“The people we meet along the way”

Over the past four years in North Carolina, I’ve learned a lot about friendship. I’ve learned that not all friendships last—and that’s okay. Some are meant to teach us something, while others are built to last a lifetime. I’ve learned what it means to be a good friend, and just as importantly, how to choose the people you surround yourself with.

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that making friends requires effort. The energy you put into building connections is often mirrored back in the authenticity of the friendships you form. I feel truly lucky to say that I’m surrounded by many talented, supportive, and generous people. Getting involved at UNC is how I’ve met some wonderful people and created lasting bonds.

At Carolina, one special thing I’ve noticed is how even brief encounters can leave a lasting impact. You might only spend a semester in class—or even a single night—with someone, but the community here is built on kindness, support, and a shared passion for being a Tar Heel.

One story that stands out is how I made my very first friend at UNC. It was the first day of classes, and I’d received an email about a breakfast and chat at the Hussman Career Center. Normally, I’m someone who’s comfortable blending in—just going to class, listening, and staying under the radar. But that morning, I stepped out of my comfort zone and went.

At the breakfast, a girl sitting next to me started asking me questions about myself. We chatted until I realized I needed to get to class—and as it turned out, so did she. We were headed to the same place. We sat together, and soon realized we also shared the next class… which ended up being the hardest course I took at UNC.

Having her there—someone to collaborate and communicate with—was invaluable. Over the years, we’ve supported each other through our wins, and offered each other a listening ear during tough times.

Thank you, Carolina, for bringing me a true blue (Carolina blue) friend.

Here is part 1 of a podcast I recorded with a friend, we talk about our journey through our 20’s navigating friendships.

Here is part 2 of a podcast I recorded with a friend, we talk about our journey through our 20’s navigating friendships.

The End

Jacques looked down at the directions String Bean had given him. It resembled the page from the book he found. Jacques felt confident, and he started running. He was free, he was dead for all they cared, and he got a chance to start over. He got the chance to learn who he was, beyond being a resourcer. Hal smiled as he kept on running, glancing down at the directions he felt he no longer needed. It was a feeling, not a map, you found the civilization by finding who you are and believing in something. 

All of a sudden, Jacques began to fall and fall and continue falling. 

“Thud.”

Jacques rubbed his head and looked up. He had fallen straight into a hole. But then he looked in front of him, and it was String Bean. And a bunch of other String Beans standing next to him. Jacques smiled. String Bean led him around and explained to him how everything worked and then after some time, String Bean paused and frowned at him. He led him to a lookout on the edge of a rock. String Bean invited Jacques to sit with him. And then just as Jacques had been told, everything before him turned to bright orange and red. Jacques had to turn his head. String Bean assured him that he was safe there and left Jacques to sit there all alone. 

And Jacques watched the world burn.

THE END.

Goodbye

After endless and tiring searching Jacques felt as if all their efforts were futile. String Bean kept begging Jacques not to let anyone see it out here, because it already was not supposed to talk to Jacques, only to save him. Jacques frowned. He couldn’t understand how String Bean had found him but not Hal. 

After a long day Jacques told String Bean that it should probably get back to its civilization. String Bean nodded and shrugged. Jacques thanked it for its help. String Bean left him with directions to find the civilization. String Bean kept insisting that his world would end and he would need somewhere to go very soon. All Jacques could do was nod. 

Afraid to fall asleep again outside, Jacques continued searching. Finally, after hours and hours of searching, Jacques couldn’t believe his eyes. It was the men’s chambers. He ran towards it. As he got closer, he was quiet as he entered because it was around the time the men would be sleeping. He entered the chamber and looked around. It was completely empty. Jacques was sure he was in the right place but now he wasn’t sure if he was awake or not. He rubbed at his eyes and he was still in the empty chamber. He walked towards his own sleeping quarters and looked around only to find nothing. As he was turning around he heard a shuffle. He looked around and still didn’t see anything. He was almost completely sure he had hypothermia and was hallucinating when a figure appeared before him. 

It was Hal. “Hal! Oh Hal I thought you must have been dead,” Jacques said with a frown.

“No, I’m alive,” Hal responded. 

