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Nov 21, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Solange Aguero
People are always talking about power in relationships. People usually agree that the person who does the chasing has less of it, but lately, I’m not so sure. There are many different ways to assume autonomy over situations in one’s love life. There are likewise many different subtle ways of being emotionally unavailable. Defining one’s attachment style has been popular lately in the Gen-Z zeitgeist.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Solange Aguero
“You don’t owe them anything!” This is advice I’ve frequently received lately, and admittedly, advice I have given. But when does such rhetoric encourage harmful rather than protective behavior? Where do we draw the line between caring for ourselves and caring for others? Whether it be in terms of time, energy or affection, there seems to be an overwhelming emphasis on this notion that you need only answer to yourself.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Kate Mcquarrie
My whole life, I have waited for a love story like the ones in the movies. I found it easy to be swept away by the promise of a happy ending, the comforting idea of one true love. Reality today feels more and more dissonant with the feel-good films I grew up watching. The film industry seems to reflect this, moving away from rom-coms in recent years. I confess I understand why. It’s difficult to root for something that increasingly feels like a pipe dream.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Antonio Wu
Los Angeles is something I have spent a lifetime idealizing. As a romantic to my very core and someone who reads Eve Babitz and Joan Didion with a sort of biblical reverence, L.A. has always been mythic to me — the center of civilization, one of the only places worth living in. I have been proven time and time again that reality will seldom line up with expectations I have in my head.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Kate Mcquarrie
Holding people accountable for their actions is an aim that continually warrants merit. Seeking such accountability can also reasonably be extended to the art and media we produce; it is tremendously important to foster critical conversations, to learn how to improve as human beings, and to strengthen the messages we hope to impart to the world. Nothing I am about to say would argue otherwise.
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Apr 23, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Kate Mcquarrie
At 14, my world blossomed when I read Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” for the first time. Feeling incredibly validated and moved, I jumped quickly to reading her journals as well. I read fervently, with a biblical reverence. Never had I consumed literature that meant so much to me. It seemed I had crossed a significant threshold; I had found immense safety in the repertoire of her words. While Plath opened this door of discovery, it hardly ended there.
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Apr 15, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Kate Mcquarrie
Characteristic of my generation, I am constantly curious about how others perceive me. Social media has offered us an unprecedented means through which to accumulate this information; in the digital realm you can both contextualize your identity against the backdrop of infinite other lives and curate your real-life and virtual image to better align with certain ideas.
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Apr 2, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Kate Mcquarrie
It wasn’t until I was 7 years old that I learned about the concept of Lent. With an ash cross on my forehead for the very first time, I listened carefully, noting how I was to adhere to the tradition. I felt, even then, that my being accepted or loved by my God was not contingent on my practicing of Lent; but still, I was eager to be a part of something, eager to engage in a practice that would remind me of my devotion.
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Feb 28, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Jonathan Park
For as long as I could remember, my being a woman has been inextricable from my support of other women. Celebrating my gender was synonymous with celebrating those who identified as the same. As a feminist, I have allowed this love to find political footing; in the political sphere as well as throughout popular culture, I am quick to support female figures and equate their successes with my own.
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Feb 7, 2024 | 
dailytrojan.com | Bella Borgomini |Kate Mcquarrie
Content warning: This story contains mentions of sexual assault and violence. I am an Amy Dunne apologist — it isn’t because I love murderers or aspire to crime, it’s that when I see stories like hers depicted in popular media, I’m not used to a woman being at the center of it. I’m not used to female characters who are completely, unapologetically evil. As a lifelong reader, I have found literature to be perhaps a more expansive resource through which to find such characters.
