With my hands tied in a neat knot bracing my back, I stand proudly overlooking what used to be a heap of dirty dishes and is now sparkly clean, stacked neatly sans entropy. I hear movement, a creak of the door, a whisper of the wind chimes the wind chime hung from the kitchen door. My mother has awoken and now stands at the door. For once, she’s not in shock. On typical Friday mornings, this is the part...

Why NYU New York City and the statue of liberty is surely a beacon of freedom to any confined soul, but for me that beacon has shifted on an i,j,k vector to the center of New York University. I'm identify as a Muslim-turned-atheist living in the shackles of sharia-law where everyone around me wants to chop my head off for apostasy. I've lived in a liberty noose where eccentric people are a rare breed- and I need to...