Jacques sensed something deeply wrong. “Hal, I didn’t leave you out there, someone-something rescued me and I woke up in a cave and–”

“I know,” Hal responded quietly again. 

All Jacques could do was stare.

Hal sighed. “Jacques, headquarters found us, they rescued me, and they left you for dead.” “You’re causing them problems, therefore, you are considered a terminated asset, and it would be best if they believed you were dead, so please stay away.” “I came to warn you.” “They have put me in charge and moved the men to a new drilling site.”

Again, Jacques just started quietly at Hal. 

“I gotta go, Jacques.” “Stay dead,” Hal said as he turned to leave. 

“Hal, don’t leave. Come with me and we can go to the civilization of the first people or things or whatever.” Hal, the world is going to burn, remember the books, Hal, please, I don’t want you to burn with the world.” 

“Jacques, you’re sounding crazy, man.” “Please don’t make me regret warning you,” Hal said with a frown. 

All Jacques could do was stand there while he watched his only friend leave.

UNTRUE

Jacques couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The thing, Jacques started referring to it now as String Bean, had told him all about its civilization. String Bean said that they had been there since the dawn of time and had had to adapt to the harsh weather in order to survive. String Bean told him that it had run into other explorers before and begged them to report to their home country that there was nothing to be found in Antarctica. String Bean was worried about what was happening now, the destruction of its home in order to gain precious resources to use for sustaining development in another country. However, String Bean had told Jacques that countless times he had seen civilizations destroy themselves. 78u

Everything started to make sense now for Jacques. Hal had told him everything that was written in the book and it spoke of people who lived here but Jacques had thought that was foolish and untrue because of everything he had been told by headquarters. 

String Bean continued to explain how the civilization operated and Jacques was fascinated. It seemed that String Bean truly cared for all other beings. As Jacques listened he looked around the cave and listened to a single drop of water fall over and over as a slight echo from String Beans voice reached his ears. 
An unsettling feeling fell over Jacques. “String Bean, we must find Hal. I’m really worried about what may have happened to him and I also feel wrong for leaving all of my men that I’ve been leading alone out here,” Jacques said.

String Bean slowly nodded and they left the cave in search of Hal, not knowing what they might encounter.

The Thing

Jacques woke up from a deep slumber and looked around trying to piece together where he might be, he was surprised that he was even awake. The last time he had fallen asleep he was sure it would be the last time. Wherever he was, it resembled a cave or some kind of shelter underground. As he blinked his eyes hard to wake up he realized Hal was no longer beside him. He frantically started searching for Hal. He started walking around the shelter, cautious to call out his name, for fear of startling what brought him here.

“Hal,” he whispered. 

Suddenly, a thing appeared before Jacques who was not Hal. It was not someone he had ever seen before. He wasn’t quite sure the thing even resembled the human race. They were extremely tall and lanky and spoke in a hushed voice, as if they were in charge of keeping a large secret. Its face was slightly distorted, making it impossible for Jacques to read its facial expressions. 

Jacques didn’t feel scared at the moment. He didn’t sense he was in harm's way. The thing hadn’t spoken, so Jacques asked it if it knew where Hal was. The thing shook its head. 

“Okay, well, what’s your name?”

The thing shook its head. 

Jacques rolled his eyes. “Okay, do you know how I got here, or why I’m here?”

This time, the thing responded. “I brought you here. I saved you.”

Jacques was pretty sure he was right, so he didn’t argue. But he did have one question. “Why?”

The thing’s answer was simple: Jacques needed saving.

Lay Down Your Head

 It had been almost two days since the men had been separated from the group. Two days without food and water and no sense of direction whatsoever. The men knew that you start to lose your sense of direction when you’re lost, dehydrated and hungry but the white space around them only seemed to exasperate this feeling.

Alone. Tired. Cold.

The men had nothing to go off of, the sun never rose nor set and the wind blew away their footprints in the snow. 

Hal had been following behind Jacques when he asked, “At what point do we just give up?”

His question hung in the air for a moment as Jacques pondered a response.

He was feeling like giving up as well, but felt responsible for Hal coming out here and also responsible for his life as he was his superior. 

After what felt like forever Jacques finally answered, “I’m sorry.”

