Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned: Everything changes and nothing remains still

When I was little, I had extremely strict rules and expectations for my future: be a computer engineer like my father, start a nonprofit...

Lessons Learned: Ask yourself, why not?

Every morning before middle school, my mom would say to me: “Be kind, be courageous and don’t mumble.” Much of my college experience has...

Lessons Learned: A love letter to shared spaces

I grew up an only child, and it is safe to say that I came to college with a fear of shared spaces — communal bathrooms,...

Lessons Learned: An obvious metaphor between the moon mission and college

There’s a scene in Samantha Harvey’s 2023 book "Orbital" in which an astronaut on the International Space Station tells his daughter that progress is beautiful....

Lessons Learned: How to hold on when you want to let go

Nobody wants to go to college with their older brother. No younger sibling wants to continue enduring the constant comparisons to him, risk running...

Lessons Learned: How to engage again, after all this time

Last year, during the very beginning of the plague, The Occidental published a series called “Letters From,” in which dispersed Occidental students wrote about...

Lessons Learned: How to channel fear through rugby

I am a fairly fearful person. I'm afraid of heights, going to the dentist and getting my period while wearing white pants. There are...