Looking back on life one will generally remember and relive two extremes: the joyous, blissful moments and the more disappointing moments, where one encounters failure. Failure truly challenges one's character and pushes it to the limit. It will cause change, and either make one a better person or may cause a jump off of the thin ledge of sanity...
Ukrainian superstition states that if someone sneezes while saying something, they are telling the truth. While truth and reason may not be customarily defined so arbitrarily, I believe true authenticity and identity come from an earnest faith in one’s culture. Being Ukrainian, certain values are engrained in me, ranging from silly traditions to powerful guiding principles...
I distinctly remember my first time hearing Radio Lab. It was in the spring of seventh grade and I was in the car on my way home from the bus stop. My dad was playing National Public Radio, a family favorite. While I always ignored the usual jabber about politics and the economy, that day it was about science...
Although I play volleyball year round, my anticipation for the high school season starts on August 1st each and every year. With eight girls rotating onto the court, each depending on one another to win point after point we become a family bound by our sweat, determination and sore muscles by mid-September...
On my first day at Ransom Everglades Middle School I looked around at the one hundred fifty kids in my grade, all dressed in the same uniform shorts and polo shirts, yet, no two students were alike. At that point I did not realize that seven years later I would be a senior at the high school campus on Biscayne Bay, with this same diverse group of students working towards being the type of citizens Paul Ransom envisioned when he wrote his first welcome letter to a Ransom student...
Pulling my belongings from the American delegation bus, I passed the “Welcome to Seeds of Peace: the way life could be” sign and entered bunk number seven. I was one of 150 campers from Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and the United States who had been selected to meet on the edge of Pleasant Lake in Otisfield, Maine two summers ago. It was here that I began to change my perspective on relations and conflicts that arise in life...
The events that took place on September 11, 2001 proved traumatic for Americans in every part of the country. About 3,000 deaths were recorded, including the many brave firemen who risked their lives in order to save innocent people in desperate need of help. The fatal attacks administered by nineteen trained al-Qaeda terrorists propelled American “Islamophobia” into unseen territories. American bigotry towards Muslims has become increasingly evident for the past nine years through airport security’s “random passenger checks,” and inexcusable hate crimes such as the destruction of Middle Eastern restaurants...
I live in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the United States. I always assumed that everyone lived in a place where Spanish was the first language of much of the population, and pastellitos were the most popular snack of choice. However, in eighth grade when my friend Claire, who lives in Norfolk, Virginia, came to visit me, I realized that this was not so...
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