The image out of the window was a familiar one; I have seen this snow covered scenery before. The ride to Minneapolis has seemingly shortened now that it is my sixth year visiting. An uncertain knot develops in my stomach because this is the weekend I’m hoping my hard work will pay off. It is […]

“No matter how much it hurts, is it worth losing me?” The question hangs in the air as I think about the needles and IVs. I stare into her deep, slightly squinty chestnut eyes. I want to scream, “nothing is worth losing you,” but my stubborn side doesn’t let me. I turn to look out […]

I remember vividly my first real bolt of inspiration. I’m six years old and convinced that ballet is too technical. I prefer chocolate. Suddenly, the golden afternoon light fills the mirror just so, and for one moment, I see a ballerina. Awe rushes through me, and a ballerina becomes the most beautiful thing in the […]

“Isabelle, come party with us!” As a sixteen-year-old, peer pressure can be dangerous. But I’m thankful for what I’ve seen within my friends and family. It keeps me away from drugs. As my friends and I grew up, some achieved high grades while other achieved a different kind of high. As for me, I started […]

One of the most peaceful times in a four-year-old’s life, as well as their parents, includes nap time. My parents always made sure that my sister, Kelly, and I had a sufficient amount of sleep during the day. Once we fell asleep, they became almost inaudible throughout our down time. This typically occurred anyways until […]

I sit in the dimmed auditorium of my high school, peering up at the students on the stage with a boulder in my stomach. Clutching the three pages of my poem in my sweaty palms, I tell myself that I can do this. I have read this poem before, probably several hundred times. I have […]

Dressed upin my Halloween costume a week, before it was even Halloween my five-year-old self ready to leave for a concert. This was my first concert. We drove downtown to the Denver Performing Arts Center; everywhere I looked I saw people in Halloween costumes flocking towards the Boettcher Concert Hall, where the Colorado Symphony was […]

The media is revolutionary. In less than a century, it conquered our Planet successfully, never reaching a peak, always improving for the better, making the rise of its “empire” a scandal. The internet is a medium that has changed our lives ever since it was invented. Just like its predecessors, it wasn’t warmly welcomed by […]

Staring dejectedly at the still-empty text box before me, I shake my head in frustration. Yet another “About Me” section to fill out – yet another surge of uncertainty. What can I write that will make me sound confident, but not pretentious? Will people think I have self-esteem problems if I utilize self-deprecating humor? Will […]

It would be impressive to say that my most influential person was Gandhi or Mother Teresa. I could write a horrific, yet striking essay about Adolf Hitler’s leadership skills. I could tell you that my life was changed by the words of Dickinson, Shakespeare, or Thoreau. It might be moving to hear of a quaint […]