March 2018. I woke up and my jaw was shaking — my whole body was shaking. I sat up in my bed and stayed there for a couple of minutes trying to wake up. I swung my feet down on the tile floor and tried...

It had been a week of waiting. My dad said he was on his way to see my mom and I. We hadn’t seen each other in years, and he was finally able to come visit. Every day that week, when I got home from...

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School not only ended 17 lives but also left hearts across the nation heavy and angry. Some students from the high school immediately decided that enough was...

That morning, nothing meant much to me. Sinking into my chair, I tried not to fall asleep as my parents discussed home improvements with the refurbisher. I scanned the room—between the chatter and the...

There isn’t much that compares to the magic a child feels when they run downstairs on Christmas morning to find a pile of presents under the tree, or when they stand under the boom of fireworks over...

It all started in 5th grade homeroom when I was the new kid. I had just moved from a different side of Highland Village. It was my first time back to the school since moving. I couldn’t wait to see the...

When I was in eighth grade, I always looked forward to the annual STAAR tests. Not the test itself, but to the hour or two left over when we could read. The state testing in Florida never let us do this,...