Once I told my mother, “I don’t want to be here.” “Where do you want to be?” she asked me, frowning in concern as she scrubbed a plate at the sink. “Inside my books,” I told her, my eyes falling on my tattered paperback on the counter. When I was a kid, I found solace […]

It is almost midnight. My feet are sore, my hands are calloused, my head is pounding and the smell of The Red Parrot – food and cigarette smoke – is seeping from my body. I have just worked for 12 hours and feel 100 years old, but it is worth it. At nine years old […]

Nothing in the room moved. I looked up, stared at my friends, and looked back down at my knees. In a matter of seconds something in the room had changed. We had gone from laughing and joking to sitting in complete and utter silence. I looked up again. A quick furtive glance and then it […]

Why am I crying? I mean, I’m barely three years old – am I always expected to provide a legitimate reason? Something really bad must have happened, though, considering I’m sure I was so cheerful a couple minutes ago when the nice nurse gave me some candy. What would Blue’s Clues do in this situation? […]

Being ambivalent about my choice of religion shouldn’t ­really surprise anyone, especially when I’m still wading through the notorious teenage years of angst, when authority exists to be questioned. Nothing is set in stone, and religion is no exception. I think I have a right to be religiously ambivalent due to my family and the […]

“Kids, come downstairs. I made dinner.” I shakily make my way downstairs. The odor hits me before I even enter the kitchen. It is so pungent I stop dead in my tracks. My friends leap into their seats and dig in, but I am hesitant to sit down. I look in the bowl, and I […]

The diverse community of nations, a different language spoken on every corner, and the proximity to Washington and it’s institutions are all things that attract me to Georgetown University, but the most beautiful part of Georgetown is a learning community in the genuine pursuit of a better world. I have long ago come to the […]

Yesterday was the day when it all happened. Somehow everyone just disappeared, everyone but me. My friends, family, even my enemies are all gone, and there are no traces where they went. I’m all alone in this new deserted world, whether I want to be or not. Now I really know the meaning of one […]

“Mom is strong. She can fight this,” I said. “Right?” “She’ll fight her hardest. That’s for sure,” my dad said. And that’s exactly what she did. My mom’s strength and integrity is what I admired the most about her. And they are the traits I wanted and needed as a 13-year-old watching her go through […]

He’s still there. I have had someone following me for ten years. Every time I look over my shoulder, he isn’t far behind. The more I learn more about him, the scarier he looks and the more uncomfortable I feel around him. As I age, he ages, too. I can see the maturity in his […]