Mediocrity has always been my strong suit. I’ve never excelled, yet I haven’t failed. In elementary school I didn’t get picked first for dodgeball, but I wasn’t last. Averageness is the...

The 1966 spaghetti western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is a movie about an outlaw who teams up with a wandering stranger, played by Clint Eastwood, to scam the law for bounty money. Eventually,...

My Aunt Mimi lives in a recliner in a small house fenced in by 60 foot pine trees outside Cabot, Arkansas. Pulling into her driveway, my dad would wake up me and my sisters, saying we’ve arrived. My...

The first thing I hear on Sunday morning is gospel music blaring in the kitchen. My sister and I are greeted with our parents singing and dancing and the smell of eggs, biscuits, rice, potatoes and...

In elementary school, some boys shoved girls and pulled their hair. Teachers would try to discipline them, but it often ended in giving a defeated shrug and muttering the same four words. “Boys...

Editor’s note: This story was named an honorable mention for personal columns in the 2021 TAJE Best of Texas contest. I’ll love you forever. I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living...

I wandered through beige hallways that never seemed to end, checking my watch and seeing the time run out. I was desperate and lost, entering a random classroom for help. Faceless strangers stared...

Red and blue lights and the words “BREAKING NEWS” appeared on the TV. My dad’s eyes were glued to the screen as it displayed a picture of a young black boy.    He was shot and killed by...

Editor’s note: this column was named as a superior personal opinion column in the TAJE Best in Texas contest. Climate change. #MeToo Movement. Hong Kong protests. Rohingya Muslim ethnic...

Editor’s note: This story was named an honorable mention for personal columns in the 2021 TAJE Best of Texas contest. My parents immigrated from India in 1997. They had me in 2004. I was born...

Seeing “Love, Simon” was a pivotal moment in my life. It was released not long after I came out to my family, and I watched it with my mom in the theater. I had barely ever seen gay characters...

“I have the God-given right to make fun of you,” my 5’9” friend said. She had just left class, and I was trailing behind her because my short legs couldn’t walk any faster. After sprinting...