Hal and Jacques remained silent for another hour.

“Jacques, I need to lie down man, my legs hurt, and I, I hurt all over.”

“We can’t stop moving Hal, we’re going to die out here, Jacques exclaimed, exasperation heavy in his voice.

“I know,” Hal replied dead pan.

Jacques looked at him with sorrowful eyes, and then he sat down right where he was standing. 

Hal followed suit. 

Hal went to lay down and just as he closed his eyes he saw a single tear fall from the corner of Jacques’s eye.

No Way Home

As soon as all the men had returned to their sleeping quarters, Hal and Jacques prepared to leave. 

“Grab the um— book, and you can read it to me on the way,” Jacques said to Hal as he grabbed his pack from the floor. 

Hal flashed a winning grin as he tied a string around the pages from Jacque's book.

They left the bunker as Hal referred to it and Jacques led the 6,230 step trek to the village or houses. 

“Antarctica is the most beautiful place I have ever laid eyes on. I’ve collected thousands of samples and been able to draw the most extraordinary sketches of mammals and birds I have never seen before.” 

“I have however decided not to return them to England or to just die with them here because I fear that a land this abundant would be destroyed.”

Jacques kept nodding as Hal read to him. They had been walking for a few miles now and Jacques was concerned he had not led them down the right path. They would have to turn around soon. 

“Jacques, where are we?” 

“I’m not sure anyone more, I’m so sorry Hal.”

“It’s okay I can see how we could get lost here, Hal chuckled a bit. “We can turn around.

Jacques nodded and corrected their course. 

They had only been walking a few miles when Jacques started to get worried. Dare he say that what was before him did not look familiar, although it was all white. Jacques began to get worried. 

They needed to be back to the site before everyone else was up to start the drilling process for the day. 

“We’re lost aren’t we?” Hal asked giving Jacques a hopeless look.

Jacques kept his head down but nodded.

. . .

Book?

“Let’s go,” Hal said to Jacques as they walked back to camp leaving their bootprints in the snow.

Jacques looked up from his watch, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Hal. “Go where?”

“Back to where you were last night,” Hal responded nonchalantly. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jacques responded in the same nonchalant tone. Jacques changed the subject. “What were those pieces you were looking at last night?”

“Pieces?” Hal asked confused. He chuckled. “You mean the pages from your book?”

“Book? I hate to sound dumb here but I’ve never heard of that before.”

“Photographic memory, remember?” “Ha, I do.” “Books are something that people used to read to learn things, for entertainment, they were used to teach people, I mean they were everywhere. I don’t remember how long ago they were all burned though. This is all the information I get from listening to people like me, who remember every single thing.”

Jacques just started at him.

“Anyways, you ready to go?”

“What did they say?”

“What did who say?”

“The pieces–I mean the book.”

“I just started reading them. I took them from the back of your book. They say the last pieces of a book spoil it for you.” Hal smiled again.

“Alright, let’s go,” Jacques said looking at Hal slightly bewildered.  

“Really?” Hal asked not believing Jacques at first.

“Really,” Jacques said tilting his head a bit. “We can leave in a few hours.”

“HAL”

It was nearly 6 a.m. and Jacques had just returned to the drill site and he was quietly trying to reenter his personal quarters. He could enter from the back side of the camp without encountering any of the other men in their sleeping quarters. 

Jacques opened the door and then he jumped. Hal was sitting quietly on Jacque’s bed studying some kind of pieces, they looked similar to the ones Jaqcques had found in his sleeping quarters the first night of their dill. Hal looked up at him but his gaze was unwavering and serious. He had just met Hal. He was quiet, always had his head down looking at shoes. Jacques never thought much of it.

“What are you doing in here–or better yet how did you get in here? Jacques stammered out stumbling over some of his words. His voice could be characterized as a whisper yell as he was trying not to wake the other men.

“I was waiting for you, I wanted to know where you went.” Hal said in a somber tone.

“I didn’t go anywhere. Now, how did you get in here?”

“It’s fine, you don’t have to tell me anything. I’m not like them though, I’m just curious about things like you, I swear.”

“How did you get in here?!”

“Oh right, sorry. I memorized your pass code.”

