What is left of someone when they lose their innocence? This is a question both S. E. Hinton, the author of The Outsiders, and Stevie Wonder, the writer of “Stay Gold,” touch upon in two different yet connected pieces. The Outsiders opens with the jumping and beating up of the main character, Ponyboy Curtis, which […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
I anxiously wait as the number seven button turns to red and the elevator doors close and take me into a place where two worlds will intertwine. The duffle bags filled with clothing and toiletry items for my brother become cumbersome in my trembling hands and gradually slip to my fingertips, but somehow remain dangling. […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
Meet John: Number one in the senior class. National Honor Society president. Perfect scorer on the ACT. If I tie for third in the Poetry Slam, he places second. If I set a personal record in cross-country, he’s team MVP. It’s always the same story: In the world of transcripts and awards ceremonies, I am […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
“You’re cut.” These words hit me as if I were frozen in her path. Was she serious? What am I supposed to do now? It took time to sink in. I was confused. I’ve been on varsity for two years, and now I’m cut? I realized something other than volleyball needed to take control. Until […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
Have you ever felt scrutinized to the point where you lose all self-confidence and that why this is the most crucial turning point in my life. It happened after my freshman year in high school. It was right around the beginning of the summer, I was so excited to get out of Imperial for a […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
Since I was first able to talk, I have heard about the “Golden Rule”. I have constantly been playing recreational sports since I was four years old, and one of the coaches’ rules was always “treat others the way you want to be treated”. When I got a little older, my dad expanded that to […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
I do not believe in personal statements. Nothing I am can be summed up in the space of two hundred to seven hundred words. No one person can be. And what are we, really, those of us beating our brains against the walls to impress boards of people we’ve never even seen? Nothing but young. […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
I sat alone amongst strangers and tired faces in a small, windowless room, anxious for the meeting to begin. The florescent lighting beat down upon me, making my skin look sickly and the lemon pastries before me seem unappetizing. I questioned my decision to come and be a part of this weekly discussion, but as […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
After seventh grade, I learned I would be transferring to a small school settled across the street from one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in the United States. How fitting. The gloomy and eerie atmosphere of the cemetery was an implication of the foredoom I’d face inside the building. Initially, I wondered why all […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
The lights shone from the ceiling, the air was cold and still. I was so nervous I couldn’t hear anything but my own breath, not even the thunderous clapping coming from the near distance. Then the audience became silent, as if they were holding their breath. I had to hold myself together, despite my thumping […]
Date: January 1st, 1970
