And suddenly pop—there I was. Well, it wasn’t so much a pop, and I’m sure there was a whole lot more screaming and bad language, but...

I was born in 1987 and grew up in Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria with a younger sister and hard-working, loving parents who encouraged me...

Quitting often means you’ve failed at something, but for me, this was like turning over a new leaf. Now, quitting isn’t exactly a habit...

I planned to climb out of my castle and ride my white horse to victory. To me, it sounded simple. Unfortunately, no one told me that a...

My parents broke up when I was still little, and my mom remarried soon after. Our home was full of outbursts of rage from my mom who was...

My father owned an ice cream shop a couple blocks from our house. His dream was a colorful candy store but with the blistering heat...

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, or boast, or follow the exact schedule you planned. Love is messy, love is...

My mother is a housewife and my father owns a grocery store. When I hear my parents talk about money, it does not seem stressful, so I...

Lying in a steaming bath-tub, water lapped against my naked body. The pressure of the clear liquid surrounding me made the bruises on my...

Do you ever reflect on a decision you made and realize it unknowingly changed the direction of your entire life? 1950 was that year...

But that all changed in the middle of my second year when I had a diabetic onset. The onset, itself, wasn’t too traumatic, seeing as how...

In fact, I seemed perfectly normal until about age four. That’s when I began walking on my toes with a sort of limp, as if I were...

I grew up feeling like an only child, as my siblings were much older. My relationship with my siblings was good, but I didn’t see them...

My father left my hometown of Harrison, Arkansas when I was still a baby and never came back to us, and my mother’s on-again-off-again...

Quirky and awkward. That’s how most people saw me in middle school and high school. I was the big kid with clumsiness in his DNA...

Like some girls do, I used to dream of my marriage. On this day, I imagined myself in a white dress, surrounded by the people I love...

My dad was always in my peripheral vision, but as a busy musician, he never really stayed long enough for me or my older sister to get...

This was the day I was born, miraculously, to a drug-addicted mother who couldn’t take care of me. I was born with fetal alcohol syndrome...

Being the granddaughter of a famed, yet tormented writer is both a blessing and a curse. My grandmother and the other women in my line...

It was a great a place to grow up in the 80s. It is where I have all my childhood memories, where I met my husband, and where we go to...