- (Photo Courtesy of Sarah Kilian via Unsplash)
Have you ever sighed deeply after a mistake or mishap and said to yourself, “If only I knew,” or “I wish someone could have told me…”? Well, I did. As...
I took a deep breath and gave away my dance shoes. It was a bittersweet moment. It felt like admitting defeat and releasing pressure on myself at the same time....
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Daphne Kasriel
- Photo courtesy of Daphne Kasriel
As I find myself in a very difficult time in Israel, where I live, this is a deliberately slow-paced ode to my journey to Ithaka....
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Elizabeth Fields
- 2024 is a record global election year, with elections in every highlighted country.
Whew, 2024 is a whirlwind election year. With over 64 countries voting, few places are untouched by political discussion. Every adult I know in the US has a political opinion...
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Laura Rodríguez-Davis
- Photo courtesy of Project Play
When thinking about services for refugees and displaced people, we often consider food, clothing, shelter, and medical aid. Rarely do we think about play. Yet, “Play is essential for children’s...
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Abdelwahed
- (Photo Courtesy of Rodrigo via Pexels)
I obtained a master’s degree in environmental science, the crowning climax of my educational saga. However, with 2020 blindsiding us with the COVID-19 pandemic, what should have been my golden...
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Julianna Wages
- Photo Courtesy of Johannes Plenio via StockSnap
Approaching the coast of the North Carolina Outer Banks, Ray slowed the sailboat to a stop, reeled in the sails with the main halyard, and tossed the anchor overboard. The...
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Veronica Kwong
- Photo courtesy of Unsplash
After my first Chinese lesson as an adult, I called my Grandma to tell her what I had learned. I speak my mother’s language — the language of the country...
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Christiina Gochnauer
- Photo courtesy of Kenneth Surillo via Pexels
I’ve thought about The way the wind would whip my hair Away from my face just seconds before I find my end there On the rocks below Before your very...
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Rania Mansour
- Photo courtesy of Alex Ivashenko via Unsplash
It’s hard feeling depressed. And it's really hard to be a depressed mother. It takes a lot of effort to get up in the morning and much more effort to...
- Photo by Mings 小銘 on Unsplash
On the rooftop terrace, we talked about traveling; things like finding stylish and affordable accommodation through online searches, riding bicycles around small towns usually missed by annoying crowds of tourists,...
- Photo Courtesy of lil artsy via Pexels
The echo of heels and dress and shoes, fills the silence outside my room. I will meet the doctor tomorrow....
- Photo courtesy of Jay Lau
"When 20 people showed up at our 0.3 acre property during the 2020 COVID lockdown, I thought it was the best thing that ever happened to us," said founder Jay...
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Brooklyn Riepma
- (Photo courtesy of Glambeau Design via Pexels)
As years go by, I spend more and more time making memories in my grandma’s kitchen. It took me a long time to realize that food is how she shows...
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Luis Amaya
- Photo Courtesy of lisaleo via MorgueFile
It was a hot day in the Colorado oil fields. The hottest day of the year. Robert stood on the platform of the new oil drill his company had just...
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Hichem Benkessirat
- Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash
The morning of the first Tuesday of December, I was staying at my uncle's house because, until the night before, we had had a very unstable week. Otherwise, I'm not...
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Ver Hoet
- Photo courtesy of J J Jordan Photography via Pexels
A vision of seduction, a slim waist, Her fit physique an invitation, To explore the longings your heart craves, Her energy is your new fixation....
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Shannah Ford
- Photo courtesy of klk13 via MorgueFile
We walked quietly, my brother and I, our footfalls barely audible through the serried leaves, even to us. We were deep in the Kiamichi Mountains, seemingly away from civilization. Better...
- Photo courtesy of Ekaterina Astakhova via Pexels
When you discover a secret, you have two options. I say “discover” because a secret is not made to be found out, except only by accident. I say “when” because...
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Ijaz Ahmad
- Photo courtesy of Ayush Srivastava
I’ve been in the telecoms field for the last 20 years and writing for the last five. During my professional life, I have sat through multiple job interviews, all held...
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Solomon Esther Imoleayo
- Photo courtesy of quicksandala via MorgueFile
"You are so talented and smart. The dexterity in your work is astonishing. You, my dear, are going to be a star." These were my mother's words to me as...