“What?!”

“Your passcode, the digits you enter to open the chamber door.”

“I know what it is. I mean, how? When?”

“A couple days ago maybe. It wasn’t on purpose I swear. Everytime I look at something it gets stored away in this mental crate forever,” Hal said tapping a finger to the side of his head. He still wore a serious look on his face. 

Jacques mumbled something under his breath. “Let’s just get ready to start drilling”

Hal looked pensive, almost as if he was going to say something. He must have changed his mind though because he just looked up from his pieces and nodded at Jacques. Jacques opened the back door of the camp and they started walking towards the drill site.

“Beacon”

“Send me those coordinates right now, B3,” spoke Command.

“Yes, sir. Working on it right now, sir,” Agent B3 spoke into his watch.

“Work harder!!!!” barrelled the low distorted voice through the agent’s watch.

The headquarters system had been notified as to movement of a tracking beacon at 3 a.m. last night when no one was officially monitoring the system. The tracking devices are programmed to alert the system to movements at odd hours or any movement well outside the triangualized drilling area. 

All of the resourcers had tracking chips under their skin but without their sub zero watches it was made much harder to actually track their path of movement in comparison to their real-time location, which the tracking beacon showed. Agent B3 was currently trying to access the history log of the tracking chip and see where Jacques had gone and at what time he had returned back to the drilling site.

It was imperative that all resources remained in a specific mapped out area. All movement outside of this triangulation was forbidden, for safety reasons. Every individual who did not follow protocol was subject to trial and in extremem situations, termination. 

B3 frantically typed away at his computer.

“6,230”

Headquarters was preparing a new team to head down to Antarctica to continue the drilling. Jacque’s crew had all been extracted the day of the explosion. Jacques was determined to go with the new team. Jacques was the best man to lead an oil extraction crew and headquarters knew it. Once they found out he could still hear, there was no way to deem him physically unfit. Regardless of whether or not command approved of him as lead, he would be on that jet. 

As soon as the men got off the jet they all started looking a little uneasy, all now more aware of the fact that a man similar to them had just lost his life out here on the ice. Noticing the crew’s demeanor he told them that they should head into camp noting that they would get a jump on the morning. 

“I’m going to place these geophones and get a new seismic read, so we are ready to start right away in the morning. Men, at ease, head into base for the evening” Jacques yelled out to the weary faces before him.

The men started nodding and mumbling and formed a version of a line as they all trekked into the dome to try to get some sleep, even as the bright sun illuminated the ice.

Jacques started placing the geophones and as soon as he had finished he started to mildly panic. He had no idea where they were. They could be miles and miles away from their last drill site or only meters, but he had to find that book. It was the key to understanding why the government had hidden Antarctica all this time. It was going to explain why his life was like this. He was sure of it. Of course, all of this lied on the pretense that command didn’t already have the book.

He needed to lose the watch so command could stop spying on him but without it he had no indication of the time. The sun sat still in one place and over here a minute sometimes felt like an hour. He recalled that a single individual walked around 3 miles in an hour and calculated that someone of his stature would probably take 2,250 steps per hour. He hung his watch on the geophone and he began counting. 

In what he assumed to be 6 miles of walking and around 2 hours he had seen nothing except exactly what he had seen 6 miles and 2 hours ago. He had also decided he had around 5 hours with which he could continue walking before he would have to turn directly around. 

“6,221…6,222…6,223…6,224…6,225…6,226…6,227…6,228…6,229…6,230…” Jacques mumbled the numbers as he watched his breath in front of him condensate with every number.

Just as he was beginning to lose complete sense of anything and as his eyes were about to be frozen shut he saw something he could have never imagined.

“Black Cloud”

Once again, headquarters, more commonly referred to among the resourcers as “command,” had sent new equipment. It had only taken them a week to create a cement that would not freeze immediately and crack in cold temperatures. However, the crew needed to adjust their drilling parameters slightly because the original drilling hole was compromised. 

As Tuck went to start up the rig something terrible happened. There was a flash of orange and then Jacques couldn’t see. As he opened his eyes he realized he couldn’t hear. He kept trying to see what was happening but couldn’t hear anything and was extremely disoriented. It was one big black dust cloud. Eventually, he saw the specks that were men coming from the corners of the drilling site start running towards him. They must have felt the impact of the explosion. 

