For a Straightened Spine I am a worrier. I spend hours filling my mind with endless possibilities of what could go wrong. Maybe the outfit I planned for tomorrow won’t be worn because of a sudden weather change, maybe I’ll forget my homework at home and get a zero, and [...]
The Hands I Grew Up With The hands I grew up holding were not soft, manicured hands that spent their days at rest. The hands I grew up with were rough, calloused: working hands. Walking through the park one afternoon--when I was three or so--my tiny hand encased in the [...]
My Sacrifice I gazed down at the bottom of the pool and focused on my stroke. As I came up for air, I could see my coach waving her arms in a frantic manner, gesturing for me to speed up my pace. It was my meet last of the season, [...]
Without Tears Thirteen years; seems like quite a long time, doesn’t it? Well over a decade, and if counted from birth, takes up most of your childhood life; yes thirteen years can be seen as a substantial amount of time-- a lengthy period of life. Well, at least until it’s [...]
I Am No Olympian This was it, finally. The sun was glaring down at me, beating me with its endless, Apollo-worthy electromagnetic hammer of brightness. Sweat flowed down my face like jubilant magma flowing from a cryptodomic volcano. The dust from the track rose around me like an army [...]
Rise Above Fashion It was an early Friday morning, a day planned to be one of the most rewarding for Joshua Woods because he would finally get his hands on those Nike Air Jordan XI ‘Bred’ sneakers. It began as a simple trip to Willowbrook Mall with his friend; they [...]
My Home I used to be furious at the advertisement that represented Ethiopia as a grimy boy begging for food; on the summer of 2011, when my mother, my younger sister and I flew to Ethiopia to visit family, I understood its accuracy. Although that unparalleled interdependence between the citizens [...]
Headstrong and Passionate One of the traits that I value highly in myself is my ability to make my decisions, no matter how much pressure I face. I have never been able to let others choose what is best for me. Throughout my entire childhood, I have found this aspect [...]
My Origins I can remember everything as far back as preschool—when life was as simple as the colored building blocks I used to play with, and when stress and sleep deprivation weren’t even factors that came into play. The world I come from is a planet like everyone else’s but [...]