How Has Learning English Helped Me to Build Confidence and Communication Skills?

Last year, when I was in military service in South Korea, I was taking a subway to go home during my break. I was waiting for my subway, wearing a military uniform and carrying a backpack. Then one girl came to me and asked, “How do I go to the Sinsa station” (one of the…

My Discovery of Interconnectedness

As a child, my mother would always tell me stories of my ancestors and distant relatives, but I tended to brush it off like it was not a big deal. At such a young age, my goal was not to learn or absorb information about my past; it was to live in the present. As…

My Home is Mine to Choose

I never really did belong anywhere.   Of course, the minute I say that I’ll be ambushed with the appalled exclamations of “How could you say that? That’s not true!” from anyone close enough to be within earshot, but it is true.  Floating around, drifting in and out of people’s lives, moving from one place to…

Hold Me

You’ve been anticipating this appointment all week. Since your last appointment, when the woman with the bobby, curly hair held you gently and changed your mind— convinced you that you weren’t crazy. Or like your mom said, hormonal. Or like your dad said, bored. Your dad, an immigrant from the Bengali region who worked for…

A Technological Invasion

Technology is a very important part of our lives as almost every person with a cell phone would probably say. We live in a world where we rely on technology so much that in a way it controls us. Authors like Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov could portray this concept in the 1940s and 50s…

Siren: Based On The Painting “Nocturne”

Black. White. You can’t seem to have one without the other. It is their contrast that brings out their beauty.   Clouds on a spring afternoon, the dandelions in the pasture out back, the warm milk Ma brings us before bed. White has always been a sign of comfort and beauty in my eyes.  …

Can You Hear Me Now?

Modern technology and media have changed how we communicate with one another as human beings. Where does our need for intimacy fit into this new communication formula? This essay analyzes how romantic relationships and digital intimacy function – particularly in the context long-distance and military relationships. It begs the question of how our connections have…

Nature of the Beast

I’ve always been a glutton; there’s no denying that. I’ve always licked my plate clean, not out of obligation to use what I’ve been given, but to bring about a bliss that only eating can elicit. While I tear through a steak, snap into a carrot, or chew up a turnip, I feel as if…

Thanksgiving Ethnography: My Family’s Fryers

According to Warren Belasco, what defines a family holiday meal is its planning, its timing, its timelessness, and most importantly - its meaning. My family’s annual Thanksgiving is planned by my grandmother on my father’s side of the family at least weeks in advance. This is when she starts making her homemade cranberry bread. Sometimes…

Retracing the Steps of British Abolitionists: A Digital Learning Approach to the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade

The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in history. It involved an intercontinental transfer of wealth, goods, and most importantly, millions of people over the course of four centuries. Great Britain was one of the chief participants in the traffic. According to estimates available through Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (2013),  Britain…