The more articles I have not written for The Misc, the more material I have for this one. I write this piece thinking about all the columns I decided against—those too radical for a certain temperament, those I dismissed for being insufficiently complicated. I will keep writing regardless. But The Misc gave me a platform to practice short-form essays outside the classroom, building on ideas sparked by seminar discussions and others that arrived unbidden during stoned epiphanies. It was a space for intellectual inquiry, and I am grateful for my fellow students who made it that.
The Misc briefly made me want to become a journalist. I no longer do—I am more drawn to analysis than reporting—but the experience confirmed something I now hold as fact: Journalists are braver than the rest of us.
I will admit this much: my pieces are designed to invite internal critique. They are an attempt to persuade readers to examine their own hearts and minds, not to hand them conclusions. Political transformation is not only material; it is psychological. Write opinions to help others form their own—never take anything as given. The best opinion writing does not instruct readers what to think. It teaches them how to interrogate their own assumptions. Think critically. Question everything. That is the most valuable thing Vassar taught me.
The point of writing is not certainty but inquiry. What united all the pieces I wanted to write was not ideology, but suspicion—of institutions, of language, of myself. The columns I never wrote all asked the same question: what are we trained not to notice?
Sometimes I avoided writing because I feared consequences. Other times because I feared embarrassment more than consequences. There is a particular kind of cowardice unique to intellectual spaces: disguising uncertainty as nuance. Why were some ideas “too radical”? Fear of backlash? Fear of being simplistic? Fear of being wrong? Desire to appear intelligent?
What I realized, looking back, is that I was less interested in answers than in contradictions. Most of the essays I abandoned began with one. Below are some ideas I never got to write, many of them born of stoned epiphanies.
On politics and power: Sexual misconduct transcends political allegiance. Lobbying is bribery. Working in the arms industry is an ethical compromise. Economic democracy should transcend politics. Our perception of political violence is distorted. Why did the student protests disappear—and why do we protest certain things but not others? Listen to student activists and academics, not politicians.
On culture: The resentment of cultural elites alongside the quiet acceptance of economic ones. The repurposing of words with historically negative connotations—king, empire—into terms of endearment. Wild alums in The Misc comment section. Challenging the culture war itself.
On the environment: Stop treating the climate crisis like a public policy problem. Urban planning should prioritize sustainability. The U.S. military and its pollution. Food cooperatives and supporting local farmers. What does sustainable cooking and eating actually look like?
On media and institutions: Major sporting events should not be held behind paywalls. Corporate advertising methods are a distraction from real motives. War journalists are braver than any of us.
On education: Should education precede regulation, or regulation precede education? Do you tell people why something should happen, or why it did?
On Vassar: College elitism and advocacy. A student critique of Vassar Students for Justice in Palestine (VSJP). The dorm model applied to public life. Law enforcement and the performance of authority.
Reflections: My idealism and policymaking. My life is so easy.
On ethics and care: Is ethical consumption possible under capitalism—and where do you draw the line? Collective care beyond kinship: how do you make a person care for someone outside their own?
Many of these questions were really about power. Others were about language—how societies aestheticize domination. Most were attempts to understand why people tolerate systems they privately resent. Maybe the value of student writing is not that it changes the world, but that it teaches people how to think in public before the world teaches them not to. I leave The Misc without conclusions, only questions I still cannot stop asking.