One of the things I loved about my family was while there was lots of work, we always made time for leisure. Our weekends were full...

In 2008, my whole world imploded. Everything I thought was supposed to take place in my life, bar the details, was blown to smithereens...

I’ve always heard people say that nothing good ever happens after midnight. For the longest time I found that to be true of my birth...

Most living things remain what they were at birth, however, a butterfly was once a caterpillar, and at the risk of waxing poetic, I...

But as I crept toward young adulthood, I began to dream of life outside the 20-mile radius of my home. Surely there was more...

I grew up in Arkansas in the 1970s, always searching for someone to love me like a father. My own passed away when I was just six months...

I grew up without a hometown. As the eldest child of an active duty military pilot, much of my childhood was spent moving from state to...

Every morning, I had to draw from what motivational reserves I had left to get through the day because I felt that just breathing was...

The sun flowing through the crack of the window was not able to warm up the icy cold that was invading me at every thought of my future...

From a very early age, I knew I had a unique identity. My favorite part of having mixed blood is to make people try to guess...

While watching my mother work so hard, I wanted a better bargain at life, a new city and with new destiny. Nothing—I had decided—would...

Jewish families (like my own) lined the streets of my neighborhood, the next neighborhood, and so on. My parents, two older brothers...

Times in the southern US during the 1940s and 1950s were trying ones, indeed. We were poor. I guess you could say “dirt poor.” I remember...

However, one piece was always missing: my mother. She committed suicide when I was just eight months old, so everything I know about...

We’d break the rules, then run off and hide in the mango trees until the coast was clear–or so we thought. My mom would wait for us...

I, on the other hand, was stubborn and lacked religious devotion, putting a gulf between me and my parents where I never felt as close...

While many women in their 20s were enjoying college life, my mom was trying to keep up with her classes and work two jobs all while she...

When I head out to my daily walk in the park, I like to remind myself of the poems I love the most, many of which I know by heart...

I believe that an underrated statement is when people say the “mid-life crisis” can change your existence. I should know. Earlier this...

I had dreams, plans, and a strong will to achieve. When that all went out of the window, I was not left with despair. Instead, I was left...