Essay

Yesterday I started school, remotely. It was different having to go online and not be in school seeing everybody. I'm used to walking in seeing all my old teachers, new teachers and my friends.
This year is going to be much different.

School is coming and everyone is suddenly busy. Wrap up the summer homework, stroll through Target’s Back To School section and check the school roster. Summer is gone, along with the lazy mornings and late wake-up times.

I had the opportunity to visit Sternberg in the Swabian Alps, just a short drive away from where my sister lives. She and her mother took me on an adventure through the greenery of the charming mountains.

Our brains are sculpted by the eras and cultures in which they were formed, therefore we have vastly different ways of processing contemporary experience.

We are complex. We are amalgamations of our circumstances, genetics, and history. Our perspective is sculpted by myriad factors.

            Since the end of the Civil War and start of the Reconstruction era in 1865, our world has struggled to bring peace, justice, and freedom for all Americans.

My entire writing inspiration came from so many different people and characters. Probably the first that comes to my mind is Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes. I know, weird, but...

How can you? 

"Mama said, 'you're a pretty girl
What's in your head, it doesn't matter
Brush your hair, fix your teeth
What you wear, is all that matters.'"
- Beyonce, Pretty Hurts

I’ve never really understood why people treated others differently based on the color of their skin. No one deserves to be hurt or abused because of something they can’t control.

It’s difficult to read “Six of Crows” without thinking of the movies — bated breath in the darkness, the rush of your heartbeat thudding in your ears, the comical wide eyes as the protagonist shimmies down a vault with a stolen crown of glittering ru