Mute, dumb, silent, shy, introverted. Call it what you want - as a child, I disliked speaking. "De verdad, she has a speech problem," my neighbors clucked as their own children chattered noisily in Spanglish in our urban neighborhood. "She needs help, it's not normal." My father defended me, reassuring my worried mother that I'd develop my voice in due time. As a child, I always envisioned that death would come sporting a black robe carrying a sickle in his...

"You go to a girls' high school?" is a question I have heard repeatedly for four years. This question is asked with various inflections: the happy one, the confused one, and the "why would you ever do that to yourself" one. There are 78 girls - friends - in my graduating class, I have a great relationship with every teacher at the school, and our small class gives the teachers a chance to interact with every student. The particular supportive atmosphere...

She stands at a mere 5 feet, wearing a yellow suit jacket and a matching skirt. She wears her signature bulky, 80s glasses, and her hair is jet black, cropped in a fashionable style. She refers to herself as a "plain, housewife" yet she defeated Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. Her name is Corazon Aquino. Cory's strong presence fills the room. We chat about Notre Dame and the similar experiences we had at our alma mater. "What drove...

You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach right before you do something that you know makes no sense? The fight or flight feeling? That is what I felt standing on the ledge of building about to jump off, attached to a zip line, 200 feet above the ground. Other than my surely impending demise, it was a beautiful day. The sun had just come out from behind the clouds, and it was my birthday. "What a great day...