StarkMarkings

How are the people online so perfect? Will the boys at school like me? How do I prevent wrinkles? Growing up means change. And the change you go through on the outside can be just as dramatic and as perspective-altering as the change you go through on the inside.

In this episode, Victoria talks to Sara Amar, a junior in college who exudes self-assurance, to discover her secret to seemingly unwavering confidence and Rebecca Boylan,...

Can we really be best friends with anyone forever? In this episode of Common Nonsense, Victoria and Angelena call up their childhood BFFs to find out.  Whether you move away, like Victoria did from Madison, or simply grow apart as people, some friendships have a natural end. Others stand the test of time for reasons both in and out of our control, like Angelena and Anna. Either way, it is difficult for the fondness cultivated betwe...

It takes time to think through our past and come to conclusions about our present. As we grow up, the simple black and white nature of our youth slowly breaks down. As a result, we get stuck in stalemates with familiar people and familiar ideas alike. Conflicting experiences beg the question: what is the right way to make sense of the world? There’s that cliché rom-com line, “I need some time to figure things out.” So, with the req...

“Don’t talk to strangers” is a mandate for every child issued before trips to the grocery store, on school playgrounds, and basically anywhere in public. But as we grow older, should we still take this advice to heart? In the first episode of StarkMarkings’ Season Two sub-series “Common Nonsense,” listen to Victoria and Angelena talk about their run-ins with strangers: people they’ve never met before and haven’t seen since the whol...

It’s easy to forget that everyone is doing life for the first time. We all start out with no knowledge of the world, and as a result, we’re reliant on stories, ambitions and explanations that other people give us—until we experience things for ourselves.

What happens when your new experiences give you no choice but to question who you’ve been up until that point? What do you do when you start to feel like old habits, interests or e...

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

John Lennon answered “happy.” Maybe he had the right idea.

The way the question is phrased, the typical answer is a noun: astronaut, pop-star, president. Some of us, like Lennon, may opt for adjectives. But is it possible —maybe even smart— to answer with a verb?

And what happens when life forces you to deviate from your planned out answer? What happens when what you thought was true about...

WE'RE BACK! STARKMARKINGS SEASON TWO (a shift from Season One): “At StarkMarkings, we recognize our world’s constant metamorphosis; no two decades, years, or even days ever look the same. Despite changing times, we are all bound together by our never-ending journeys of growth as we encounter love, identity, tragedy and other markers of a life fully lived. Each episode features two interviews, one coming of age story from the past a...

A guest, a book, a conversation, and a mini playlist. 

StarkMarkings aims to explore the assertion that we, as human beings, inevitably experience literature and music within the context of our lives. Like a bookmark, we are placed in the timelines of our lives, only knowing the past, clueless about the plot twists to come. The past versions of ourselves layer over each other to inform who we are throughout time, carving our l...