“They’re sending in a helicopter boss,” Darren said, reaching out to asses Jacques.

Jacques just blinked. He saw Darren’s lips moving but he could not hear him. He was extremely fearful that he would never hear again. 

On the helicopter, amidst the silence, only one thing could be heard. 

“It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault, it’s all my fault, it’s all my fault,” Jacques said over and over again.

Tuck had died. The only other individual closest to the explosion was Jacques and he hadn’t opened his eyes for three days. The doctors had reported consistently good vitals, however, they explained that it was likely a shock-induced coma and that they hoped that he would wake up very soon. 

Command’s men walked into the room.

“Likely, he will never hear again,” the doctors explained to the command’s men. “An explosion like that can cause irreparable damage.” 

Command shook hands with the doctors as they left the room. “It’s a shame about what happens to resourcers after they’re no longer useful to command,” said one of the command men to the other. 

“It’s just a fact of life, Judge,” the other one offered.

 “Did you hear that command set him up? Something about being afraid he knew too much.” Judge whispered.

“You don’t have to whisper dude, the guy’s deaf,” He replied. “His watch reported charting a route different from the coordinates command sent out”

Judge nodded. “Are you ready?” he asked, tilting his head towards the door.

The other guy nodded and they turned to leave. 

Turns out, Jacques still had one good ear, and he had woken up 10 minutes ago.

“Headquarters”

As Jacque walked into the site all of the men turned to face him. 

“Did you find anything, sir?” Winston asked.

“Nothing worth expending our energy on extracting I’m afraid,” Jacques replied with a tight-lipped smile.

The men nodded in approval. Headquarters had agreed to send out a newly developed drill bit, that was quoted to be 20x the strength of their original drill bit.

Jacques could barely keep his eyes open but he wanted to finish examining all the pieces of the object. A lot of the sketches were of the landscape. He even found one that resembled the open water he had stumbled upon earlier. Others were sketches of wildlife. Wildlife he had never seen before. Some roamed above land and others he assumed must be of the water. There were sketches of rock formations, a mountainous landscape, and something that looked like a volcano. How could a volcano exist amidst the most frigid, inhabitable land on earth? Many of the other pieces were filled with countless scribbles of words. However, they stopped teaching individuals how to write and read he believed around 100 years ago. His father told him there used to be buildings dedicated just to teaching individuals about the workings of the world. Even buildings dedicated to housing objects just like the one he held in his hands. He had no means of deciphering the object and as far as he was concerned no individual he could confide in to help him.

The next day the crew went out to begin the drill process. The new drill bit proved to be successful and the crew was able to drill a hole deep enough through the ice. However, when they went to pour the cement to seal the hole it immediately froze and cracked. Without the seal they wouldn’t be able to begin extraction. The crew was also set to leave in two weeks with the next crew jetting in due to the harsh environment of Antarctica.

“I can’t believe headquarters didn’t think about the translation from the drilling process in the Dakotas to the drilling process here, in the coldest place on Earth,” Tuck said with a bite as the wind broke through his voice.

“Why should they care about us, we are just resources,” Jacques yelled back through the wind.

Tuck walked over to Jacques. “We are not just resourcers,” Tuck said shoving his finger into Jacques's chest with each word. “This is our task and you’re our lead, now act like it,” Tuck said and turned to head back to his post. 

“Men, it’s time to head in. There is nothing left for us to do. I have already contacted headquarters,” Jacques yelled out to the crew. 

“What about inspections?” Yosef inquired.

“There’s no need,” Jacques said as he turned to leave and head back to the site. The crew followed his lead.

“The Ice’s Secret”

Jacques flipped through the pieces of the object and looked carefully at the picture, the handmade picture. He looked down at his watch for the coordinates of their first drill today. Then he clicked on the map of the coordinates and noticed an odd similarity between the picture in his hand and the picture on his watch. The topography looked very similar, however, he assumed that all of Antarctica was practically one giant ice sheet and was entirely the same in design. Jacques was supposed to turn all foreign materials the crew discovered over to headquarters. The drone would come in, grab the package, and fly back out, yet Jacques would still have all these questions. How did the object survive the climate of Antarctica? How long had it been here? Who did it belong to? And most importantly, what did all of it mean?

