It takes a little effort to get up here. First I have to check to make sure the superintendent isn’t around (since I’m not really supposed to be up here). After the excruciating job of walking up five flights of steep steps, I get to the large metal door. After a nudge and a push, […]

The school was not formal, or exclusive, or neat; it was knowledge’s humble house. We passed under the archway, and the humidity outside gave way to a sea of eyes, observing the foreign visitors. When a voice in the back shouted “Gringo!” the room erupted in laughter. I nervously grinned and crossed the room. Taking […]

Bright lights, high ceilings, gold sculptures, light-up fountains, marble floors, Persian rugs. A plethora of people; women swanning their elegant evening gowns and men sporting their tailored suits – waiting. Waiting for the doors of the theatre in the MGM Grand to open. The performance was going to be a magic show – a night […]

“Sweetie, go grab me my teeth will ya?” Granny yelled. I visited Jean, my great grandmother, every single day when I was staying with my grandmother in Illinois for two weeks. My grandmother urged me to go spend time with her, but to be honest, my idea of a good time in Illinois wasn’t to […]

For years, my dad has implemented three rules: 1) We cannot have a TV. 2) In the winter, the house must be 60°F; in the summer, the AC cannot be turned on unless it’s 100°F, at which point my dad diagnoses the thermometer as broken. 3) I cannot get my driver’s license until I graduate […]

Everyone has his or her own struggles to deal with, which is why I don’t really like to talk about mine. However, the struggles I had did indeed help shape me as an individual. When I was younger, I was very quiet and reserved—exactly the opposite of how I am now. Due to this trait, […]

They were storming the castle – the enemy were dressed in a disguise and armed with little colorful rocks, that if they made their way into your mouth, they would rot you from the inside-out. While they slowly crept towards me in a swaying motion, I knew I had only one option. I ripped through […]

I was once told by my parents that there were no such things as ghosts. It didn’t take me long to see otherwise. When I was eight years old, I visited the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) for the first time while on a field trip with my elementary school. Since my sense of direction […]

I was aware instantly that I had been changed. My bodywas paralyzed with excitement and my eyes frozen with amazement as I focused onthe objects in front of me. It is rare that an experience so powerfuloccurs at age three, but my path in life was chosen before I could tie my ownshoes. My first […]

A watershed Election is one that changes history. The candidate has a campaign that decides the course of politics for decades; one that is especially memorable, or that proves to be a dividing line between historical periods. The election of 1896 was just that. The depression of the 1 8905, and President Cleveland unwillingness to […]