They are all rock and roll . . . as rocky, prominent, sky-defying as the cliffs hanging over the sea. I am a chill, quiet, soft melody . . . as tranquil and reserved as the whispering stream. Cliffs and streams—they both have a special place in nature. Both have beauty, strengths, weaknesses, gifts, and... Continue Reading →
Magical Singleness
I can't tell you my favorite Disney princess because I don't have one. Shoot, I can't even tell you my favorite Disney prince. But what I can tell you is my favorite part of any Disney movie: the guaranteed happily ever after. The promised riding off into the sunset with a simple, loving kiss. The... Continue Reading →
Pair of Boots
Sometimes it takes just one simple image to unfold a complex story in your mind. Like this pair of boots, for instance. Honestly, I can’t tell you much about the day I took this picture. I can only tell you what my phone tells me, which is that it was taken on Friday, November 16,... Continue Reading →
The Catechism in Chike’s School Days
In Chike’s School Days, author Chinua Achebe paints a picture of British colonialism in Nigeria during the first half of the 20th century. Chike, the main character, is the only boy in a family of five daughters. He has three names: John (Christian name), Chike (familiar name), and Obiajulu (formal name). Even though Chike... Continue Reading →
Middle Class Standards in the Play “Hedda Gabler”
Henrik Ibsen, the “father of modern drama,” centered his stories on middle-class society and its standard ideals of what a woman should be and do. Prior to Ibsen, gender stereotypes were not a new concept. Much of early literature shone a light on the expectations of a woman’s behavior and role both in her society... Continue Reading →
Taverns in “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
Material culture, according to Oxford Dictionary, is "the physical objects, such as tools, domestic articles, or religious objects, which give evidence of the type of culture developed by a society or group." In his essay "A Modest Proposal," noted satirist Jonathan Swift attacks the wide gap between the British upper class and the Irish lower... Continue Reading →
Surviving My First Semester of College
A few months ago, I was working on some assignments in one of the study rooms of my dorm when I looked out the window and decided I needed to take this picture. Most people will just see a shadow lingering across the face of the building. But I see a shadow of my past,... Continue Reading →
Northbound
Honestly, I meant to write this following idea onto paper months ago. Seeing as that my brain is about as scatterbrained as they come, however, the idea temporarily escaped my mind, slipping out the back door while high school graduation, college checklists, and scholarship applications warred for my full attention in the foyer at the... Continue Reading →
Viewing Diversity Through the Same Glasses
I knew coming into college that I would meet many people from every type of background there is. I didn’t know that I would discover how large the scope of that background is so soon. Maybe the cause for this is the activity we did at this past week’s mandatory meeting for one of the... Continue Reading →
A Sense of Normalcy
As a writer, I know that there are times when words cannot explain. They cannot describe—cannot express the story they were created to tell. One of my former classmates conveyed in one of his recent Facebook posts that regarding moving out and starting college, he didn’t “know how to feel.” At the sight of those... Continue Reading →