Ellie Konfrst // The Observer

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Looking beyond

Ellie Konfrst | Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Other than a Girl Scout sleepaway camp, before I turned 18, I had never been camping before. Nevertheless, my freshman year of college was bookended by two camping trips that changed the way I saw myself and the way I saw the world. Two days before I moved into my freshman year dorm room (miss

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Ask not what you can do

Ellie Konfrst | Tuesday, September 1, 2020

This summer, while driving across the country for work, my friend and I stopped at a rest stop in Oklahoma. If it weren’t for us and the rest stop employee in our masks, you probably wouldn’t have known there was a pandemic going on. Walking into the small, cramped bathroom, I heard a (maskless) woman

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Cat cafés and career choices

Ellie Konfrst | Tuesday, August 18, 2020

In kindergarten, my answer to the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” was a teacher, maybe a veterinarian. In first grade, it suddenly became President of the United States. That abrupt switch echoed the sentiments of many of the adults in my life who lauded me by remarking on how