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Lukman Yusuf Alabi
- (Photo courtesy of Joy Tyson, photography via Unsplash)
You are not alone, I am just as confused as you are. My life hasn't always been the way I wanted it to be. I hated business studies in my...
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Eric Mabry
- Photo courtesy of Eric Mabry
Two passports. Two last names. Two identities. From a very early age, my life has been characterized by how I am half-American and half-Japanese. In elementary school, my mom tried...
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Global Citizen
- Photo by Sam Quek on Unsplash
I was at Primrose Hill, in Camden, London at the time of 16-year-old Harry Pittman’s murder on New Year’s Eve last week....
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S.
- Photo courtesy of Amine M'siouri via Pexels
I wish that I was traumatized like people in movies are traumatized I wish that other people could escape into my sad story to hide from their own I wish...
- (Unsplash/Microsoft 365)
‘Life is full of ups and downs,’ we have all heard this....
- Photo courtesy of amcs via MorgueFile
Seas. Escapades. Journeys. These are the things one lives for. These are the things that Melissa Jennings’s mother wanted her to strive for. When she did, she found herself in...
- Photo by arda tutkun on Unsplash
Sifting through multitudes of strangers, Longing for a familiar face, a smiling acceptance, An existence away from home, Calls for a course correction, isn’t it?...
- (All images courtesy of Viviana De Cecco unless otherwise stated below the picture)
The world moves on, times change, and technology continues to invade our lives. Yet every year, as Christmas approaches, I open the “box of memories” where I keep not only...
- Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash
some days are tidal waves knocking me breathless i gasp for air that won't fill my lungs drowning in the waters of worry...
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Laura Rodríguez-Davis
- Photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash
An experienced immigrant, da Penha personally understands the challenges faced by migrant women. Native to Brazil, she has also lived in Portugal, Italy, and Cape Verde before settling in her...
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Elijah Schade
- Photo courtesy of StockSnap
Emile scowled theatrically at the mirror. His imagination ran wild with unearned pride. That’s how I’ll look, he thought. That’s how I’ll look when I march up to receive that...
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Enoch A. Ojotisa
- Image courtesy of Enoch
Many, at times, think we see a ray of hope to comfort our emotions and whittle down the volcanic cloud of our sadness. But unfortunately, our sense of love and...
- (Photo courtesy of Andrik Langfield via Unsplash)
Society doesn’t like people like me, like you. Do you ever find yourself caught in the worry that your diverse passions could lead to confusion in people around you? Your...
- Image courtesy of Thainá *in the picture is written "can't stand the unbearable"
my mind always thinks it's a competition, between me and my intuition, repeating over and over lies I can't deny, but on them, I rely....
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Ricardo Santillan
- (Image courtesy of Maka Forest Villa)
He hears them. They speak to him constantly. No, not in his head. The voices speak to him in the breeze, the creeks, the leaves, the rocks, the soil, and...
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Tanvi Sethi
- Photo by Marie-Ève Beaulieu via Pexels
What's a good picture for you? mine is the one in which I’m the happiest. it’s fascinating how the parts of us that we don’t appreciate enough are the parts...
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Belén de Dios
- (Image courtesy of Belén de Dios)
Have you ever traveled in your mind? Because I did, and it was life-changing....
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Francis Nantha
- Photo courtesy of lorettaflame via MorgueFile
By the time she was nine, Chloe was well on her way to becoming a really, really spoiled brat. As an only child, she got her way with almost everything....
- Photo courtesy of Nargiz Mammadzada
I am Nargiz Mammadzada, a young woman who moved from Azerbaijan to Poland at the age of 23 during the COVID pandemic’s most frightening period. I left my family, friends...
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Liatile Machoane Mokhesi
- Photo courtesy of Omer Derinyar via Pexels
To the one who has arrived Bringing lucidity to an interrupted- And wandering life That was once tribulated, But is now contented...
- Photo courtesy of davi via MorgueFile
hell is a dank, dark basement apartment once a home for two but now only housing one who perpetually breathes in mildew while learning the meaning of the phrase 'crawling...
- Photo courtesy of Mariana Montrazi via Pexels
SANE: A word I have never quite been acquainted with. I was brought up by someone who physically used my head to punish the walls of the house she found...
