My problem has always been that I have too much to say. While other babies stumbled over “dada” or “uppy”, my parents tell me, I uttered not a first word, but a first paragraph. I outtalk my cell phone minutes practically every month; thank god my best friend has the same network as I do. […]

“You’re in for an engrossing lesson today!” says Nida Yildiz in an ominous voice, as we shuffle into our seats. The Helpant teacher hesitantly places scalpels into the trays already on our desks. “We’re dissecting something, aren’t we?” my best friend Deniz says, her face already turning multiple shades of green. Mrs. Yildiz, my biology […]

Stepping onto that grey marley dance floor was like landing on another planet. To my left, there’s a seventyish woman in a thong leotard. She is a cross between Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and one of those dancehall hostesses from Sweet Charity. To my right is an even older man […]

She was wearing red. No, it was white. Yes, a white blouse with subtle lace detailing at the collar. She hid behind a newspaper with her glasses on the tip of her nose. We could tell she was reading the comic section because a gentle smirk rested on her face. Her name was Mrs. Morrison, […]

I think I’m crazy. Sane people don’t do something that could potentially kill them unless they’re crazy. To put myself out there and to talk to strangers was almost like asking for a death sentence. I wasn’t one to talk to strangers. I mean, it’s the first rule you learn as a child. I honestly […]

All I remembered about the house was it smelled funny. It wasn’t a good sort offunny, like grandma’s perfume or a musty basement, but a different sort. I wasstill undecided whether I liked the pungent smell of mothballs, fish and mustysalt spray that filled my grandparents’ summer home on the Maine coast. Butnearly 13 years […]

I failed. Yes, I am a part of the 26.2 percent of teenagers who on average fail their first time. I am going to be honest and say that it was quite possibly the worst experience of my entire life. Most people say, “Oh I hate the DMV!” or “It’s okay everyone fails their first […]

Obesity is a bigger social issue than more people would like to think. The United States of America is the one country in the world, where our people living in poverty are either overweight or obese. This disease is killing people, and it will become more rampant in this country if we don’t do something. […]

Throughout their lives, people accumulate experienceswhich shape them. These experiences lead many to hold contrasting views and topractice disparate ideologies. Differences can be healthy; people can learn fromeach other in spite of their differences. A major change in my life blessed mewith the knowledge and understanding of two vastly dissimilar subcultures ofAmerica. It is necessary […]

At 7 years old I had my heart set on becoming a hairdresser. Like many 7-year-old girls, I had experimented on the unfortunate plastic heads of Barbie dolls, streaking their platinum blond locks with food coloring and hacking off clumps with safety scissors. I thought myself quite the stylist. Looking back, I should have taken […]