The fourth of July has always been my holiday. Some kids preferred Christmas or Halloween, but I was always passionate about July 4. There was something magical about the bike parade down Bay Avenue in Beach Haven, New Jersey. My dad would decorate my bike, and my mom would fix my hair into pigtails with little American flags sticking out of my hair ties.

On August 21, 2025 a group of American University first-year students hosted a “performative male contest” inspired by the nationwide contests that had popped up in London, New York and San Francisco. The contest offered a chance for Gen Z men to finally be cheered for in large crowds. Students came dressed in cargo pants, toting Labubus, matcha lattes and Clairo records, each hoping to be more performative than the last.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I trade in my college student ID for a lanyard and a name tag at a local elementary school to spend my afternoon with the district’s youngest and brightest minds.

In the first 100 days of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, several government agencies have begun the process of removing or altering public data from their websites coinciding with executive orders coming out of the White House.

As warmer weather starts to make its way through Washington, the mid-afternoon sun illuminates the grass on the Healy Lawn at Georgetown University, the sound of birds chirping, and trees rustling is suddenly shifted to guitar riffs, bass lines, and drumbeats echoing through amps and speakers. Georgetown students fill the lawn, applauding as student-based rock band, No One And the Elses take the stage for what will be their Saint Patrick’s Day weekend headline show.

On Wednesday Feb. 12, the Kennedy Center announced that President Donald Trump would become the Chairman of the Kennedy Center.