enoki mushrooms on the other side of the pot
Allow the egg to poach and the mushrooms to blanch in the boiling soup
Top with scallions, serve with a side of kimchi
One of hundreds of times I’ve made this recipe. Warning: addictive and delicious. (Source: my kitchen)
Although it takes an extra ten minutes or so to prep, this recipe can substitute for a substantial lunch or dinner. To be honest, this recipe has made me love instant ramen so much that my parents have placed a “ramen quota” on my consumption: only two packs or less of ramen per month. As a practical and obedient son, I naturally handle this limit with one of my favorite quotes.
“Rules were made to be broken.”
-an absolute genius
While instant ramen has penetrated into the cupboards and lives of nearly every American alive, its true cultural and innovative roots still remain elusive. Halfway across the world, Asian countries continue to symbolize their backgrounds, providing delicious yet accessible forms of their nation’s favorite dishes to their people. It’s vital that we recognize and come to respect the culture behind one of America’s favorite midnight snacks and explore the various other forms of our curly-blocked, salty-powdered friend.
I promise, they’ll become instant favorites.
Works Cited
Brickman, Sophie. “The History of the Ramen Noodle.” The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 20 June 2017. Web. 21 Nov. 2019.
Gordinier, Jeff. “Ramen: A Quick Fix for the Soul.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 June 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2019.
Posing for our Math Team banner, my fellow captains and I knew that these next few minutes were no joke. This next picture would serve as the face of our club that was to be displayed in the cafeteria for the entire school to see.
The photographer peered through his camera lens, aligning the perfect shot as we all took one last breath and put on our game faces.
*FLASH!*
Rushing over to see the snapshot, I was overcome with emotion as I reveled in the absolute perfection that unfolded on that camera screen: Josh, Allen, and Anne, staring steel-faced into the camera—their arms crossed, shoulders square, with our team’s silverware glistening behind them to flaunt our nineteen state championships and over fifty-years-in-a-row as DVC champions.
And me, clutching tightly to a fluffy stuffed bear smushed against my cheek, grinning goofily in the background.
This year’s Math Team banner, located in the small caf for all those interested in seeing it in real life. (Source: self-taken)
To this day, I’m not sure what the caption word, “prime,” is supposed to be referencing: our dominant state competition performances, a clever math-y pun, or my picture perfect pose. Regardless, this Math Team captains banner has become a sort-of inside joke amongst my teammates, creating a secret bond of understanding in a largely individual and competitive activity. Ever since its rise to fame, the stuffed bear (named Stokes) now acts as our club mascot, with last year’s teammates passing the plushy to new members throughout the school day as a fluffy, snuggly surprise. And, of course, incoming freshmen flock into practices in search of Stokes’ iconic, photogenic face, but leave instead with a newfound curiosity for competition math.
While not a member of the team, our very own Mrs. Evans couldn’t help but snap a selfie with our Math Team mascot. (Source: self-taken)
While humor is an aspect of my identity I pursue for enjoyment, it also has a powerful role in developing a sense of community and teamwork.
Like just about anyone else, a good laugh is something I can never pass up on. Whether it be a classic schadenfreude response to a friend’s struggle with a girl or the more risqué jokes of a Cards Against Humanity game, I’m all for some good fun once in a while.
However, all jokes aside, the concept of humor can actually play a huge role in the success of a school club team or professional company.
Take the Math Team banner, for example. Sure, it looks silly. Of course, it attracts sideways glances in the hallways. And, with good reason, both the photographer and our math team head coach (Mrs. Moore) were skeptical at the idea. But, ever since the banner has went up in the small caf (which was very late, if I may add), our $150 spent on that piece of fabric has gotten a lot more than just giggles and glances.