The drill was proving to be tougher than he had imagined. He had been told that this drill would be tougher than the other ones but his life task as an oil driller was starting to be an assignment he wished he hadn’t received. There were technology developers, resourcers, technology fixers, and counters, although he was unsure what the specific tasks of counters were. Along with his fellow peers out here on the ice, they hadn’t passed the test. The individuals who didn’t pass the test all became resourcers. There were miners, oil drillers, and nuclear plant taskers. 

“Jacques, what is on your mind man?” Oliver called out from across the glacial pass. 

Jacques was studying the drilling bit. The men had had no luck so far breaking through the thick sheets of this frozen expanse. 

“I think I need to ask headquarters to send in new drill bits, these just aren’t going to work,” Jacques yelled back.

“Alright man, your call,” Oliver replied. “I think I’m just going to start some new studies of the ground.”

Jacques looked out over the crew. To him, it just looked like 15 black specs on a white background, identifiable only by voice. “Men, let’s start our inspections for the night. I’m going to do a visual 100-yard ground survey. We can meet back at our new site, you all have the coordinates on your watches.”

Jacques began his trek. He wanted a minute away from the men to study the object and see if he could match the sketch to the map on his watch. He kept walking, way beyond 100 yards now, and likely walking in a way that made him look lost. That’s when he saw it—something out of a dream. It was a deep deep blue, clear as looking glass—open water. Right in the middle of a vast stretch of sea ice, was a body of water that stretched on for days. This was not on his map. All he was told of Antarctica was one long sheet of ice. There were of course rumors from the elders, the counters. Again, he still didn’t know what they did just that they seemed to know everything. His father was a counter. One day his dad told him his mother was going to die that day. She died that evening. So if his father told him that Antarctica was more than just white as far as the eye could see, he was inclined to believe him. 

Jacques headed back to the site.

“The Object”

The geophone read the seismic activity for the tow. Jacques logged it. The logs were automatically sent to the supervisors at headquarters. The drilling process was set to begin in a month.

“Nothing new for you, huh Jacques?” Winston yelled out. He was reading the numbers off of the other geophone to be logged. 

Jacques looked up, all he saw was white. “I don’t know, sure is cold here” Jacques retorted. 

Winston laughed as Tuck climbed down from the tow. 

“We sure are glad to have you as lead out here Jacques” Tuck said directing his eyes toward Jacques. 

Jacques smiled. “Important work we do out here men.” 

Jacques looked at his sub zero watch. The temperature read -10 degrees Fahrenheit. It was 6p.m. The sun wouldn’t set for another three months. “The droids about to fly overhead, men let’s get back to our station” Jacques yelled out to the crew. The tow was driven into a tunnel under the surface. The geophones were packed up into the tow. Everyone grabbed a pack and the men started the trek towards their camp. No one had ventured to this area before, this was the intel Jacques was given by his supervisors. The men knew nothing of the area just as he did.

Jacques scanned his palm and the door parted open. “Alright men, at ease and to your stations. Tomorrow morning we’re moving on.” Jacques voice echoed over the sub zero watches that all the men wore in part of their uniform. The men’s drilling tech and gear was all fancy. The places they were directed to take camp at, not so much. As Jacques made his way to his headquarters he attempted hanging his parka up to stop the blinding light from shining into his sleeping chambers. Sleep was hard to come by and time was something he was losing sense of. He made his bed and began to lay his head down to sleep. His head hit something hard. He pulled the object out from underneath his sleeping quarters. It was an inch or so thick and quite a few inches tall. He attempted to open the object but it wouldn’t budge. It was frozen shut. He moved it to the heating chambers and in an hour he was able to pry open the object. Individual pieces of the object flipped over revealing stained rough sheets with scribbles and pictures but not the digital holographs he was used to. These looked hand drawn, if that was even possible. He threw the object in his bag and went to sleep, he didn’t want to raise the concern of his men and alert them to a foreign object just yet, not until he knew what it was and what threat it presented.