Editor's note: This column won second place for print personal columns in the 2022 ILPC contest. It also won excellent for print personal columns in the 2022 TAJE Best in Texas contest. The locker room...

Disclaimer: I am in no way a professional at really anything but especially not “adulting.” High school teaches us how to do a lot of things. We know how to label the parts of the cell, how to conjugate...

My mother glared at me from across the kitchen. It was the same look she’s given me since I was little — the one that allowed her to tell me exactly how she felt about me pinching my twin sister...

Herding two of my classmates through the main campus hallways we had never explored would have made any morning stressful, but adding the task of walking into the newsroom made it almost unbearable. I...

Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day, but it comes at a time when most people respond with one word when I tell them I want to go into journalism: “Why?” And as much as I wish I could make...

Ever since I was little, I loved to read. My mom would pick me up from school and take me to the library, where I’d get 10 books for the week. I’d read them at breakneck speed, anticipating the...

Stepping into a Hindu class for the first time, I immediately felt out of place. Around 60 kids sat on mats on the floor, the guru waiting for everyone to settle down. For the next half hour, we chanted...

As a toddler, I used to sneak into my mom’s bathroom, grab her GreatLash brownish black mascara, and smear it all over my face to make myself pretty like her. I had a mini ironing board and iron...

Editor’s note: This story won honorable mention for print personal opinion columns in the ILPC contest. December, 2019. I’m taking the freshman reading STAAR test in the gym. There’s a rug...

A picture of Kamala Harris’ parents, a Brown woman and Black man, appeared on my TV as I watched the Democratic National Convention. I looked to my mother and father who looked like the couple on...

Getting into my best friend’s red convertible was a daily occurrence during spring semester last school year. She always let me play my music on the way, no matter how many times I made her listen...

Editor’s note: This story was named an excellent personal column in the 2021 TAJE Best of Texas contest. It also won the Dallas Morning News high school journalism contest for commentary and first...