December 2002

Up until about 2 years ago, almost all of my perceptions stemmed from what I learned in the environment I was raised in. I did not have my own opinions or beliefs. And I certainly did not have my own way of looking at things. Everything I knew was taken from my everyday life in the incredibly conservative and religious household I grew up in. It was only at eighteen that I took a step back and evaluated my life. Coming to the realization that I didn’t really have any perceptions of my own was…

Narrative Did you ever wonder how it feels when you are young and travel from one country to another foreign country that you have never heard about? For me, it was a very life changing event to move to a Nation that I’ve never even heard of. It came so sudden, One day I was in Ninth Grade, doing class work, and the next moment I was told my Dad is getting deployed back to the United States because of his job in the U.S Army. Then I move to an U.S Army Base, where I’m surrounded by so many…

Because Appetite For Love holds such a treasured place in my heart (I got to interview both male leads--Andrew Walker and Marcus Rosner--and they were kind enough to let a novice feature them), I often find myself going back to my review of that film and attempting to connect with the supporting cast of that momentous film. In the case of Antonio Cayonne, I was so pleased to see that he is again being featured in a Valentine's film on Hallmark, and it was a great joy when he agreed to answer a…

This past term I went on a college visit to Capri. Capri is a college for people to learn hair, makeup, and massages. When we got there, we walked in and there were people at the front desk asking names. once they have your name they gave you a small piece of paper that you had to fill out; so your name could be put in a drawing for a prize. You could walk around to the different stations they had there to look at all the things they had. the first on I went up to was the hair. My mom and me…

“Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.” This quote was said by Hugh Mackay, the founder of an Australian quarterly research series, The Ipsos Mackay Report. Everyone has different feelings on what a healthy relationship looks like. Some believe you should never fight and always be happy with each other. Others believe in tough love, in order to make the most out of someone you have to push them to their limit. The reality,…

Home is “another country, a mother tongue, a relationship-- “It’s possible to live within the ambit of a person not a country”-- an organization or political party” (Gready). Exile, on the other hand, “is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted…” and is “a potent, even enriching” experience (Said). While in The…

When I was a kid in the suburbs of Chicago, adventure man Oliver Montgomery park up on the boarder of Minnesota and Canada. the name implies the place was small but Montgomery is a million acer nature preserve so big you could go days without seeing another soul. we would go on camping trips up there weeks of canoeing and scavenging seeing bears, mousse and deer sleeping under star soaked skies. the park was isolated and so pristine you could actually drink the water straight from the lakes but…

It's a drag to try to date as a young adult living with mom or dad. It isn't much better if you have a roommate. Life is so much better if you have a space that is truly yours. But how do you make that happen? 1) Run The Numbers Start by finding an online mortgage calculator and playing with it a bit. See what kind of impact different percentages of down payments have on the mortgage payment. Look at homes of the type you aspire to own and get a feel for roughly how much they cost. This…

Children at War Awoken in the middle of the night by ear-shattering crashes and shaking ground, screams from the world outside enter through the window. You’re parents come running into your room, pleading with you to get up. They tell you that it’s time to leave. You are bustled outside, where the night sky is lit up with the flames of your burning hometown. You nose is assaulted with the smell of burning flesh. Crowds of people are running, trying to escape. You and your family join the…

Harlequin was starting to feel dizzy. Everything was swirling together. He knew he was close to whatever wanted him. He kept walking, step by step, hearing the crunch of every leaf and branch each crushed. He was determined to help whoever needed it or find whatever needed finding. All of sudden he was forced to stop, he trudge on but it used up all of his strength, he ended up falling onto a root of the nearest tree. Harlequin’s mind was taken somewhere else, through someone else’s eyes. He…