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Maria Aires E. Raymundo
- Photo courtesy of Ratatosk via MorgueFile
A ghost of a smile Graced my lips, Gazing at old faded photos of us I missed, Younger days have gone so fast. Truly good times never last....
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Tia Credle
- sci-fi scene of young mother carrying her baby looking at the spaceship in the sky, digital art style, illustration painting
The invasion happened 40 years ago, in 2027. Big, oval-shaped metal ships appeared out of the sky. It’s hard for anyone to think that on that day, millions of lives...
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Liba Chorny
- Photo by Harli Marten on Unsplash
I told her about an experience I had, of mystical ideas. She said to me in Yiddish “Ken nisht herren” (Can’t hear it.) She didn’t want to hear about it,...
- Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash
A number is just a number, Which is a popular belief. Simple as that- Yet when you saw a different number on the scale- it changes everything....
- (Photo courtesy of M. Cooper Photography via Unsplash)
Working in a pub encourages drinking. For some, this is a dream. For others, a nightmare....
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Daisy Dabb
- Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
I was accepted into the doctoral program and was offered a full scholarship. Most people would have immediately accepted. But I didn’t....
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Brooklyn Riepma
- Photo courtesy of Giorgia Finazzi via Unsplash
“Are you sure you want to go visit Grandma T? It might be difficult for you to see her this way,” my grandma, whom I call “Oma,” asked me. “Why?”...
- Photo courtesy of Jordan Luz
My first day of teaching still haunts me to this day. Not because it was a bad experience, although there were many things I would do differently if I could,...
- Photo by Stephanie McCabe on Unsplash
On the Italian island of Sardinia, where I was born and still live, there has always been a deep-rooted belief that on the night of November 1 and 2, the...
- Photo courtesy of Houcine Ncib via Unsplash
There is so much within her, she deems unspeakable. A restlessness, long muted, vibrating undercurrents beneath her skin....
- Yellow school bus parks beneath the palm trees for shade and waits for the end of the school day to transport children back to their hones.
Ho brah, your breath is haunas, dawg. Ever heard of one tooth brush? Da ting smell so crip, garans gon make somebody make. Not even. Not as hauna as your...
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Dominic James
- Photo courtesy of Carson Arias via Unsplash
Two things: 2 iron nails run in smoke. Frosty morning sunshine Overexposed B&W: at Loe Bar Red: Red Alley Sunset...
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Elena Chiujdea
- Photo courtesy of Jennifer Burk via Unsplash
Men questioning women today is the norm. Why? Because less freedom means less opportunities to make the ‘wrong choice,’ I guess. The freedom we have today presses their buttons because...
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Maria Aires E. Raymundo
- Photo courtesy of Lucas Pezeta via Pexels
Turning from the busy conundrum of a dream full of lies, A bittersweet goodbye; Passion so strong Somehow feels so wrong, A meaningless feat, Undeniable defeat;...
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JP Morselli
- (Photo courtesy of JP Morselli)
“It’s going to snow,” my temple tour guide, Seokun, told me. The grey clouds covered the sun, and the wind picked up, causing chimes to sound in the distance. Seokun...
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S. Thomas Drake
- Photo courtesy of Ankhesenamun via Unsplash
One of the biggest lies we are told is that it is possible to live fully in the moment, but the truth is we never can....
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Brooklyn Riepma
- (Photo courtesy of Luis Villasmil Photography via Unsplash)
Students are told they need to go to college or will never succeed. I was also told this when I was in high school. I wanted to go to college,...
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Snigdha Sharma
- Photo courtesy of Priscilla Du Preez via Unsplash
Patients, diagnoses, and treatments are my life. As a medical intern, what else can I think of other than the whirlwind of patients? New challenges and lessons are what each...
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Yousef Waly
- Photo by Eben Kassaye on Unsplash
How can we truly heal a patient's physical state without addressing how they feel? It is inevitable that all physicians, no matter the stage of their training, will unconsciously forget...
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I.Z.
- Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash
Together, down a level he’s overly tense- Among the “normal people” with their loud staring silence......
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Alexis King
- Photo courtesy of Yoann Boyer via Unsplash
When I first discovered Lake McCarrons in my home state of Minnesota, I was around 17 or 18 years old. It was a holiday, and my mom, sisters, and brother...
