This piece looks at the way an unexpected Thanksgiving tradition was able to bring me and my grandfather closer.
Memoir & Personal Essay
Tale of an Unsung Writer
I decided the best way to approach this year’s broad theme centered around history was to show how I can change the trajectory of my own story by being honest about my passions.
Green Tea. Hot. Mint With Honey.
My piece, “Green Tea. Hot. Mint With Honey” is a reflective personal narrative about a specific vulnerable period of time in my young life.
A Place in History
This memoir is about realizing a place in history is out there, you just have to find it.
Fear Is My Superpower
This piece reflects on my bravery on how no matter how scared I was to do something, I always went for it. Fear has become my superpower and has helped me grow and see how strong I am.
Miss Rona & Me
In quarantine, my mind can’t help but gravitate back toward life outside: when I was undeniably happy. I pick out these little moments, and then I remember everything going on inside my head then. What I was feeling, and exactly why I was really happy. In this instance, I remembered a walk I took after school one day, past Trinity Church on a crowded street. This collision between a colonial past and the skyscrapers towering above me was exciting, so I wrote a little something about that feeling. Then I spoke, giving new life to these words.
bloom in
“bloom in” is a very serious piece, which is different from how I usually write and act. But it represents me. I took the piece and thought about all the videos and photos I had of myself, my family and my friends, and it was like two sides of me. The me that is figuring out who I am and questioning it all, and the me that shows my face every day.
claiming my place
This project is a reflection on the internal journey I’ve been going through for the past few years.
The Pink Hijab with Sparkles…I wore Only Once
During the last days of summer vacation, I was watching the television show Teen Wolf when my mother said to me…
In School Brown Boys Wear Green
“I don’t want to go to college. I want to go to war.”
En Su Espejo
Adulthood begins when you are able to look beyond the person you see in the mirror.
Abandoned by Faith
As I began to mature in my teenage years, my faith wavered.
Why Obsessions Matter
I chose to write about how my obsession with comics books, which seemed the opposite of my personality, has allowed me to grow into who I am, both as a writer and as a person.
The Rebirth of Shanai Williams
Where do I fit? Where is my opening?
Warm Milk
I knew that it wasn’t a good reality. I knew it the first time it happened, and the second time, and the third time.