Dear Reader,

It’s always been my opinion that introductions are the worst necessary evil, but here goes anyway.

I’ve always had a fascination with life.

That’s a stupid thing to say. Unless you’re a biologist — in which case, have at it.

But what I mean is that life is so obviously fascinating; most industrial, social things, as we know it, would not exist without life. The wonderful, physical things about our world will continue to exist, but it’s odd to think that without the weird sense of wonder that comes with life, they would just … exist.

Life is there, when there is no other purpose for life.

That’s also largely beside the point. I like life because there are so many versions of it — which brings me to my goal for this column.

There are topics that I, myself, have pondered for a good time, and there are topics that I have felt strong connections to greatly. But as much as I am narcissistic, I care about the experiences and input of the people around me more — and the glory of being in journalism is that I get to hound people for those experiences and opinions under the guise of work.

So here’s the idea of my column: I want to understand what people understand about the world. I want to see the differences between other people’s world view and my own, and I am not hesitant, if it comes to it, to say that what I believed was stupid and wrong.

There are more factors beyond my scope that affect our daily lives — and all I want is to see how we, collectively, are living with it.

I also may or may not pair my articles with poorly-edited, test run podcasts.

Here is my official declaration that I am trying.

Sincerely,

Elisa Fang