- Image courtesy of iStock
What I’m learning about women aging is we don’t do it alone – everything, from being able to gather dust lines alongside us, trinkets, and trophies...
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Wiam Najjar
- (All images courtesy of Wiam Najjar)
As a teacher, a member of a large family, and a feminist, I have always had crystal-clear notions about nurturing kids. For most of my teaching career, I’ve taught children...
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S.
- (Photo courtesy of iStock)
When he circles the roundabout, I am pressed against the car door, And it starts to hurt again....
- Photo courtesy of guille pozzi via Unsplash
Her mother told her when she was young – Be the kind of woman who can keep a family united. A woman who guards and protects fragile relationships, who cushions...
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Serene M.
- Concept image of anxiety and negative emotion. Waste paper and head silhouette.
When I first started college, I always believed I would make something of myself. I would get a degree, see the world, and become a successful journalist. I had it...
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Johana Htwe
- Photo courtesy of Unsplash
The first time I wore thanaka on my cheeks was when I went to kindergarten. It was actually one of my earliest memories. Back then, I didn’t care if I...
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Global Citizen
- Photo by Jesse Bowser on Unsplash
The Mid-May 2023 seizure of rainbow-colored Swatch watches from the brand’s Pride Collection at most major shopping malls in Malaysia, including the regionally renowned Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Queensbay Mall, and...
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Anna Rose Bechtel
- (Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash)
For introverts, you’d think that the pandemic would be fun. Or at least something they’d be used to. It all sounds pretty normal: staying inside, watching something on a streaming...
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Enny
- Photo courtesy of MorgueFile
Sitting in the shadows of misery Unraveling imprisoned dreams Wishing I can set them free to the sky Wishing I gave them my wings, make them fly...
- Photo by Molly Blackbird on Unsplash
and when she told her mother of the “incident” she was told never to speak of it again. Silence served as protection. It served as a convenient denial and an...
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Rania Mansour
- Photo by Firdaus Roslan on Unsplash
I am an Egyptian woman I mean, I am an exhausted woman I spend my night in enjoyment till the morning watching fantasy movies that I do not afford living...
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Senah Lloyd
- Photo courtesy of Pedro Silva via Unsplash
Who are you? What do you do? Those are the questions I am asked whenever I meet a new person. For decades, the answer was my name and “I’m a...
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Zaida Obeid
- (Photo courtesy of Pexels/cottonbro studio)
Several people passed by my house this year. Many of them just passed by temporarily, but other people stopped by and stayed as long-term friends. For me, being an adventure...
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I.S.A. Crisostomo-Lopez
- Photo courtesy of Morgue File
Like any other orphan, Tobias was curious about so many things. When he was younger, he wanted to know who his real parents were and why they had abandoned him....
- Photo courtesy of Morgue File
Your brain is a film played at 5x speed - the images barely intelligible, leave no room for thought, only gut. Meanwhile, the theater is collapsing in slow motion....
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Li Shan Chan
- Photo courtesy of iStock
I handed over my watch and shoes, and we approached the turnstile where I was to enter. He supported my hand, moving it towards the small glass panel where a...
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Daisy Dabb
- Rainbow over the west maui mountains from Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
I thought it was strange that my mom called me so early in the morning. It was 7:30am for me, so it must have been 4:30am for her. It was...
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Brooklyn Riepma
- (Image courtesy of Brooklyn Riepma)
When I was a child, my mother told me I’d grow up to be just like her. She said it to me in a tone that let me know I’d...
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Taylor Raucher
- Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash
I have been depressed before, and depressed since. Arguably I am always hovering at some degree of “depression,” but at this time in my life, in early 2019, it was...
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Global Citizen
- Photo coutresy of Unsplash/Marcos Paulo Prado
I can’t even explain how much my heart ached from the pain I felt during those years. I was a teenager. I was naive. I was just too nice. Others...
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Kevin Likins
- Photo courtesy by spyroterra on MorgueFile
The end feels so inevitable when it comes. At least, mine does. I am in my final moments, of that there is no doubt. I stand in the biting cold...
