Reflections on Omaha Beach
Sand. As far as I could see, sand carpeted the expansive, harmless beach. Yet this wasn’t just any beach, and – seventy-one years before I arrived in 2015 – it was anything but harmless. My World...
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A Leopard’s Way
“Sighting of a leopard.” My head snaps up as the static voice crackles over the radio: “5 kilometers away.” I hold my breath and glance over to our tour guide (and terrifying driver) Lucas....
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Breathtaking Burials: Bogus or Believable?
My alarm goes off at 3 AM, and I begrudgingly roll out of bed to go dig up my great-grandfather’s corpse. I find myself tripping down the stairs; I’m not used to the dimly lit hallways because it’s...
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Religion and Revelry in Cuba
A window of opportunity opened last year, and through it I had the chance to travel to Cuba with my family, on a journey to trace my father’s heritage. He and his family fled during the revolution, each...
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Dust Motes
The dust motes. They floated with the ambience of rolling hills. A suspended colloid, only visible with a shaft of early morning sunlight piercing through the window of the electric bus, making those...
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Undressed in Atami
Our loaf-shaped tour bus wove up hilly roads to the New Akao Hotel, located in Atami of Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture. Its snow-white buildings had tucked themselves into leafy pockets on the rocky...
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A Rose in the Desert – Serenity in Damascus
Damascus, Syria, a city at the heart of a bloody war. A city that itself is a juxtaposition where life thrives only kilometers away from heavy conflict and war. After years of waiting, a turbulent flight...
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Setting Foot in a Nation of Faith and Resilience
A blank computer screen… This is the scholarship applicant’s dreaded nightmare, yet at the same time, the cherished dream of countless poverty-stricken Filipino sidewalk dwellers. Gratefully exchanging...
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On Painting Impasto
When people think about visiting DC, they create an impressionist painting characterized by swirling shades of patriotism: dashes of museums crowded with artifacts, towering monuments, and ribbons of...
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Fulfilling Her Wish
I slowly drift out of a light sleep and glance out of the plane window as we descend into Managua. I notice the endless expanse of Lake Managua that could easily be mistaken as ocean. The volcanoes,...
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The Art of Living: An Effortless Community
I almost cried when we stepped into our room in the Ashram.HONORABLE MENTION 2015 FTF TEEN TRAVEL WRITING SCHOLARSHIPThe Spartan room held four cots, each laden with a sparse cotton...
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Left Boston a Teenager; Came Back a Soldier
June 16th, 2015, the day my life changed forever. My mom tried to hide the tears in her eyes as she told me how proud I make her. It was the last time I would see my mom and sister...
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From Textbooks To Reality
I stand on the beach of Colleville –sur-Mer in lower Normandy, France feeling the chill rise from the ocean. The longer I stand upon the same sand that over 2000 men died fighting for, historic stories...
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In Stitches
Blood dripped from the patient’s thumb as an intern jabbed the crescent needle into the nail. The man felt no pain, as he’d received painkillers moments earlier. Clad...
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The Flip on the Fourth
On mile 17.1 of the Colorado River is House Rock rapid, a class 4. This rapid has two holes, a small one left of center at the top, and a much larger one directly center at the bottom after a bend....
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Traveling Beyond the Barbed Wire
I would go insane if I lived in a place like this. The dirt, rocks, and sagebrush look the same mile after mile, in contrast with the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountains looming in the background of the desolate...
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Drink It In
Steam rises from an open air cauldron; wafting sweet and spicy aromas around the air, fighting to mask each other. A dark curly haired man sits cross-legged on a layout of blankets, laden with baskets....
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Suspended in the Air: Rappelling Down Utah’s Intimidating Cliffs
Sweat pours down my tanned face under the relentless Utah sun. I am hiking to the rappelling site in Moab, Utah, near Arches National Park. My back sticks to my shirt, and my legs burn in...
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How Nicaragua Defined My Future
Significant moments in life are often connected to memorable places such as Paris, where we snuck my grandma’s ashes into the Tuileries gardens,...
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Wonders That Surround Me
They remind me of tsunami waves, these mountains; frozen mid-air despite...
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Path of Wind and Simple Days
Our feet, coated in grime and mountain mud, tread a path over the unsteady ground. The trail we hiked was one of indeterminable quality: it was, in essence, the very perfection of hiking. Only...
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No Translation Needed
I thought I was ready for anything. It was my second year traveling to Nicaragua to do service work. Lulled into a false confidence, I talked excitedly with the rookies during the...
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Finding My Sister
This was a trip three years in the making. From the moment we stepped off the plane, the thick, balmy air hit me like a wall of tropical bricks, inducing the hazy, dreamlike feeling that dominated the...
