Reading used to be a simple leisure activity that I took for granted. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon articles about banned books on the Internet that I realized some people actually want to take away the pleasure and freedom of reading. Even a writer for the Wall Street Journal has claimed that young adult books such as Go Ask Alice are too dark and pessimistic for teenagers to tolerate. However, by discussing controversial issues, banned books assist adolescents...

Even as I devoured Unwind, a dystopian novel by Neal Shusterman, the premise simultaneously shocked and disgusted me. After a second Civil War over abortion, both pro-choice and pro-life sides agreed that any teenager could be legally “unwound” by a parent or guardian, or have his body surgically taken apart limb by limb, organ by organ, and transplanted into another person. In a world of crumbling morals, adolescents who sought to escape unwinding became instant criminals while unwanted infants were...

I'm a French major, but I'm betraying my major for my English/writing minor and saying that my favorite courses were Advanced Expository Writing and Feature Writing. I took the classes...

Being a little apathetic about my college choices, I never really did any research on Randolph-Macon College. Sure, I knew it was a small school, but that was about it. I didn’t even tour it, didn’t...

I don’t remember if this happened before or after I was deferred to UVA, William and Mary, and VCU, but I did send in additional material. In the late winter/early...

Two months after R-MC accepted me, I went to the campus to interview for a chance at a Presidential Scholarship. They’d accepted me on early action, but I hadn’t accepted yet, wanting to see what other schools accepted me before I made a decision. They invited students and parents, but inevitably...

A lot of people have their heart set on a certain school, but I was weird. I honestly had no idea where I wanted to go. I applied to the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Randolph-Macon College. Of those four schools, I didn’t particularly care where I went, as long as it wasn�...