Competition Writer: Xichen Wang My Grandma's Hands, Artist: Allison Pan The first thing I see when I think of my grandma is her hands. They are not the soft, smooth hands of a young woman. They are wrinkled, dotted with faint age spots, and the skin is thin, like the pages of an old book that has been read too many times. But to me, those hands are the safest place in the world. They have held me through every storm, guided me through every uncertainty, and woven the quiet

Yielding to the world, for good reason, is much easier than standing against it. Narratives (which are often true) tell us about the harsh realities of our world: that perhaps hopes are impossible to fulfill; that perhaps your dream career just can’t sustain your life; that injustice is inherent to our human existence. This doesn’t mean one’s existence has to be miserable. Reconciliation is a recurring theme across our essays for good reason: many people are able to come to t

Juan was born in 1989 in California. His mother worked long hours cleaning offices, and his father was rarely home. From a young age,...

John was born in 1983 in Springfield, a mid-sized town in the Midwest. His mother worked as a nurse in a local hospital, and his father...