Illustration by Cameron Lee
Year: Class of 2020
Major/College: Computer Science and English double major in CC
Where are you from?
Sugar Land, Texas (right outside of Houston). Pretty stereotypically suburban, nothing exciting. We have very large grocery stores and an abandoned sugar factory.
What do you love about Quarto?
I’ve had the privilege of being on Quarto for four years (wow!). It’s been incredible to see how the culture and “brand” changes a bit every year as new ideas and people rush in but how fiercely constant the sense of community stays throughout. When I first started joining campus clubs, sometimes it felt like people had ulterior motives for being in the club or were there for different reasons. Quarto I feel is one of these unique spaces where every single person is united in this precious love of writing and art and sees how important it is to lift up and support diverse campus voices. I love that we all equally care about supporting writers on campus to the point that we’ll fight hard for pieces we care about. I consider everyone on Quarto’s staff a friend, and I’m so honored to know them!
What inspires you to do the work we do?
Not to be too cheesy…but I will be. There are many moments in meetings where people are brought to tears by certain pieces. These pieces touch people so deeply—maybe about the urgency of a poem in your Notes App or a certain element of your culture that hasn’t been articulated in this specific way or the delicacy of fruit or, for me, this one poem about coming home from college to your mother. These moments in meetings where someone says that they have never felt understood in this specific way until reading this piece is beautiful! My peers at Columbia and the astounding quality of work they produce, not only technically innovative but the raw honesty and vulnerability they trust us with, always inspire me. Keep making us cry at meetings! We love it!
Do you have any pets?
I have a 8-month-old beagle named Charlie. He ripped up my favorite sandals to shreds the other day. But he is also the most snuggly nap partner.
Where can we find you in your free time (a lazy Monday afternoon, a cozy Sunday morning)?
Quarantine has obviously thrown things off, so maybe I will share some favorite places I liked to go during the school year and some places in Sugar Land.
Walks in Riverside during the school year help ease anxiety. I really love sitting down in Hungarian and eating one of their buttery croissants. A tangent, but I’ll quote from a book I’m reading now (The Idiot by Elif Batuman), “The croissant was crisp and soft and flaky at the same time. Just biting it made you feel cared for.” That’s exactly how I feel when I’m sitting inside Hungarian at like 10 AM on a Friday and spreading jam on this beautiful, delicious thing! I really like walking in Battery Park and the Staten Island Ferry. You can also find me taking a train to New Haven to visit my best friend, Yagmur, at Yale. The train ride there is always so scenic and relaxing and I am always filled with such excitement to see her! And honestly, my Woodbridge suite and the small table by the window where you can see the sunset over the Hudson River remains one of my favorite places.
In Sugar Land, when things calm down more, I am very excited to go to Pho Ga Dakao with my best friends. I cherish the sprawling lawn in front of The Menil Collection, a free art museum in Houston. I also like the beautiful array of Houston coffee shops that have housed so many conversations and days spent reading and writing: Campesino Coffee House, Siphon Coffee, Agora, Brasil.
What else are you involved in/what are your other interests?
Reading and writing are a given! I am pretty involved in activism with the South Asian Feminism(s) Alliance on campus—we organize and do our best to spur collective action on issues affecting minority and other marginalized communities. I’m very interested in coffee too—I would like to learn more about the different blends and how to grind beans and pour over and french press. Right now, it’s just me and my Folger’s ground coffee in an automatic coffee machine. I’d like to change that! I also love running—one day, I’d like to run a marathon! And finally, I’m very interested in vegetables and cheese. There are so many types of each, and they are so colorful and carry so many different smells and tastes and textures. I can’t explain it…these foods just makes me feel human. I just want to learn to cook veggies in more ways and make yummy cheese spreads.
Favorite author/artist/work?
In terms of musicians, Father John Misty, Mitski, Julia Jacklin, Phoebe Bridgers all really…do something to me. They’re incredible lyricists. My favorite album of all time is probably Mitski’s Puberty 2 or Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear. Writers are more difficult. There have been too many that shaped my life in different, equally significant ways. A short list (and just know there are many more): Jhumpa Lahiri, James Baldwin, George Saunders, Myung Mi Kim, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Toni Morrison.
What else should we know about you?
I really want to dye my hair metallic purple one day.