“One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty, until you try.” I couldn’t agree more with this quote by Sophocles, especially after an experience that I recently had. Walking through our nation’s capital with my family, I couldn’t help but notice the number of homeless […]
KAT: It’s back. A moment of silence. My heart slowly starts to beat again, as if hesitant to resume its normal function. My head feels like it’s swimming as my eyes become lights over a stage, narrowing to one spot: cancer. Time wasn’t an object anymore. ME: I can be over in 10 if you […]
My palms began sweating as I looked at the homework board. It read like a danger sign posted in the front of a condemned building. “COLLEGE ESSAYS DUE SEPTEMBER 27.” Panic set in. I have never written anything about myself before. Where do I even start? I had no idea, and time was quickly running […]
“So if you’re Puerto Rican, why do you look so white?” Ryan blurted out. “She’s so not Puerto Rican. Her last name is Russian!” My Spanish teacher turned bright red, and all eyes locked on me, waiting for an answer. She started to speak, but I stood up out of my chair, opening my mouth […]
It’s a story. Not a simple one. Not an attractive one. But, it’s my story. I think I should tell it. But with the story comes a problem. No matter the details I use, the expertise I put behind my words, there is a risk of making it just a story. It’s not just a […]
“Shut up, Dette.” That was the final I noticed of that individual earlier than the massive funeral. As I stood within the cemetery, I appeared on the wreath that I used to be holding. “Dette, the man by no means actually appreciated you, so why trouble?” I believed to myself. I had no reply to […]
“When I read, I’m taken away,” my eight-year-old hand scripted in an early attempt at poetry. It is true that, as with Sara Crewe, The Little Princess with a big imagination, most of my seventeen years have been spent somewhere other than the world inhabited by my contemporaries. However, far from living another’s story, I […]
“I’m not okay!” This track screams self doubt and insecurity, proper? I giggle in pure amazement as my ideas shifted gears and a hyperactive but delicate sound tumbled out of my audio system. The electrical guitar carried an untainted melody whereas balancing a grunge rhythm. The emotion within the lead singer’s voice uncovered a way […]
“Los Angeles is becoming the great world city of this still new millennium, the place where the promise and peril of the modern world live most intensely. Ours is the most diverse city in the history of the planet. Groups – ethnic, religious, professional – must here learn to think beyond themselves and grow responsible […]
The Life of a Spectator I grew. I grew up out of the mud and into the daylight, the air, the land. I sprouted leaves and buds; my roots grew deep. I knew the names of the flowers beside me, and will establish the calls of the birds. I used to be transplanted at some […]