NXIVM had personal development seminars that claimed to enlighten people and make them happy. People claimed attending the seminars cured them of their smoking habit or fear of public speaking. The organization had Hollywood celebrities, children of heads of states, and business leaders adding to its credibility. Many saw its leader as a god.

However, in early 2018, NXIVM’s house of cards collapsed. …

When I was a kid, I remember Jared from Subway, who, in commercials, claimed he lost over 200 pounds just by eating Subway sandwiches and constantly presented before and after photos of his progress. He even showed his jeans of when he weighed more than 400 pounds as a comparison to his then much slimmer weight.

While my brother and I knew that you do much more than eat Subway sandwiches to lose 200 pounds, the effects still stuck with us — Subway became our go-to “healthy” fast-food restaurant. …

After middle school, I grew up on Long Island. It was always my parents’ dream to have the prototypical suburban life. Moving from Queens, New York to Long Island, we finally had a house we owned. I went to a better school as per my father’s dream, and although I lament going to a high school so privileged and sheltered, I am luckier in my post graduate life for it.

According to My FOX NY, in 2011, searchers found eight sets of remains on Jones Beach, New York, which is a popular beach on Long Island. …

Much of the life advice and self-help advice I see across the Internet requires very drastic changes to your life. Waking up at 5 a.m. every day is one example. Other advice includes drastically changing your diet or developing a morning routine where you meditate, go to the gym, do yoga, and make a healthy breakfast (who has that much time in the morning anyway?)

However, I receive feedback all the time from my administrators as a special education teacher that goes against the tide of self-help advice. …

Santiago Ramón y Cajal is the most famous neuroscientist in human history. When I was studying for my neuroscience major in my undergrad, Cajal had his paintings on every single textbook. Anyone who has studied neuroscience is familiar with Cajal’s paintings and knows him as the father and pioneer of neuroscience. Cajal discovered the nervous system is composed of neurons — individual, discrete cells. He disproved an earlier theory hypothesizing the nervous system being a continuous network.

“Cajal is considered the father of modern neuroscience, as important in his field as Charles Darwin or Louis Pasteur are in theirs,” says…

Growing up in New York, I was taught to demonize the South and its role in the Civil War. They were the side of slavery, after all, and my demonizing only exacerbated after I attended Emory University in Atlanta and had many friends who had teachers and textbooks call it the “War of Northern Aggression.” As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen the history of the North’s racism as not the same, but as pernicious as that of the South. …

SATIRE

Going into my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, I was scared. I heard horror stories of friends who got fevers, friends who could barely move their arms, friends who had flu-like symptoms so bad they couldn’t sleep, and friends who slept for 14 hours. All of these symptoms seemed in line with what medical experts say to expect. For many, getting the second dose of the COVID vaccine from either Pfizer or Moderna was getting hit by a truck.

Yesterday, I went into a facility to get my second dose of the COVID vaccine. I got it, and felt…

Every time I see a reading comprehension passage practicing for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), I roll my eyes — the passage is too damn long. I don’t feel like doing it. I might as well just rush to the questions and use process of elimination and hope for the best.

In that thought process, I caught myself. As a special education teacher who is teaching 9th-grade students, some of whom are reading as low as the Kindergarten level, this is how my students feel often say they feel. The reading is too damn long. It’s easier to just…