Opinion – The Orbital

16Nov

By Adisa-Maria ManoleNo Comments

Beyond Space and Time

By Adisa Manole November is the month that many Eastern European countries remember the loved ones who have departed from this life. Consequently, I decided that this was the right time to tell the tale of my great-grandfather. He served in the Second World War when Romania joined the Soviet Union's Operation Barbarossa. Even though I have never met my great-grandfather, my father always told me that I had the same spark in my eyes as he did. I always needed clarification on what he meant when he said that. How could this heroic figure compare to this scared young woman? When my great-grandfather, Vasile Gheorghe (also known as Răduță), was sent to serve on the battlefields of Europe, he was in his late twenties, had just got married to my great-grandmother, and they had just ...

16Nov

By Ruby Caballero-RoffNo Comments

Opinion

Failure is Part of Progression

By Ruby Caballero-Roff I didn’t pass my driving test for the first time at age seventeen. I didn’t go to university the September I turned 18. I did not have a huge balloon-filled party at age 21. I felt like I had failed, but I hadn’t. I’ve always found that making progress is far too often linked with age and meeting goals we assume we will reach as we grow older. These goals are then combined and linked to your personal success as a person. Goals can be positive, uplifting, and remarkable, and all these achievements at such a young age give you countless boasting rights. A CV filled with confidence when applying to universities or a bedroom drawer filled with certificates (not just participation awards) — your progress has given you a childhood full of success, but will th...

University is the Most Confusing Time of your Life, and No One Talks About it

16Nov

By Claudia MacalusoNo Comments

Opinion

University is the Most Confusing Time of your Life, and No One Talks About it

By Claudia Macaluso Picture this. You’re eighteen, it's Christmas Eve, you’re sitting around a table with loads of people who you’re apparently related to, and you suddenly get asked this question: “So how’s uni?” And you shudder, thinking to yourself, “How could I possibly answer that nonchalantly?” The truth is, university is undoubtedly the strangest time of your life, and you’re not given enough credit for it. Everyone anticipates this moment for most of their teenage years, and yet when the time comes, you turn into this tiny goldfish who gets tossed into a massive aquarium full of fish species you’ve never even heard of before. One of my friends once told me, "I would love university if I didn’t actually have to do university.” You’ve been in education your entire life, yet...

16Nov

By Kiera GarciaNo Comments

Opinion

Loosen Your Stitching

By Kiera Garcia When living in an age where identity is everything, the idea of fluidity appears to be a perilous game. We're expected to know who we are, our desires, and our beliefs, and know exactly how to articulate those thoughts. I know that I fell victim to the idea that if I hadn't had my whole life figured out by the time I was 18, I would have failed at life. After coming to university and having the subsequent almost quarter-life crisis of realising that I did not have my entire self figured out already, I realised how dull and colourless life would be if I never changed. The idea of being the same as I was when I was 13, and even the same as when I was 17, frightened me. This does not make the process of evolving and developing your identity any easier. The cliché of ...

‘I Saw it on TikTok’: The Death of Print and Reliable Sources

16Nov

By Poppy JacksonNo Comments

Opinion

‘I Saw it on TikTok’: The Death of Print and Reliable Sources

By Poppy Jackson Podcast recommendations, the next viral recipe, or the serum that will finally rid me of my acne scars—TikTok has it all. Yet, when it comes to spreading global news, this short-form video content and its simple sharing and distribution methods are nothing short of dangerous. We’ve all fallen victim to the social media news circus, where celebrities propagate their own ignorance pertaining to politics, religion, and worldviews, often reaching a larger audience than traditional publications. When the Israel-Gaza conflict is at the forefront of public consciousness, TikTok is more than ever a necessary tool. So why does this form of media consumption prove so unreliable? Even before TikTok, it was difficult to find trustworthy, unfiltered news. A politi...

Some Things Never Change: Body Positivity or Toxicity?

10Oct

By Beth McCowenNo Comments

Lifestyle, Opinion

Some Things Never Change: Body Positivity or Toxicity?

By Beth McCowen As the weather gets hotter, and the events that have been in our diaries for months are finally rolling around, it’s time to switch up our wardrobes to include some summer attire after months and months of cosy jumpers and trendy scarves. As joyful as the sunshine, floral dresses, and holidays can feel, this transition in season, and therefore style, is easier for some than it is for others. Throughout the autumn, winter and even spring months, we often grow used to hiding away our bodies, our insecurities, under clothes in which we feel comfortable, usually on the basis that they show less of our skin than the alternatives that are more practical for the summer. For those who have struggled with eating disorders, other health problems, or difficult relatio...

31Jul

By Olivia TaylorNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Opinion

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

By Olivia Taylor We are led to believe that everything that starts eventually has to end. Last year as a part of my compulsory ‘Thinking as a Critic’ English module we briefly discussed teleology, specifically looking at its relation to literature. In a philosophical sense, teleology essentially describes the purpose of something by its finality rather than how it came to be, and so when this theory is applied to literature, often it becomes apparent that continuity cannot always be as rewarding as closure may be. The state of closure brings about a sense of completeness, it yields satisfaction. When it got to the point of writing our final assignment for this particular module, I was drawn back to our previous studies of closure with a question titled, ‘For what reason, if any, is clo...

14Jun

By Felix PoréeNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature, Opinion

How Did Life End Up With Us?

By Felix Poreé and Olivia Taylor Introduced as the first book of a quartet titled "The Secrets of Life: From Big Bang to Trump", SS O'Connor's How Did Life End Up With Us? presents itself as an attempt to answer the most pertinent of questions surrounding the laws of life, from the start of the Big Bang all the way to the ‘decisions’ that organisms make that ultimately determine their chances of survival. One anticipates that such questions would require substantial scientific research, and although O’Connor admits he is not a scientist, his undertaking, given to the reader in a conversational writing style, is divided into specific chapters that aim to cover such topics as natural selection, gene mutations, and evolutionary change, down to parasitism, mutualism, and altruism. O’Con...

24Apr

By Olivia TaylorNo Comments

Opinion

The Democratic Downfall of Journalism

Daniel Pearl was an American journalist. Near the time of his abduction and death, he had been working in Mumbai, India as the Southeast Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, but had travelled with his family to Karachi, Pakistan to report on the United States’ War on Terrorism following the 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda in 2001. Pearl was recognised for his journalistic detail and his ability to empathise with how humanity - and our own human nature - is affected by international issues. Consequently, he was considerate of the reported portrayal of the Islamic world towards his Western readers. Nevertheless, during his time in Karachi in early 2002, Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by several Islamist jihadist groups working together, operating under the Lashkar-e-Omar umbrella. ...

<strong>Where do we even begin? </strong>

25Feb

By Sofia BajerovaNo Comments

Opinion

Where do we even begin?

I left the tube station, aggressively double clicking the side of my phone to ensure that Apple Pay, custodian of my Monzo card, was ready to do its job. The expected bout of hyper self-awareness kicked in, certain I was subjecting myself to the glares of the people behind who were shouting obscenities at me in their heads. I was absolutely sure of this. I went through the ticket barriers without a hitch, unlike a man ahead who had a less fortunate experience and, as a result, our lives intersected for a few brief minutes. Dressed in a blue suit with a carefully placed Prostate Cancer UK badge pinned at the lapel, he strolled through the station with a wide stance, and an increasing verbose rhetoric of disappointment. Without remembering his exact words, he claimed he was shocked and d...