Runways are windy. That was my first thought as I stepped outside, away from the clammy air of the terminal. Then, the beauty of the island struck me. The green mountain panorama greeting a lavender sky was more vivid than those white-sand, Photoshopped island postcards. I tried not to think of goodbyes. Today was the last day of a two-week service trip to a sustainable farm in St. Croix, and because I would probably never see these new friends again,...

Why Colgate I honestly cannot say I was your average American kid: when I was younger, I didn’t watch TV or play videogames—I collected flags. I’ll admit I felt a nerdy thrill when walking out of the Rand McNally store with the Vanatu flag curled up in my shopping bag. And what flags I couldn’t buy, I would make on my own. I used felt for the flag and an old mini-blind wand for the flagpole. ...

I am an artist; a white square porcelain plate, my canvas. With food, I create a culinary painting and three buttery-beige raviolis mark its center. Pocketed between the beige squares, small swirls of pine green spinach and fresh marbled ricotta cheese create asymmetric designs. Thin, yellow drizzles dash across the white plate and over the ravioli, filling the air with a soft, buttery aroma that intertwines with the dampened scent of musky, woody-sage leaves. Each flavor and stroke of paint...

I was just a silver speck driving along Earth’s cracked, parched, crust. For miles, I chased the horizon line, where the iron-colored land mixes with the cloud-swirled, royal blue atmosphere. As I chased that line along the dry dirt road, one side greeted me with dry, green yucca; the other, a cavernous gash in the ground. I step up on the stone and mortar wall and peer over the edge of the canyon into the quiet void of wind...

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