“I’m kicking you out. Come get your stuff.” I was 16 when I read this devastating text from my stepfather. No money. No job. And now ...

On hot summer nights, my parents would pack up a picnic and take my us to the beach by the lake. The cool water breeze off the lake was...

In 1999, my parents faced some financial struggles, so Grammy and Grandpa opened the door to us. It was just like the weekends we...

I was born on August 18, 1988 to a timid mother and a drug-addicted father. My father was in the picture for the first six months of...

My mother used to say that struggle is a person’s middle name. People are always struggling, if not physically then for sure mentally...

I pried my eyes away from the TV screen to look out the window, to the trees, to the sunlight…to that strange world out there that gave...

The car was gone, and all our things were destroyed. I stood in front of our rented house and panicked wondering what to do. We didn’t...

What I know for sure is that every soul on this earth needs an escape, an outlet, a safe harbor in which to lose themselves and, ideally...

As a little boy, I would help my father sell fresh cookies in the streets of our city, Lahore. We woke up early on many mornings...

But things wouldn’t always be so perfect. The world is full of sick, twisted people, and not before long, I became the target...

These were the questions of a nine-year-old boy, the eldest child in the home, unaware of the coming hardships he might have to face...

If you are wondering what it was like, just picture farmland, connected to more farmland, all serving as the resting place for groups...

I was an only child and that contributed to me being a shy introvert, uncomfortable with people until my teenage years. Despite my social...

Sadly, she wasn’t taught to make her own needs a priority in life. It was a product of the time, when sexism more avidly kept women in...

I was born in 1985, in a country that doesn’t exist on the map anymore. But, the land is still here and the land is still the same...

Big or small, everyone makes plans for their future. As a girl who loved to dream, I had made plenty. Whether we lose ourselves in...

When my mother was pregnant with me, all the family had been expecting a baby girl. Though when the morning came, they were quite shocked...

I weighed a little over two pounds. I was so premature that no one thought I would survive, but God had different plans for me...

Most of my fond memories were spending time with my parents and two younger siblings: putting up the Christmas tree together; enjoying...

I’ve worked many jobs in my 92 years of living. I’ve been a sailor, an aircraft engineer, an experimental designer for a college...