Billboard 200

One life, one childhood, and one adulthood is all we are given. Mom, this letter is for you and for my healing. My youngest memory consists of sitting under the stairs in the first house that you had with your new husband. You and him were fighting, always fighting. I sat under the stairs terrified with my older brother, do you realize that I predicted your divorce years before it actually happened? Every time I spell that word “Fight”, I remember my brother teaching me. I wrote it on the…

As the travelers were preparing to leave Canterbury, the host had a genius idea which he shared with the rest of his company. He said, “Why don’t we continue our story telling contest since the journey back home is long and it went over so well the first time we did it on the way here?” The travelers all agreed, but the question of who would go first arose next. To this the host answered, “Let the knight, who told the tale on the way there go now, since his tale was by far my favorite”. In…

“I realize now that dying is easy, living is hard” (Forman 175). This quote is so much more than just words; it represents a choice, Mia’s choice between life and death. Stuck outside her lifeless body, Mia is presented with the choice of staying and living with what she has left on this earth, or leaving and joining her deceased family. With her loved ones watching over her, Mia reminisces about her life and the possibilities of her future, as she is faced with this powerful decision. In the…

I grew up without a father, or any father figure for that matter. My mother never dated and never brought home strange men. My mother devoted all of her time to my brother, Ryley, and I. Mom also planned out our weekends, making sure that they were packed full of activities. One weekend she decided to drive me and my brother all the way down to Georgia so we could explore uncharted territory and make some exciting memories together. When we were at home we always came together as a family and…

Love Heals All Wounds Love. Nowadays, it is such a trivial word, so quickly and easily thrown around. “I love this” and “I love you,” being said within days or weeks of meeting someone. There is little to no weight behind the word now. Love came in many forms in the past. It meant being willing to give up everything, your body and honor included, for your beloved. Even if that beloved belongs to someone else. That is what happens in The Arthurian Romance, “The Knight of the Cart.” Lancelot, a…

In H.D.’s poem “Amaranth,” the speaker attempts to assert her autonomy amidst the goddess’s demand for absolute devotion and her lover’s need for affection and beauty. Torn between these two figures, the speaker occupies no-place, or rather an absence of self that she attempts to fill with compulsive repetition. Despite the speaker’s sporadic assertions of self-worth and independence however, repeated phrases do not signify what the speaker possesses, but what she lacks; focusing on themes such…

The Dollhouse (Short stories go in quotations) Autumn Oldaker I want a tiny doll to add to my collection, and I will take her while dressed in scrubs strolling the halls of a hospital. Today there is a variety of girls to choose from. As I explore the halls of the hospital, I fancy the infants because I have never had one that young. I explore the maternity wing in search of my new doll. I enter a room labeled 121 and a radiant baby girl lies in a woman’s arms. The glow of her skin…

(In walk a couple, Riley and Angeline, on a cold autumn day. Riley is a handsome twenty two year old, dressed in a hoodie. Angeline is a couple years younger, wearing fall clothes, her curly hair draped over her shoulder. The scene is set at a park in Queens, a wooden bench just off the sidewalk with a tree to the side. They both take a seat on the wooden park bench.) RILEY It’s a really nice day to be at the park, isn 't it? (He nervously fidgets with his sweatshirt) ANGELINE Yeah, it’s perfect…

During people’s life, they often should make several and difficult decisions which have repercussions forever. “The worst decisions in life we make,” Sherrilyn Kenyon wrote, “are always the one we make out of fear.” I am agree with Ms. Kenyon, but almost all the time when I made decision the fear about if it will be certain or not. Decisions and fears are connected in our brain when we are in this situation. Here is my history. I born and grow up in a warm family in the center of Cuba. My…

Detached It had been two weeks since I had stepped inside my apartment. Two weeks since I had finally severed myself from my toxic partner who did nothing but control me and tear me down. This was the last time I would ever have to see him and he would be gone for good. As I stood outside the front door and memories of the past year and a half in this apartment together ran through my mind, I remembered just how much misery and pain he had brought me and I found the courage to take…