Penelope, the first donkey born with long ears, propelled herself towards a lucrative career as herd president, forever modifying the humble species. At nine, this was the short story I devised about how donkeys evolved to have long ears. My naive understanding of genetic heritability and politics apart, I still feel attached to Penelope. She grew into herself with something I desperately lacked: moxie. I was the shy kid terrified to ask the waitress for water, the perpetual new girl...

I become a play-frame as Little Tiger climbs onto my shoulders. He pulls my hair lightly to balance himself and holds his grip to feel its texture. "Do they have escalators in McDonald's?" He asks eagerly. "Have you been in an elevator?" I start to answer but he cuts me off, louder than before, "Do they have escalators in elevators?" He asks me this every time. He requests my hand to help him get down and commands me to tell...

Punks in 80's Cuba injected themselves with HIV in protest of a restrictive government and, ironically, for self-preservation. This phenomenon was the focus of my Higher Level IB History internal assessment, examining how Cuban politics, social policies, and international context lead to such a movement. It ended up becoming my favorite academic project to date. Politics has always been significant to me; from covering the recent U.S. Presidential election for various student magazines, and devouring every documentary Youtube has...

My father passed away last Wednesday; a man of +40 years of tireless humanitarian work and an extensive global footprint was gone in a nefarious incident that sent a woman to jail and left me equally devastated and conflicted. Although certainly not an original sentiment, my relationship with my father was not without its complications- my parents recently separated and he left to the Philippines. Nevertheless, the last week was the most draining and testing of my life. Happening just before...