Books On My Bookshelf
Bookshelves are a great equalizer; they are as universal as they are personal. Tucked away between each compartment is someone’s life story, much like the pages of a novel that hold the secrets of a writer’s mind.
My story begins on the fourth shelf, with a dark-green collectibles version of The Hobbit, a tenth birthday gift. When I discovered the clues Tolkien had left scribbled in the margins of the book, I spent a whole day engrossed in deciphering Dwarvish runes into a complete translated alphabet.
While I still cherish that alphabet, I now look at the Hobbit as a representation of Bilbo’s physical and metaphorical journey as he travels towards both unknown territory and his own enlightenment. Re-reading it evokes questions like: does vengeance justify war and the waste it causes? And how do greed and self-interest influence decisions that could negatively impact other communities and the environment? My childhood love of stories has given me an ability to understand a larger social commentary and recognize the wholeness of human experience through literature. I’ve discovered the universality of social ostracism through Beloved’s Sethe and The Scarlet Letter’s Hester, and drawn parallels between the demonization of The Crucible’s Abigail and the vilification of Dr. Ford during her testimony. These American interracial, intergenerational, and intersectional voices have driven me to seek out stories that reflect my own identity in not just the literary canon, but also in the context of a larger social framework.
My third shelf is occupied by historiographies (modern studies of historical writings), mostly by Jeremi Suri. After attending his talk about his novel, The Impossible Presidency, where he covered the historical context behind hot-button issues, I told him how my political concerns had led me to pursue activism. While taking AP US History, I developed a stronger urge to address social issues and joined the Sunnyvale Youth Public Policy Institute. Collaborating with my county’s public health department, I launched a campaign to tackle the teenage vaping epidemic, which I later developed into a chapter-wide Project for Future Business Leaders of America. Applying strategic management skills to social issues in order to create positive social change allowed me to explore the interdisciplinary intersection between business and public policy, something I hope to continue in the future.
The highest shelf hosts my business competition trophies, but it is also a reflection of my relationship with my twin sister, Katherine. The International DECA award commemorates both a year of competitive success and a tumultuous partnership with Katherine that forced us to work together to communicate, as losing each other amidst a stressful work environment simply wasn’t an option. My FBLA Nationals trophy from the following year showcases our individual journeys: working with different teams and learning to grow apart from each other. It’s a reminder to be grateful about having a one-of-a-kind partnership, where our signature skill involves a particular penchant for splitting a cookie into two exact halves.
The second shelf is where I really let my hoarding tendencies run rampant. I’m a collector of quotes, words, carefully color-coded whiteboard markers used for planning purposes, and souvenirs from annual family Yellowstone road-trips. Most importantly, I’m a philatelist, or a stamp-collector. Stamps represent culture, heritage, and history, but to me they are also a concrete symbol for the enormous and ubiquitous abstraction that is our world’s communications network, representing our enduring need to connect through words, transcending distance and time.
My bookshelf has held everything familiar to me since that fateful IKEA trip eight years ago. It has undergone many changes since then, mirroring the constant rewrites of my own life story. Soon, my bookshelf will be bare, the most beloved items traveling with me to college for the next chapter of my life. I’m not sure what it’ll hold in the future, but there is beauty in an unfinished story, waiting to be told and ready for evolution.