“What do you want for dinner?” Each time my parents ask me this question, my mind plunges into a frenzy of indecision and my eyes adopt a vacant stare. It’s such an open-ended query; there are...

Curry and lentils steamed on the stove, my father sat with his feet up on the couch while my mother and grandmother quietly talked with one another. An intense Pakistani drama played out on the TV, with...

As my iPhone alarm blares on, I reach over to my bedside table to hit the snooze button. It's already 8:56 a.m., four minutes before the start of my first period. Oops. I lumber to my desk, a mere two...

Most people see the new year as an opportunity for a fresh start; it provides us with a “rewinding the clock” mindset. The collective excitement for 2020 was just the same, if not more. We were starting...

A few weeks ago, my friends and I were in the middle of a quintessential teen text conversation about our most frequently used apps. There wasn’t much variation; most of us had named Messenger, Spotify...

My childhood was dominated by a one-party political system: the Democratic party. For the first twelve years of my life, my parents, my friends and my friends’ parents were all Democrats, and I didn’t...

After eight long months of quarantine, I’ve begun to adapt to this “new normal.” Though I’ve learned to adjust my expectations and change the way I approach my daily life, I still miss daily social...

The man stands silently, eyes cast down and skin blanched white. He shakes slightly from the center of the room, while concerned onlookers line the walls — black hats, black cloaks, black ties. The room...

I’ve always had this idealistic image of what working as an actor at Markoff's Haunted Forest would look like. To most teens in the area, Markoff’s is a Halloween tradition, but as someone who lives...

Over the course of the summer, our daily lives stagnated and social interactions dwindled. Staying indoors slowly instilled a fear of the unpredictability that lay outside our doorsteps. This inactivity...

As a rising junior, the fear of standardized tests loomed over my head the entire summer. I spent most of my days completing what felt like an endless pile of practice tests and review books to prepare...

Social media is my gateway to a wealth of information. Every morning, my routine of scrolling through apps remains the same. I check Instagram to stay updated on any sports news from the night before,...