Dear Mom,
Sometimes, I enjoy closing my eyes and simply listening to your sighs and the occasional sizzle of the pan as crisp shallots meander their way into the crackling pool of oil. The little noises in life; even the soft clucking of your tongue as you write checks to the bank, are songs to me. Some people think that I'm crazy, but what these people don't understand is that the obsession with music derives entirely from your six o'clock cello lessons.
It's definitely not the color

Society weighs us down with its norms, or rather with what path it wishes us to take. With a surprisingly strong gravitational pull towards college, more and more eighteen and nineteen-year-olds are finding themselves straying down the yellow brick road in pursuit of something slightly different than a wizard: a higher education. Man's quest for knowledge has been the only thing keeping the world spinning on it's axis since the time Eve picked the fruit from the garden of Eden. Yet, what happen

Every day more and more immigrants, legal and otherwise, pour into the United States of America. The immigrants are from places such as Asia, Central America, South America, Europe, the Caribbean and Canada, but most are from our Southern border of Mexico. Even though some people come to America legally, many cross the United States borders and are classified as undocumented and illegal immigrants.
America’s governmental system helps provide for those in need, and often these illegal i

From a failed revolutionary leader to a beloved president of the people, Hugo Chavez remains as the most renowned South American leader of the modern era. Chavez’s ruthless Chavism tactics, his modified version of socialism, sculpted the modern Venezuela. Ultimately succumbing to a cancer-riddled death, his departure creates great uncertainty for both the United States and other world powers. Why does his death matter to a collage or high school student? Oil is why. Venezuela possesse

For a minute, imagine being a teenager and having to go to a completely different country for one entire year, a country where no one speaks your native language because of which you have to speak your second language all the time in order to communicate with everyone. Again, a completely different school with all new and unfamiliar faces, and trying to remember everybody’s names that are not even similar to the names of the people in your country. Living with a host family you have never

It seems like everybody has been talking about North Korea, but there has been good reason for it. If we were to go to war with North Korea, many people would be extremely angry because, after all, we have yet to finish our other wars. Now, coming from a soldier’s viewpoint, yet another war could be both good and bad. It could be good because that’s how we earn our pay, by fighting; however it could also be bad because there will be troops who die. Personally, I don’t think we would necessarily

There are hundreds of important news stories out there about current national and international conflicts. People are arguing over legalizing gay marriage, worried about the issues with North Korea, and fighting for Americans to be able to keep their gun rights. A huge topic that I believe a lot of people aren't paying much attention to is the cutbacks that are likely to take place involving Social Security. With everything that’s going on in the world, this story is one that seems to b

Going to college has always been in the plans for me. My family started saving money when I was just a baby, on top of that I would get the constant reminders to make good grades in school so that I could get into a good college. Because of this I felt that I was prepared for my future college life. That was until I actually got to the stage of life where I would be preparing for college. Not only is there lots of paper work and confusing forms to be done but there is the issue of money, schola

Moving on in life and having the responsibility of me is just too much to handle some times. Thinking ahead and planning what I’m going to have to do the rest of my life and all the responsibility that comes with being an adult is overwhelming. Thinking of how I’m going to earn the money to go out on my own and have to buy a car and eventually a house. All the time it’s going to have to take to get and good enough education to be able to support myself until I start a family and then have to he

Everyone has a time in their life when they feel like they can be fearless. Usually these are the times that are the most memorable, good or bad. I remember back in eighth grade I thought that I could do whatever I want and I realized I was wrong. I was always the nice smart kid that everyone liked. That all changed once I started hanging out with the wrong people. Now these "friends" made me feel fearless and I never noticed how much I was changing in just months. So, I was alone at the time