Dear Asian Youth is a nonprofit literary magazine that works to uplift APIDA youth across the nation. This week, Pacific Ties interviewed second-year labor studies major Maisha Kalam, one of the Chapter Leads of Dear Asian Youth at UCLA, to gain a different perspective on the organization. 1: Why did you join DAY? Kalam: I…
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My screen time has been through the roof lately. I know exactly what is to blame: TikTok. An app I once swore to never get is now the main source of my social media addiction. I try to justify my attachment to it by arguing that I am using it to further my music career…
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Blue light radiates from my phone to my face, and I bask in the glow as it breaks the darkness surrounding me. Over time, I’ve sort of developed this habit: every night, no matter the hour, I enter the endless cycle that is scrolling through Instagram. I know, I know. It’s not the best thing…
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UCLA students are required to take a year of a foreign language in order to graduate. Luckily, students are given many options to choose from, ranging from commonly taught foreign languages such as Spanish to other languages such as Swahili. I chose to take Chinese to fulfill my foreign language requirement and to genuinely improve…
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I flip through the book, page after page. The coarse, off-white paper lightly scratches the pads of my fingertips. The earthy smell of the ink wafts up to my nose. As my eyes scan the words, I imagine the scene folding out in front of me. There’s something exhilarating about making my way through a…
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Growing up, I always watched Bollywood movies because, in some ways, they are designed to fill you with joy. Songs, dance, and colorful costumes fill the screen while melodrama plays out in the background. While I love this genre, it never showed real people—at least, not the big blockbuster movies. When I first saw that…
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