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The energy in Puri's air was very holy, and there I was given the proof of positive thinking that can be beneficial only when doubt doesn't exist and the moment is lived in an innocent state of mind, while wishing truly for the best for others without any return expectations. In India, I was surrounded by so much poverty, at this point it seems appropriate to mention that even though I was better off than the local multitude, I traveled for fourteen months outside my native country, Italy, with…

My watch read 3:15 a.m as I walked into a room full of tired parents and anxious students! As I looked around I wasn’t sure what surprised me more, the fact that I was on time or that I didn’t have the largest suitcase! Krista and I dragged our luggage around the gym looking for our red Grosse Ile bags filled with shirts and sweatshirts. After a good five minutes, we found our bags and joined Mara and Elle in the center of the gym. We got so caught up in conversation, that we barely even…

Why Positive Thinking Did Not Work for Me Many people believe positive thinking will lead a person to a perfect life; however, it is not completely true as it has its pros and cons. The reason why is because people request for things that they really want without really putting much effort into it and expect everything to fall into place. Today, society has gotten to the point where they make demands to God, and keep waiting to attain the stuff they asked or prayed for. For example, last year…

In part one of this story, a guy moved in down the street right after weird kidnappings started to happen. A girl, Lisa thought that her brother got kidnapped but it turned out to be that he was with his biological father neither of them knew that they had. A lot of drama happened between the mom and the kids and the biological father, but who is the real kidnapper? On a bright sunny Monday in the beginning of the summer, Lisa and Dylan were playing in the yard just a month or so after finding…

We had been aching for some fun that week, however none of us had any ideas on what “kind” of fun we wanted. The week was quite stressful, due to many tests, assignments, and life in general, so we decided we needed a good “stress reliever” for the weekend. I guess just like every other teenager, my friends and I live for the weekend, because we started planning the event for that weekend around Monday of that week. We had finally decided that we were going to throw a party at Summer Martin’s…

Personal Essay Being homeschooled, Timmy was a large part of my life. We were together almost every day for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t just him and I though, two days before my 6th birthday, on September 30th, 2004, our family welcomed Sebastian to the world. On that day our family got bigger; one person doesn’t seem like much at first thought, but one person can change a lot. As a baby, Sebastian wasn’t the easiest to care for, he taught me patience. Timmy taught me love, his love…

Beware of the Creek BY: DANIELLE OLIVIERI My grip on the rocks began to weaken and I felt myself slowly slipping closer into the creek. Those moments could have been my last. But luckily, I was able to make it of that situation. Why don’t we rewind the story a little bit to find out how this happened. Shall we? About four years ago when I was eight, my family and I were up in a small town near Lake Tahoe called Strawberry, for winter break. We wanted to go somewhere in the snow for the…

My First Shot The air was empty but the pond was full. We sneak through the trees to get to the pond. We get there to realize that the gamble we took didn't pay off. Since we got there about thirty minutes before shoot time we waited. That was the slowest 30 minutes ever. The 30 minutes couldn't go by any faster. Once it got down to about 5 to 10 minutes before shoot time, my stepdad pulled me closer to him and he told me the plan. He said, "Ok, I want you to slowly move over that way. Don't…

I drove out to the gravel road that had taken my friend’s life. It was a single car accident in which she struck loose gravel and rolled her brown, Ford Escape SUV multiple times. She was not wearing her seatbelt and was ejected through her sunroof. I put my vehicle in park and stepped onto the loose pieces of rock. The towing company had taken her vehicle, but they had not picked up all the pieces. Bits of yellow reflective lights were mixed in with the shattered pieces of red brake lights…

Ma and Papa had and still have a very large part of my heart. They were my everything. Ma and I went to temple every Tuesday evening. I never understood anything I learned, but these shared occasions brought Ma and I closer together. She taught me the basic and most important things that would later shape my being. She trained me to excel in school and was not afraid to discipline me when she saw fit. She loved me with everything she had and truly made me feel safe. Papa also did the same. He…