Coffee is the Universal Language
During my sophomore year of high school, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Austria with my school choir for a week long performance tour. The historic cities of Salzburg and Vienna provided...
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My Unique New York Trip
Glimpsing out our train's family room window I watched as, complete with the new World Trade building's opening that morning, the New York City skyline slowly became swallowed in a hazy mist of shrinking...
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A Spanish Walk to Remember — A Week of Camino de Santiago
As I gazed up at the arched cathedral ceilings, held aloft by massive Romanesque columns, my mind wandered during mass as I thought about the week my family had just spent completing the Camino de Santiago. ...
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The Mountains Are Calling and I Must Go
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” These are the insightful words of John Muir, famed outdoorsman and conservationist....
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Oatmeal Walls and Sticky Sunlight
My body is about to give out, completely and pathetically. My heartbeat is slamming against my temples. And my parents are not here to ask if I am okay. It is just me and my clammy sheets of skin. The...
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The Guava Man’s Love
It is early in the morning, and my eyes remain closed. The room is small, antique, made of solid rock, dark and cold, but filled with the life of my family. My mother quickly comes to the small bed...
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Home Sweet Home
Just before I turned the knob of the door that would lead me to the family I hadn't seen in 9 years, I took a deep breath and berated myself for being so nervous. This is your family! I said to myself....
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Elephant Adventures
“It’ll be great!” my father exclaimed with enthusiasm. He was referring to an elephant riding attraction he heard about earlier that day. We were in Thandwe, a small village in the Southeast Asian...
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