When I wanted to audition for American Idol, I had to write a song to ask my parents if I could do it because I saw no other way to go about it. There’s something about an arrangement of chords and melodies that shelter you enough to where you don’t feel so bare (or make what seems ridiculous sound sensible.) I’ve written songs about doubt, goodbyes, failed drivers tests, breast reductions, and yes, even being rejected from...

Recently, I've come to consider myself more of a journalist than a politician. I seek balance to a default (something I have always been aware of but at times never fully understood.) Whenever I'm in a room with a high concentration of one side of a spectrum (whether it be politics, religion, socioeconomic class, or even musical taste), my body tenses up with a desperation and hope for equilibrium. There could be multiple reasons for this. I grew up in...

All my life, I have gone to two churches: Lutheran (which my dad belongs to) one week and Church of Christ (which my mom belongs to) the other. Most people wonder how my parents make it work since the two denominations appear to be so different, but I have always tried to focus on their commonalities rather than what divides them (they are both Christian denominations after all.) While I’m grateful that this arrangement helped shape me into a...

What movie would you star in? If I could be in any movie, I would have to travel back in time over sixty years to 1953 Rome. I was nine when I first watched Roman Holiday on a borrowed VHS tape from my grandma (this was before my sister decided to stuff varieties of food and Play-Doh into our VHS player- leaving my family’s pile of treasured VHS tapes to collect dust.) It was the first movie I saw starring...