Instead, Stokes and I managed to advertise Math Team while also making the exploration and discovery of competition math more accessible. From sophomores and juniors that I TA for in AP Physics 1 to freshmen in my PE Leader class, I have been notified of my artistic choices quite frequently this past week. It makes sense, after all: walking down a hallway with countless banners of stone-cold debaters, DECA competitors, and chessmasters (and Jeffrey Cheng, I might add), the one cute, adorable thing in a sea of intensity instantly draws people’s attention. Oh, and also the fact that there’s a stuffed animal in the picture next to me.
However, after the laughing and eyebrow raising is done, the same string of questions always seem to follow: what is Math Team? When are practices? Can I join? Soon, I couldn’t help but spot some familiar underclassmen faces at practices, picking up past competition packets and listening in on our coach’s lessons. While it may have started as a joke, my humor seems to be having some seriously positive effects on our Math Team culture and team structure.
And I’m not alone on this idea of humor’s benefits. In an article for Forbes magazine, Michael Kerr, an international business speaker, describes what he calls the “humor advantage.” His research indicated that “companies have used humor and a positive fun culture to help brand their business, attract and retain employees and to attract customers.” The fact of the matter is that, even in professional workplaces, your entire community—your customers, employees, and bosses—are humans just like you. While they may be donned in a suit from nine to five, I’ll bet that almost every one of those same people enjoy a good football game or family Monopoly game at night. Given this, I can’t help but see the power that humor and relaxation can have in even the most professional aspects of our lives, whether it be a joking side comment or a $150 portrait of a stuffed animal.
(A short but sweet video by Michael Kerr himself detailing his term: The Humor Advantage. Source: Youtube (Michael Kerr))
Humor is funny, but it also has the power to create. I use jokes to foster teamwork. My humor nurtures exploration. Most importantly, that stuffed bear and I created a hilarious photograph that also sparked a passion for learning within my community.
Pretty funny how that works, right?
Works Cited
Smith, Jacquelyn. “10 Reasons Why Humor Is A Key To Success At Work.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 June 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/05/03/10-reasons-why-humor-is-a-key-to-success-at-work/.
The thought made sense at the time. Whenever the topic of reparations for the black race was brought up, it never seemed to click. I had never owned slaves, never whipped, manipulated, or sexually exploited another human for my self-interest. More importantly, being Asian-American, neither had any of my ancestors or anyone I knew, for that matter. It seemed to me that I was completely detached from the problem: it wasn’t my fault.
But as soon as I offered that question in the heated discussion that was unfolding amongst my speech and debate friends, my lack of political perspective was soon exposed.
“Read The Case for Reparations” was all that was shot back, leaving me in a confused yet speculative silence.
Just this past Monday night, I spent around two-and-a-half hours reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ work. Put simply, it has completely altered my outlook on the concept of reparations while also leaving me with some questions specific to my ethnic background.
Here’s how The Case for Reparations managed to repair my world perspective.
The cover page of the article that managed to alter my worldview in a couple of hours. (Source: The Atlantic)
Although I had learned about the horrors of slave treatment in antebellum America in history class, I’ll be the first to admit that my broad understanding of America’s history of oppression was incomplete, at best. Of course I’d learned in my APUSH class about Sally Hemings, who was raped and abused by founding father Thomas Jefferson and bore six of his children. Sure, I had read about how slaves were beaten by their masters while forced to keep a smile on their face, and I was violently struck with emotion while watching 12 Years As A Slave in class. But I’d never truly felt the racism present during 1920s Jim Crow America, where one Mississippi senator had stated that the best way to prevent African Americans from voting was to “just [lynch them] the night before the election.”
While reading, I learned about how this racism continued into the recent past and persists in our present society. In the 1930s, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) based their private mortgage policies on hand drawn regional lines, segregating black communities into areas deemed “less stable” and “unfitting” for these opportunities. I read in shock about the 20th century use of “block-busting,” or hiring black actors to walk around white-dominated neighborhoods, where they’d “then cajole whites into selling [their homes] at low prices” on the premise that black families in their neighborhood would decrease the value of their homes.
