“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I remember being asked this question for the first time in the first grade. “I want to become a doctor!” and twelve years later my answer has not changed. In the first grade I wanted…
Paradise. What comes to mind when you read that word? Sand that is so white it could be sculpted from a chunk of marble. An ocean so blue it is practically indistinguishable from the sky and the clouds, and the sun a brilliant burning furnace,…
Being raised by religious immigrant parents has shaped the person I am today. My parents are Muslims who emigrated from Sudan to America in their teens. I was raised surrounded by the Sudanese culture. My mother always cooks Sudanese food and burns Sudanese incense in…
Recently, I started my first day of high school. A lot of people build up the first day to be the most intimidating thing. I went from a tiny middle school to this giant high school and was expecting to not know where anything was….
High school is a tough place for sure. I’ve been through it all and I can tell you that you will definitely need some words of wisdom to always keep in mind before moving onto this next chapter in your life. So here you go:…
You may have come across social media videos of some people mistreating others either verbally or physically—or both. You may have even had to watch this happen in person, which can feel confusing and scary. When a person uses their power and influence to hurt…
I turned 13 on August 5, 2012 and I have never dreaded a day more. Not because I have any instinctive aversion to birthdays, I very much enjoy the celebration. But from that day on for an entire year I would be 13. An entire…
Change has always been scary for me, especially when the change involves meeting new people. I find it daunting because I can never tell how others will react to my character and personality, and I never know how I will react to them. Will I…
My parents are loving, supportive, open-minded folks, and I’m grateful to have a good relationship with them today. But it wasn’t always so easy… As a teenager, we often disagreed. My mom wanted me home by midnight; I’d oblige, and then I would flip off…
Alopecia Areata is a form of hair loss that occurs when your immune system accidentally attacks your hair follicles, treating them as a disease, with the goal of the attack to destroy the follicles. Despite all of the research that has been done so far,…