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Topic
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The concept of love
My first word was love. Under the flickering lights of North Shore Hospital on March 10, 2002, I met the one person whose love for me is unconditional. As I tore my eyelids open and glanced the kind, raven-haired woman, I immediately noticed her smile, which stretched for miles past the horizon. I truly believe that one person molded me into the person I am today. As I grew up, I became afraid of my own reflection, until I realized that the only things I should see staring back at me are the doting eyes of my grandma. Many years later, I returned to the hospital. One week away from losing my...
Polluted by vaping
Among today’s novelty-seeking youth, there is another rising fad – vaping. According to a 2017 National Institutes of Drug Abuse, more than one in four high school seniors reported vaping in the previous year. Searching online, you can also effortlessly find many cool-looking guys teaching how to blow out bizarre shapes of smoke rings to stunt your peers. Same as poppies, vaping looks charming and gorgeous, but addictive and toxic in essence. It is not an innocent healthier substitution to real cigarettes as it acclaims. Indeed, the nicotine it contains is no less lethal. What’s more, the most...
Creativity in translation
Splendid books deserve to be shared, just like fantastic movies or music. I have translated excerpts in Chinese from books and poems to English. They are treasures that belong to the world, and I don’t want to see them trammeled by the scopes of language. A good piece of translation is part of the creative process, not a mechanical exercise that is easily done with a computer. A computer can translate words, but they can't translate feelings. Computer-generated translations can be grammatically correct, but lack imagination. When we start to draw the images that hide in our head and lead them...
Current Events, Climate Change and Your Health
With the two climate strikes that happened in September, important conversations are happening about what needs to be done to improve the planet for future generations. Surrounding the dates of the United Nations Climate Action Summit, strikers across the world demanded climate justice for everyone. The demands included an end to the age of fossil fuels, as well as an energy revolution with climate justice and equity as its driving factor. The climate strikes — which have involved everyone from school-aged children to senior citizens — show that climate change is no longer an issue that can be...
Being a Muslim girl in America
Live Life to the fullest
Live life and live it to the fullest!!! This statement is the most overused yet motivational line that is used in the 20th century of life. It has been used so much that it lost its value, its significance that it’s just that a statement that is used with the hope that it will bring someone some light, some energy, something for people to feed on, to read on . This is more than a statement its a feeling that cant truly be described. BUT I am here to say that this statement is…..well…. actually… true. I know this because I’ve experienced it…I actually felt it and lived it. I was in Florida on a...
Making sense of the world through photography
Information has never been more accessible than it is today. With just a few clicks, I can find out just about anything on any subject of my choosing. With just the press of a button, I can access 24-hour news. While this certainly has its benefits (I cannot imagine having to write an essay on epistemology without the aid of the internet), I have come to realize that for many people, this has at least one big downside. In a time when we are constantly bombarded with general information, facts, and figures, people have become numb to some of the most pressing issues humanity is still trying to...
Which College Will Divest Next?
Signs and protestors proclaiming “Injustice is not an investment,” “Climate change is not a game,” and “We’re still here”... The heated adrenaline is almost palpable if you step onto college campuses today. The kids are asking for divestment. According to Fossil Free, universities have divested around $14 trillion to date. Divesting means that they will actively sell shares in companies that spark environmental or social concerns. In the words of 350.org, this implies “a fast and just transition to 100% renewable energy for all,” “no new fossil fuel projects anywhere,” and “not a penny more...
The Human Struggle for Acceptance
Try to Remember
What Do You Really Want?
Then Read It From the Bottom to Top (A Reverse Poetry)
I am a nothing So I refuse to believe that I am just as worthy as she is I am not as beautiful nor strong. And nothing you say will make me believe I am graceful and steady on the inside And my heart is right because painful broken society-implaced beauty. Is always more important than inner beauty because remember how you look on the outside matters. No longer can it be said that I am a somebody. I don't matter. So don't try to convince me this ugly lie: I am beautiful. (Read it now from the bottom to top)
Vaping: A Youth Epidemic
Electronic cigarettes, e-cigarettes, e-cigs, vapes, JUULs—no matter what you call them, these devices are popping up everywhere, and their explosion in popularity has created a huge public health threat for teens and young adults. A modern update to traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes deliver a heated liquid, often containing nicotine, in the form of a vapor that the user then inhales. With major companies like JUUL offering youth-friendly vapor flavors (such as fruit, candy, soda, pastry, and mint) and creating sleek, discrete devices that boast a trendy look, it’s not surprising that these...
Is it finally time to get rid of the SAT and ACT tests?
I assume that most of you guys already know about the entrance tests for college, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT). Standardizing tests have ignited a national debate in the last few years, and many parents feel understandably concerned about their children being judged on the basic tests that don’t seem to correlate with actual learning or with successful college and career outcomes. As a senior in high school who has been experiencing high school enough to state this: I strongly believe that standardized tests are unnecessary for students and it...
Opioid Crisis: How Youth Can Look at Pain Relief
If you’ve been keeping up with current events, chances are you are well aware of the dire reports of the United States' immense and worsening opioid crisis, which claimed as many as 130 lives every single day in the nation by 2017, the latest year data was collected. Yet amid the flurry of warnings and lamentations, one thing you likely haven’t heard is the enormous toll the crisis of addiction is taking on young people not only in America but also around the globe. For far too long, youth have been largely excluded from conversations surrounding the opioid crisis, not to mention today’s...
True Terror
What is True terror? You may think that it is when a war is declared or a shooting etc. But I think true terror is when it involves yourself. If it doesn't Directly affect YOU then it cannot be described as terror. You may be scared but not in terror. Now terror does not have to be lethal or frightening. It can be as simple as your computer being taken away. And that’s what it was for me. That was the moment that I experienced true terror. We had just moved to Worthington two months ago, and all I did was play on my computer. My dad got fed up and started unplugging the cords powering the...
Hey kids.
We cannot emphasize enough How it’s a problem, too much to bluff. Innocence is swept away, All because the older ones have a say, A say for us girls, and even the boys. However, it’s always the girls that are sensualized toys. At a tender age, be it nine or twenty, you would think they’d leave us be We should be open and not forced Into this over sexualized society where all they see are curves, chest, hips, legs, and the symmetrical face already. They crave beauty. They desire with lust. Well how can we trust? We’re so young, we may not even be ready. For such comments and looks. We still...
This Poem is For the Love
This poem is for the children whose schools have closed, the children who rely on whatever their pocket change can buy them in the cafeteria to get them through the day. This poem is for the people who lived through a lifetime of war and are as afraid of going outside on this still spring night as they were back then. This poem is for every family from my city to your city, to every city neither of us have ever been to or heard of. This poem is for the mother who lost her job and has to feed 3 kids. This poem is for the boy who searches for smiley faces in the rain drops sticking to his...
What high school should look like in a couple of years
Are you wondering what a student's life will look like in a couple of years? They will not have to work up so early like I did when I was still a high school student. I am so jealous! Back in the day, every day in the morning, I fight the sleepiness battle. My school starts at 7:50 a.m which I believe is extremely early for all students in general. Meanwhile, high school students are considered to be going through puberty, a step in their life before entering adulthood. Regarded, it’s the most significant period of time for teenagers to balance academics and social life. Getting enough sleep...