This was written by our contributing writer, Karina Coghlan’s dear friend, Kathi Hinkle. He didn’t live here, and he didn’t live there. As a matter of fact, I don’t think he lived anywhere. But let me roll back the years and start near the beginning. I was born and raised in a metropolitan city. Thirty-five…

My heart and mind are forever scarred by indescribable sorrows. Memories of my sweet sixteen ignite a longing to be who I once was before. It seems like it has been a long time, yet yesterday, since I was an easygoing teenager. Lots of friends were constantly around me, and laughter beamed from my being.…

It’s a rainy and cold early morning.  It’s still dawn, and by six o’clock, I have to catch a bus to my grandparents’ house on the deep side of KwaZulu-Natal. By 5:45, my auntie had accompanied me to the bus stop. Our goodbyes were not so good because her last words were mainly about the…

The smell of the salty ocean, the cool breeze, and the warmth of the sun on my skin is what summer is all about. Spending long summer days at the beach has been my favorite thing ever since I was younger, and since I grew up in Florida, I’ve never known summers to be any…

She had arrived by morning flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport from Dublin that day in February, while he had taken a short transit through Berlin before taking a ride by a high-speed train to travel to Paris.  Orla was super excited to explore the city of her dreams, which she had heard so…

Living against the backdrop of increasingly destabilizing international relations, rising totalitarian regimes, political instability, and economic impoverishment made the people of Hamburg stare at a stark and uncertain future in Europe. A war was looming ahead, they feared. The ambiance in every house was filled with tense trepidation whenever there was an announcement on the…

The Frank family lived under a lot of insufficiency and poverty. Christmas time was the only time they got to eat luxurious food and goodies because the mother of the house would bring the groceries and snacks she gets from her employer, Mrs. Keys. Mrs Frank sometimes received an invitation from her employer to come…

My best friend Genevieve and I met in kindergarten; we have been inseparable ever since then. We have been taking dance classes together since we were five, and no day goes by when we don’t eat, sleep, and breathe ballet. Once my mother found out that she would have a daughter, she knew she wanted…

Prologue: It was the early hours of the morning when the noise of a crying baby could be heard echoing through the empty hallways of the palace. There were little guards on duty and those who were trusted. Women around the new mother desperately tried to soothe the baby, closing the windows and doors to…

When I started my freshman year of high school, I met a girl named Charlotte, and we quickly became best friends. We had a lot of things in common, like singing, acting, doing ballet, playing the violin, and talking about the latest boys we had crushes on. However, it turns out that we both liked…