Vol. 2, No. 3 | March 2025

The Forgotten

The Hidden, The Neglected, The Overlooked

Art by Joyce Zhou

Why Nations Fail: How to Cure a Nation’s Amnesia

By Daniel Tong

Why Nations Fail, by Nobel laureate economists Acemoglu and Robinson, analyzes why some nations are rich and others poor—not due to external influence or geography, but their internal political structures. As nations fail, they forget the institutions that granted success. A decade after publication, with the future seemingly bleak, its principles offer insights into today's world, revealing why nations fail—and how to remember lessons they've forgotten.

La Cucina Sigismondi

By Stefania Sigismondi

When traditions depend on those who remember them, what happens when they’re gone? Through exploring my family's closely held lasagna recipe, I reflect on my quiet fear that something—recipes, language, connection—will be lost.

A Normal Little Life

By Emma Torjesen

My grandma is normal with a normal little life. As her life becomes endangered, the truth of this normality scares me at first; whipping me into a state of heartache. Will she be forgotten when she leaves this earth?

The Disposable Celebrity

By Gabriella Yeung

Fame is now a fleeting commodity, where yesterday’s icon is today’s forgotten name. Influencers now rise overnight, only to be discarded just as quickly. With this rapid turnover of digital celebrities, what does our culture’s obsession with instantaneous stardom reveal about our attitudes towards fame?

Leaving for College, Not Leaving You

By Kaavya Anuj

Leaving for college definitely means new beginnings–but no one wants to forget where they come from. In this letter to my mother, I grapple with the ways distance creeps in, the eventual calls that fade into silence, and the promise that this time, I won’t let it happen again.

The Forgotten Nanking Massacre

By Sammie Xie

The Nanking Massacre remains one of history’s most brutal yet overlooked atrocities. Through The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Iris Chang exposes the historical amnesia, urging the world to remember—not out of hatred, but to prevent history from repeating itself.

Learn about The Spark and the people behind it!

View our last issue on Choice!

The Forgotten Man in the Picture

By Sylvia Barrios Gotor

Generation by generation memories of people are forgotten, but do lose them forever? I thought so until I met a stranger in a picture not too long ago. Through fading memories, and films I met my great-grandfather and learned what he would have taught me if pictures could talk.

On Youth: Musings of an Old Soul

By Billy Park

Time, it seems, is the one teacher no child heeds; its lessons seem so plentiful when we’re young, yet we find that we miss them once our childhood is over, and is instead squandered in an attempt to grow up too quickly. Still, perhaps, this piece could change that.

How The Inside Out Movies Reveal The Cost Of Growing Up

By Minji Suk

As we grow up, we suppress childhood emotions to meet societal expectations. Inside Out and its sequel show this shift—innocence gives way to anxiety and self-consciousness, reshaping our emotions.

Colorless, Soon

By Aryan Pershad

Returning to my hometown two summers ago, I embarked on an expedition to revisit my favorite spots from my childhood. Expecting a week of reminiscence, I was repeatedly reminded by the realities of gentrification that the town was no longer how I remembered it.

Losing Touch With my Food

By Raynard Oei

Smell, color, taste, time, temperature, location…all crucial in creating a good dining experience. What happens when these details become muddled? What happens if one forgets the recipe for a good meal?

Bridging the Distance: Navigating A Family With Lost Intimacy

By Laura Chen

To feel forgotten is not merely to be physically apart; it is to sense that the essence of who I am—my struggles, joys, and aspirations—is unseen.