This is heaven. This is a pull in my hamstrings and a push in my arches. This is my optical illusion: silence on the outside, swarming with corrections on the inside. This is what I had wanted from the moment I entered this same room eight years ago. This is my foundation, what keeps me from crumbling. This is a split. This is where, on a Wednesday night jazz dance class not too long ago, I found myself. In this...

Simply put, it was not the perfect day for a visit. There was a consistent drizzle that followed my car in New Jersey up an hour and a half to Poughkeepsie. The campus, reflecting a stillness from the grey sky, was littered with the remains of that weekend’s convocation. Vassar was barren, but perfect nonetheless. Before my tour, Vassar seemed more like a mythological city than a nearby campus. Throughout my high school career I had heard stories of...

Since birth I have lived in juxtaposition; my town is one-square mile with 8,000 residents, but a mere five minute drive will get you to the George Washington Bridge and into New York City where millions occupy its crowded apartments. Foreign family members often remind me of my luck. In a place where I can easily walk to the other side of town to see the local artists’ sculptures, I also have the luxury of being able to take a 30-minute...

The day Shirley Temple died I cried in front of my entire acting class, and everyone just stared. As a child I often made the mistake of associating every redhead with myself; Ariel from The Little Mermaid has red hair just like me, and though we have contrasting personalities, I called her my Disney princess. But Shirley was different. She had an innate talent that I could feel oozing out of my TV screen and into my imagination. Somehow, I...