This prompt is haunting me. The words echo in my sleep, resonate as I sing in the shower, and glare from the brightness of my screen. It lurks in the back of my mind daily with an endless stream of questions: What do I write? Is this too risky?

“Renew yourself.” I had written this on a stone I flung into Saint Joseph’s Lake during my time at the Notre Dame Leadership Seminars. What I experienced then was undeniably an aura of intellectual vitality which consumed the campus. I look forward to sharing in the curiosities of Domers from all walks of life and all corners of the globe. Unique to Notre Dame, the summation of mind, body and spirit is a collective adventure. Even though I will...

...I view my ceaseless commitment to volunteerism as compared to the infinite array of wavelengths of hues. Such actions of even minute magnitude, done to contribute to the society beyond self, articulate that small steps enact immense change, equivalent to how the human range of vision can detect intense, and even faint, eminences of colors. I am embodied with the virtue of selfless giving by my parents' support for family in Vietnam, thus I additionally devote myself to helping by...

...My compass spins wildly, immersed in the breadth of ample sources of learning. As I understand, the classroom does not confine intellectual and academic interests-the essence of learning. Almost three centuries of history accompany Penn, but with the lively city of Philadelphia as its backyard, I will never run out of opportunities to learn from the books as well as the community on and off campus. To engage with Philadelphia, I look forward to participating in the Civic House Program,...

“You don’t have a social security number, right?” The receptionist at the optometrist’s office leered at me from her desk. Boy, do we still have a long way to go for racial equality. America is a melting pot of ethnicities, but prejudices are still at large. As a minority, I’ve been thrown countless remarks questioning my citizenship. However, my experiences with these tensions are superficial compared to my parents’. Returning from a family trip to Vietnam, my...

I am a proud member of a creative network of oatmeal enthusiasts. Every morning, I craft a concoction of oats and peruse related Instagram hashtags. Varieties of oat pancakes, oat-flour crepes, baked and overnight oatmeal adorn my phone screen. No longer is it a bland slop of mushy grain; the base is a canvas to paint my day upon. Cinnamon to spice up boring days, fruits to energize for exciting events and honey to sweeten up a sour mood. Oats...

HOBY Week: the only week when it is acceptable (and fun) to function on five hours of sleep every night. When my school delegated me to attend the Leadership Conference my sophomore year, I never thought that I would occupy all my free time with service projects and return year-after-year to obnoxious chants. If someone had told me that I would cheer at the top of my lungs at the State Capitol about burritos or bombard sophomore HOBY ambassadors with...