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Stephanie Jackson
- Photo by Nick Owuor (astro.nic.visuals) on Unsplash
It is always difficult for me to explain what depression is and how it makes me feel. I’ve seen and read people describing it as a big black dog, or...
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Dominic James
- Photo by Gigi on Unsplash
Poised high the moon pools silhouettes of hedgerows on the milky ground, Alfred pulls his cloak around steps out onto a reedy shore....
- Photo by Candace McDaniel on StockSnap
In the darkened room, where shadows silently creep, I sit alone, enveloped in solitude, as the night grows deep. Though voices resonate, laughter fills the air, Within the crowd, a...
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Sadiq
- Photo by Tina Floersch on Unsplash
There are so many parenting guides out there, and it is challenging raising wonderful little humans. Here's something about the parent-child bond. It's pivotal as a child grows, and building...
- Scared woman at home looking through the shutters
I can’t even remember my age when I started, but I had more than five psychologists. I established a rapport with none until my first visit to a psychiatrist, when...
- Photo courtesy of Unsplash/Sasha Freemind
Throughout my life, I have always been scared of being alone. I would avoid lone bus journeys. I couldn’t sit still, constantly needing the company of others to occupy my...
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Dibyasree Nandy
- Photo courtesy of iStock
(-based on the old Indian customs related to widows; they were forcefully stripped of all jewellery upon their husband’s death, the vermillion rubbed off their foreheads, hardly given anything to...
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Yuan Changming
- Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
Separated for more than forty years without knowing each other's whereabouts, Ming reencounters Hua, his first love, at a reunification party, and falls in love with her again. As he...
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Cinzia Antonelli
- Photo courtesy of Cinzia Antonelli
Those who don't know Italy well should know that there is no country or village–however small–that doesn’t feature a church, monument, scenic landscape or other remarkable attraction that deserves to...
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Sonali Sharma
- Photo courtesy of Unsplash
My garden of wonders bloomed with an amalgamate of pink roses with overlapped thick velvety petals, and herbs – chives, basil, fennel - common points for pollinators every morning when...
- Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
Nobody wants a toxic relationship, but they just happen sometimes. Most people go through one at least once in their lives, and it has probably happened to you. Well, at...
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Corin Ramos
- Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash
One Saturday in August 2019, parents, grandparents, and children were shopping for school supplies at an El Paso Walmart when they came face to face with a gunman set on...
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Global Citizen
- Photo by Katalin RHorvát on Pexels
A pandemic caused by fungal spores is the exact premise of a popular gaming franchise called “The Last of Us”. Is there any justification for humans to fear a fungal-based...
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Enny
- Photo courtesy of MorgueFile
Came to my home with a hat and boots. Slept in my house; I gave up my room....
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Sama Thiab
- Image courtesy of iStock
I was four years old then. Yet I still vividly remember feeling the ground shake beneath me, the windows shattering during every air strike hitting our area, leaving our house...
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Stephanie Rahi Bassil
- Image courtesy of Stephanie Rahi Bassil
Ten days, eight trips around Lebanon. And at last, on June 3, 2022 at 4 p.m., our vacation started....
- (Image courtesy of Julianna Wages)
From the rolling hills and countryside of North Carolina to city skyscrapers illuminated with neon signs and the ever-crowded streets of Tokyo, Japan, my first step out of the airplane...
- Image Courtesy of clarita via MorgueFile
To be more alive, you have to be less shy, For, stigma and inhibition are like chains....
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Rosina Griffiths
- Image Courtesy of Catherine Griffiths
How often in your life have you closed your ears to the cliché “time flies” and prefer instead to throw yourself into the “having fun” part? Never does that expression...
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Margaret L. M.
- Image Courtesy of iStock
My childhood was broken up into pieces, with parts of me left in different countries around the world. These memories are blurry, like faded pictures in my head....
I was born in eastern France near the German border, into a large family of modest origin, all raised by a single mother working as a cleaning lady. We are...
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S. Thomas Drake
- Image Courtesy of UnSplash
On the morning of July 4th, 2022, I was lying in bed watching videos on my phone when my mom called me. Earlier that week, we had discussed the possibility...
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Chintakindi Srilakshmi
Why, I asked him, do we have to return to our dorms at dusk, like pigeons into pigeonholes, while they don’t—their freedom resounding like the condor’s cry as they walk...
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