A residential security map of 1939 Chicago. The red areas were predominantly black neighborhoods, deemed “more hazardous” and “unfitting” for FHA insurance. (Source: The Atlantic)
Compounded with the recent shootings of people like Trayvon Martin and Atatiana Jefferson, I came to understand the piece that I was missing when I had asked my initial question: that the privilege we enjoy in America today came at the cost of oppressed groups of people in our recent past. While I may not have incited racism or been openly racist in my lifetime, the luxuries I enjoy today—my home, my belongings, my dog Patch—were largely paid for by the people of yesterday, and we are all subsequently indebted to them. Would America’s booming economy today have been realized if it had not been for the massive amounts of slave labor used to farm King Cotton? Clearly not. Reparations are not a punishment, but rather a necessary repayment to those who have suffered.
With this newfound mindset, I turned towards a topic Coates comments on and that is (frighteningly) related to many of our current coffee-driven, essay-writing lifestyles: affirmative action.
Now, this topic has been extremely controversial for decades, with recent college admission scandals only further exacerbating the severity of this inevitably imperfect system. However, a common rationale behind this institution of implicit advantage is one of reparations—that providing oppressed minority groups an edge for future further education is precisely the repayments needed and explained by Coates in his article. With this, I can wholeheartedly agree.
A short video detailing the rationale behind affirmative action in the college admissions process. (Source: American Civil Liberties Union)
My new question continues from Coates’ line of thought: then why are Asian American college applicants held to a higher standard of admission than white Americans?
By taking Coates’ side on his case for reparations, I can’t help but notice the disparity when applied to the relative positions of races other than the black-white dynamic explored in The Case for Reparations. Japanese Americans were forced to relocate into internment camps during World War II as a response to the Pearl Harbor attacks. All Chinese people were prohibited from immigrating to America and deemed ineligible for naturalization in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. While these actions are incomparable to the treatment of blacks in American history, and while I could not feel luckier to be born into a loving Chinese family enjoying the affluence of suburbian Naperville, the rationale behind this seemingly hypocritical philosophy intrigues me.
When it comes to affirmative action, it’s hardly arguable that Asian Americans statistically receive the least compensation. From the recent Harvard admissions case revealing that Harvard scores Asian Americans lower on their “personality” rankings, released admissions data revealed that Asian Americans were being accepted at rates noticeably less than their white counterparts. Yet, those same statistics showed that “Asian American applicants had academic credentials and extracurricular track records that were, on average, stronger than those of other racial and ethnic groups, including whites.”
Extrapolating my perspective on reparations for the black community to my own ethnicity, I can’t help but notice a small disparity that is not collinear with historical events and current evaluations. However, this question I pose is largely made in a theoretical and ill-informed nature. Regardless of its answer, The Case for Reparations managed to open my eyes to my surroundings, not only literally during that tiring Monday midnight but figuratively, as well. It has resonated with me as I now understand how reparations for blacks are necessary in the present to equally move into the future, as the powerhouse machine that America has come to be was paid for at a high price by those once pressed between her gears.
Coates couldn’t have put it better: “if Thomas Jefferson’s genius matters, then so does his taking of Sally Hemings’s body.”
~~~
I did not intend to offend or insult anybody through this essay, but rather explore how my own naivety was transformed through this stunning piece that, once shared with me, I thought worth sharing with you. I strongly recommend you read the piece itself as well as pose further questions or responses in the comments to further explore this topic.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 24 Sept. 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/.
Gelman, Andrew, et al. “What Statistics Can’t Tell Us in the Fight over Affirmative Action at Harvard.” Boston Review, 15 Jan. 2019, bostonreview.net/law-justice/andrew-gelman-sharad-goel-daniel-e-ho-what-statistics-cant-tell-us-fight-over.
The African American Policy Forum. “Chinese Exclusion Act.” AAPF, aapf.org/chinese-exclusion-act.