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Splash Mountain’s Fatal Attraction
The orange light that is typical of sunsets highlighted the horrors of the streets. It gleamed across a shopping cart that carried all the belongings of a man whose beard reflected his lifestyle. It...
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Beethoven in Bonn
The rain steadily fell in misty sheets, so that the landscape was partly obscured by a dewy veil. Our train chugged through damp German villages, swaying gently from side to side. The grey horizon showed...
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Dirt-Caked Memories: A Story Revisited and Retold
Standing inside my mother’s former home for the first time, I notice the uncovered skylight. The floor beneath it is moist with rain that has fallen through. Scratched pots and pans lay cluttered...
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Survival, Much Like Smiling, Is Universal
My time in Cambodia had brought me many challenges. I had a running fever with no access to trustworthy medical care, I was fumbling with cultural differences and customs, and we worked long days teaching...
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Finding Peace in Hiroshima
We stared with hands clasped over our open mouths and eyes glued to the figures before us. They were bathed in the red of their own blood, burned skin, and the flames that surrounded them. Their clothes...
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How to See
Before, I had never left my home. I’ve flown across the seas in my dreams, traversed the highest mountains between classes, but one day, I promised myself that I would travel. Across the nation......
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A Friend 2,790 Miles Away
My eyes pop open as the cooing of roosters awakens my slumber. I roll over on my paper-thin mattress, careful not to hit my head on the bunk above me. Stepping onto the filthy cement floor, I look around...
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New York: a SENSE-ational Place to Be!
Behind the bustling streets of the “Big Apple”, New York holds within its borders a place like no other: A tranquil escape from rush hour and the daily lives of hard-workers. The Adirondacks will...
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Tunes and Travels: My Trip to An Irish Jam Session
I had not imagined in my eight years of classical violin training that I would end up fiddling in a pub. I wasn’t used to Maryland’s long lines of traffic and crowded streets. In Ohio, Rural King...
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Relaxing to Roller Coasters: The Perfect Day in Sylvan Beach
After a stressful school year filled with crammed study sessions and all-nighters, only one place can take my mind off it all – Sylvan Beach, New York. Decades ago, my great-great grandparents discovered...
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Exploring the Beaches of Trinidad
The alarm clock buzzes at six in the morning and I immediately shoot out of bed. Despite the early start, I contentedly wake up and start packing as I review my checklist—towel, fresh ripened...
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Wheels and Wildflowers: A Bike Tour Through Cade’s Cove
Grandpa tossed two helmets under the passenger seat and revved the engine. “I’m not wearing one.” He shoved his hand into the Skittles bag. “Me neither,” I tested. His glacier gaze cracked;...
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I Come From Elsewhere, But I Come From Here
The sun is blazing, and the humidity is turned up a thousand notches. However, my Western sensibilities remain undisturbed, as my mind is a preoccupied whirlwind of endless...
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Keep Dreaming
The real magic happens when I close my eyes. I usually squeeze them really tight when I want to get a good feel of the ocean breeze in my face. As the sun settles in for the night, the sand beneath...
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Meeting My Grandfather
My parents came to the United States in 1990, six years before I was born. Three years after they moved, my grandfather passed away. Although he died before my birth, he was extremely proud that my...
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Cambodia to Thailand: A Tale of Monuments and Mango Milkshakes
When it comes to traveling I’m always up for anything and everything. I love sight-seeing at places like the Great Wall; but I also enjoy the atypical experiences--eating rooster head and thirteen...
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Hello Dalai!
It was about noon when I fully realized that I was much farther away from the Dalai Lama then I had anticipated. I suppose, in retrospect, that that wasn’t entirely in my control (the Kalachakra festival...
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The Lone Mushroom
In an attempt to discover pieces of myself that may have been hidden, I decided in the spring of 2014 to explore the...
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One Fraction
Four journeys. Eight plane rides. One fraction. At age two, I flew over the Atlantic Ocean guided by my Senegalese father and part Portuguese, Irish, German mother for the first time. Our destination...
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The Silent Lake
The afternoon was ripe with excitement and the car was stuffed...
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Pardon My French: The Art of Making Mistakes and Trying Anyway
France in the summer is lovely. I remember the buildings of yellow stone, ancient beyond belief to my American eyes; the canals whose water lilies inspired Monet; the countryside, passing in a blur...
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Moonscape Beauty
Scalding fountains and multi-colored pools were only a few of the magnificent sights I was encountering. Yet the fountains weren’t man-made,...
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The Magic of the Ancient Waters
The world is a beautiful place; full of surprises, secrets and newfound treasures. Within the intricacies of the world, it’s a remarkable thing to find a place where you feel most content. I discovered...
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