Growing up I never paid much mind to the oddities of my family. It was normal having two parents with different skin tones and hair types. I was always blended within a family of different cultures...

“Mom!??! Where are you?? I’m going to be late!!” January 25th, the day where I had to be in two places at the same time. My CVHS dance team had a competition and my Ruff Ryder dance team having...

I slump back in my chair, my face buried in my hands as the cacophony of voices rises around me. My parents, aunts and uncles were in a strenuous wrestle of words over who would pay the bill. Once again,...

There was a fateful day in my pre-teen years, hanging in a limbo between adolescence and pure, innocent youth – the day I first locked eyes with my mother’s porcelain doll. I was smitten. She was beautiful....

Being a single kid in a family of working parents, the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on me psychologically. Online studies and losing personal contact with my friends led to anxiety and low self-esteem,...

The last day of school before winter break always meant one thing: Chuck E. Cheese. It was tradition. My grandpa would pick up my siblings and me, and we’d spend the afternoon lost in flashing lights,...

Being a creative person has always been one of the most essential parts of my identity. Whether it is through my love of sketching in my sketchbook or teaching myself how to sew and crochet. From a young...

We’ve all been there. Rotting in bed on a Saturday night, doom scrolling through Instagram, watching everyone seeming to have the time of their lives out with their friends. Wishing that you could be...

Coming from a lower-middle-class household has always been a part of my life and my identity. It’s like playing a constant game of catch-up that I’ll never win. I might think for a second that I’m...

"One, two, three…" I counted until my vision blackened and I slipped into a deep anesthesia-induced slumber. In the hours that followed, I wouldn’t feel or see anything, yet I would awoke as a...

The summer after junior year was the hottest one I can remember. Each and every day that month, the sun beat down mercilessly, turning Mama’s Ultraviolet flower bushes into depressed piles of dead...