Over the years, I have lost many friends and nearly lost family members because of gang violence. I have been to a few funerals of friends who were shot and killed simply because of where they live. Some of my others friends have been shot, but thankfully survived. Gang violence has an especially big impact […]
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Only 21 out of 50 states require students to attend high school until they graduate or turn 18. I believe all states should require students to attend high school. What I have noticed from loved ones and the people around me is that those who feel like they have an option to attend or not […]
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A few years ago, my mother and I were talking to a very concerned neighbor who had come to us for animal advice. Our neighbor and her family wanted very badly to adopt a pet—a dog to be specific—but were having trouble finding the right match. She’d been to numerous websites, she told us, but […]
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BOOM!!! went the gun that almost killed my dad in Afghanistan. People may not realize how many military people risk their lives every day. Military people go into war to protect you and your family. They know they might get shot, lose their limbs, die or have mental issues as a result of war. My […]
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Brothers face one another on the battlefield, each garbed with a uniform. A uniform consisting of different patterns; different patterns of the same colors. The colors of one family, the colors of one nation. Glaring with eyes of steel, they are blinded by material objects. Beating with hearts of stone, they harbor grievances of the […]
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The hours had stacked up like plastic cups; countless hours had passed waiting in the airport after the ten-hour delay, and ten hours in the plane itself, during which I practiced my broken Spanish in my head. My brain would not stop having conversations with itself. I had just wished that my inner Latin American […]
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My parents fled the war turmoil in Eritrea, to seek a better life for our family. As a child I heard of the world’s superpowers and wondered what they must be like. At this early age I could not imagine what made other places so great. Later on as a student I learned about the […]
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My mother is a single parent and my sister, mom and I all live together. Even though my mom is alone with the two of us, she finds a way to provide us with the things we need at the end of the day. She works later hours sometimes at night. On nights like that […]
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What is someone that speaks two languages? Bilingual. What is someone that speaks many languages? A polyglot. What is someone that only speaks one language? Thus begins the joke that a teacher once told me. While I giggled at this joke, as time has gone on, jokes such as these have only made me feel […]
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We rode a small boat on that scorching day with an even smaller motor. The cool water sprayed my face as we passed scenery like I had never seen before. The forest played with my senses as our boat’s passengers marveled at the exotic life surrounding us. We passed villages, birds and trees that seemed […]
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I was born in the Bronx section of New York to parents who are only vague memories to me now. When I was about two or three years old my biological father and mother divorced and my biological mother took me to Korea, my “homeland.” For two years, I lived in a one-room house with […]
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For now my parents monitor my computer usage but soon I will be old enough to have my own Facebook and YouTube accounts. Many of my friends already have their own. Although it’s cool to read updates and see new things, I know that bullying online is a real problem. From my research, no school […]
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