When I found out I would be speaking tonight, I figured it would be appropriate to open my speech with a scholarly quote. So… I chose some lyrics from the infamous Asher Roth song, I Love College. “I wanna go to college for the rest of my life. I can get pizza for a dollar […]
Invisible beads of sweat collect at my temples and slowly draw moist lines along my cheek, down into the abyss of my button up shirt. My knees buckle under the beige khakis that have somehow, over the years, become my (albeit bland) uniform of choice. Dozens target me with laser-like eyes waiting, expecting perfection. Only […]
I take pleasure in shade, whether or not it’s my crisp garments or the blinking mild of my alarm clock. Like some grand accomplishment of setting up an Academy Awards outfit, I stare in awe at my closet, my supply of satisfaction. “Okay, school-bus yellow is darker than lemon yellow,” I inform myself as I […]
Silence has many names. Silence: carefully crafted contemplation, rueful resignation, frost-bitten fears. A sunken soul of sorrow, traders of tomorrows, and those who recklessly believe they already know it all. At sixteen years old, why would the world be so cruel as to level me like it did? And how has that year become the […]
It was simple. Lift the weight and win. The only thing standing between me and my medal was my competitor and what looked like a hundred pound bar. The bar seemed to daunt me as I tried to figure out how to lift it without making a fool of myself. As I looked to the […]
I bet the same thing is on every senior’smind. With graduation only weeks away, I am determined to walk acrossthat stage, even though it becomes harder to stay focused onschool. I can see graduation day now. All the seniors will marchin wearing caps and gowns and sit proudly in the uncomfortable metalchairs before the stage. […]
This 12 months, I’m taking an exquisite English literature seminar. The instructor is good, the works are basic, and the 18 college students are shut, many people mates since elementary faculty. Two ladies – good mates of mine – led the seminar on Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin. It tells the story of two reverse […]
“Oh my gosh, Mom! He’s drowning!” I exclaimed as my unshaved, fourteen-year-old legs propelled me toward the churning and bubbling sea. I had spied a lumpy, gray, human-shaped mass battling the water nearly fifty yards off shore. I called out to him, in fear of having his frail body gobbled up in the briny waves. […]
The loose gravel of the hiking path crunched underneath our feet as our group from my paper-flat hometown gradually scaled a tall hill in the Marin Headlands Institute. Led by a camp counselor, we were an odd assortment of tired parents Helping their bedraggled children and bedraggled children Helping their tired parents. Despite the fatigue […]
I attain for extra enchiladas and Mexican rice within the humid air of Costa Rica as all my classmates stare at me in awe. All of them surprise how I’m able to eat so many alternative meals. The day after, I feast on noodles, dumplings, and pork buns in Chinatown, and the day after that, […]