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Christina Wu

My name was chosen for its function and meaning. If I was a boy, my name would’ve been Chris. Since I’m a girl, my name is Christina. Also, my dad is a devout Christian, so he was attracted to the fact my name means “follower of Christ.” I used to go to the local Chinese community’s church when I was young, but my family eventually stopped going because of pretty petty fights on who would become the new pastor. So yes, I identify as Christian and follow the basic moral rules and values. However, I don’t publicly advertise the fact. My name kind of does it for me. Through elementary school to middle school, I’ve almost always been called by my full name. Occasionally the girls in my class wanted to give each other nicknames, yet they oddly thought of “Chris-Chris.” Thankfully, the name only stuck for about a week before all the girls realized it just wasn’t a good nickname. I always thought my name would naturally transition to Tina. From William to Bill, from Gerald to Jerry, my two ol
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To My Best Friend

It’d be wrong if I didn’t reciprocate the appreciation I got from Emi Brown a couple of blog posts ago. We met in 1st grade, but back then everyone kind of got along. The girls normally hung out with the girls. Boys hung out with the boys. We still had the issue of “cooties.” Emi and I were on pretty decent terms. However, she went to another school the following year. The only time I’d see her was when I bumped into her in the hallways of Chinese Sunday school. Sadly, we took different classes. I had my ups and downs in elementary school. I made sure to call out the kids who’d try to tease my friends. However, my friends changed over time -- relationships would just fall apart or they had to move away. At one point, I sat by myself on a hill during recess. I ended picking up the habit of just bringing a book outside to read. I figured I just wasn’t cool enough to have my own group of friends. I had people point at my lunch as weird. Sometimes I had snow shoved down my winter coat or
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A Nerd Who Loves the Grainger Engineering Library

Other than my own home, my favorite place in Champaign-Urbana is the Grainger Engineering Library. I go to Grainger so often that my friends say I’m heading to my second home. I used to go there occasionally throughout my high school career because my dad taught UofI classes in the afternoon. I’d head over and buy a hot drink from Espresso Royale and prop myself on a high table. My occasional trips to the cafe were nice. However, my obsession with the place started once I got my driver’s license during the 2nd semester of Junior year. My brother, Jerry, is an UofI Alumna, and he taught me all the tips he knew about Grainger. The basement and the fourth floor are great places to have study groups. The first floor is great for grabbing an Iced Dirty Chai (a shot of espresso mixed with Chai) from Espresso Royale. The second and third floors have sets of small cubicles so I could have an isolated, dead-quiet place to work. There was one cubicle on the third floor that used to be my
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"Juice" by Lizzo

We can agree that Adele is the artist we listen to when it’s a sad gloomy day -- with the possible option of rain. However, Lizzo is arguably the best hype up artist. Any song from hers is a full bop. Most of her songs are throwbacks to the glam-rock aura of 70’s jams. “Juice” is my go-to for wanting to feel confident and proud. I couldn’t help but get way too into it when it played on the radio. Go ahead and listen to it while you read the rest of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaCrQL_8eMY Lizzo starts off “Juice” with a reference to the Evil Queen from Snow White’s interaction with the mirror. However, the next line says how she doesn’t need to mirror to answer because she’s validating herself internally instead of needing outside sources to validate her. Sure, not everyone has Louis Vitton shoes, but Lizzo has to flex at some point. However, all her songs have the overarching theme of being body positive without putting others down to do so. You can see the theme show up
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A Bright-Pink Disney Princess Alarm Clock

              To call it only a precious “childhood” possession would be a shame because I still use it to this very day: A bright-pink Disney Princess alarm clock. My clock, in all it’s glory, holds the first memory I really had of Disney. My family held the tradition of going to Orlando every Christmas since I was two years old, yet I didn’t really remember anything until I was older. I can’t remember all the details, but I remember walking into the souvenir shop. Shelves were lined with various pens, hats, and snow globes.   I found myself drawn to the various glittery snow globe music boxes, but my whole family urged me to purchase something useful. A couple twists and turns later, we arrived at the clock wall. I sneered at the Toy Story designs and believed the classic Mickey Mouse themed clock was lame. Low and behold, I found a pink fanatic’s dream. With a vivid pink body and a portrait of Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty on its face, I jumped as I pointed at the
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Mindset

              It hit me as I was video-calling my mom and sobbing: I never gave myself a break.               Flashback to my junior year, everyone hustling to their classes and signing up for the retched thing we called standardized testing. It’s the year when we’re finally on the first floor, seen as upperclassmen, and starting our college process. I thought I had everything down pat: I signed myself up for two semesters with six-seven classes, ran three separate clubs (participated in an additional one), and registered for volleyball in the fall.               A mantra repeated itself in my head: if you’re not doing something  perfectly  at any given moment , you’re not doing enough. Unfortunately, that seems to be the culture of Uni in general. We’re all so high-achieving that we forget to slow down and give ourselves a break. We’re always thinking, “what’s next?” I bet if I walked up to any student in the building and asked how’s their stress level, they’d something like “
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