I believe that success is measured by three things: achievement of personal happiness, the difference you make in the world, and the people who love you. Personal happiness and making a difference in the world, regardless of monetary gain is a huge part of how I define success. I believe that Bill Gates is a […]

WARNING, hollow words coming, “I’m sorry,” she says. I know she can feel the burn, the searing ray that is my upturned eyes. I know, as she does too, that those words, coming always before a pathetic and demeaning argument of base points, are as empty as the crater of sympathy I have. Words, I […]

“5.” I glanced down at the ticket in my hands as I sat on the floor in my parents’ living room. I had just turned eighteen, eligible for my first lottery ticket, and I decided to get one on a whim. And now they were announcing the winner. So far, one number in, I matched. […]

“I love you! I love you!” The little Honduran boy yelled those three little words again and again in his heavily accented English. After he had recently attached himself to my hip, I taught him how to say “te quiero” in my own dialect. He would not let me forget it. But after the long […]

The whole drug war going on in Mexico and now part of Central America has really changed my perceptions of those countries south of the border, and also those of my own country. Although the drug trade has been alive and strong for many years, it was not until recently that President Calderon decided to […]

Do you remember a time—maybe when you were a little kid, maybe just recently—when you did something awful?  It most likely disappointed the people around you.  Or perhaps the disappointment you felt in yourself nearly suffocated you…with shame, anger, and regret.  Everyone has had moments when they say (wholeheartedly), “If I could have anything in […]

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” -Herman Cain Do you remember that high school superlative “Most Likely to Succeed?” When you look back in your old yearbook, you see the boy and girl that were the most […]