The lights inside are loud, the incessant buzzing of the fluorescent bulbs housed in the ceiling. Does anyone else hear it over the never-ending chatter of idiot teenagers complaining about a TikTok trend,…

Pop music and energetic dance moves lure those who pass the halls into a room designed with shelves and tables of various handmade items. The crinkles from the white grocery bags and the cha-ching from…

My cheeks get hot and my vision starts to blur. I feel the tears trickle down my face, despite my efforts to stop them. I miss my father. I can’t stop thinking about holding his hand in the very last…

I wake up in a deep hole created in the mattress of my bed, looking at my phone and falling into a trance with no motivation to move. I miss my mother, and every precious moment we had suddenly runs through…

Last Tuesday, Governor Greg Abbott announced his plan to end the state-wide mask mandate. Abbott said he is going to “open Texas 100%,” lifting many COVID restrictions and allowing businesses to open…

The year was 2020: major holidays conveniently landed on weekends, high school seniors longed for graduation, families planned their annual vacations and young adults anticipated the feeling of being squashed…

Spending Christmas and New Years in the hospital is heartbreaking for the young girl. With her lungs working at a scaringly low rate, she is weak and short of breath. The winter months are always a strenuous…

As he puts on his firefighting gear, he prepares to train vigorously for hours on end. He practices cutting through roofs with a chainsaw and spraying a water hose, so he’s prepared for a real fire….

I come home from elementary school and open the mailbox. There it is, I see what awaits me: an envelope. I pick it up and read “To Aiden Gonzalez, From Dad.” What feels like a thousand emotions hitting…

It’s 3 a.m. when she awakens to check her blood sugar, a process she has to repeat daily to ensure she is healthy. She goes back to sleep until it’s time to wake up for school. Once again, she checks…

On the first day of school, children glance around the run-down building and see nothing but broken windows and wobbly desks. The young Somali students take their seats in unsturdy chairs as class begins….

The inside of the walls were alive as the sounds of thudding paws and angry barks echoed off the furniture; the silent stare of a cat perched upon a cabinet like royalty just as deafening. As sophomore…

It began as a vacation, nothing but a casual trip to the United States. But as life goes, plans change. The vacation turned into a permanent stay, and the coronavirus pandemic became the fuel for a newfound…

From selling slightly-used Supreme underwear to jerseys signed by both Michael Jordan and LeBron James, senior Jackson Reed has created his own business in the ‘HypeBeast’ industry. It all started…

As she walks onto the airplane from Korea to Japan, she absorbs the culture, the languages and the habits she picked up in the country. She’s excited about what the future holds and where she’ll go…

She sits at her desk, adding beads on the string one by one. This simple task doesn’t take long, but she always enjoys the process. As she finishes up the necklace and begins putting it in the appropriate…

Spring tends to be a time of euphoria for teachers and students. Though tasks are endless and stress is at an all-time high, the underlying excitement about the quickly approaching summer always prevails….

Fashion. It has no one definition, no one look and absolutely no rules. Fashion can be anything. Fashion is art, freedom and expression.

But even in the midst of a revolution of change and progress,…

COVID-19 has been the epitome of destruction for the past month. With a constant uncertainty surrounding the illness, life for individuals everywhere has come to a crashing halt. The virus, seeping itself…

As student motivation decreases as online schooling starts up, the impacts COVID-19 has had on people in the workforce is starting to become beyond noticeable. Essential businesses continue to stay open,…

Ding. Ding. Ding. As soon as he hears the bell go off, he hurries to his car, attempting to avoid the other students trying to leave the school parking lot. Unlike his classmates, he doesn’t drive home….

It didn’t happen all at once. It all happened slowly, so slow I hadn’t really realized what was occurring. Or maybe I was just too young and naive to care, but it took a bit of time for me to notice…

Discovered in late 2019, COVID-19, commonly known as Coronavirus, has infiltrated over 100 countries in four months. The virus was declared a pandemic on Wednesday, March 11 by the World Health Organization….

On the surface, they are stars. They are the popular kids. They exude perfection on and off the field. Every game day, these athletes are expected to be flawless; to play immaculately. Stepping onto the…

Texas taxes tampons but not dandruff shampoo.

California taxes tampons but not chocolate bars.

Louisiana taxes tampons but not Mardi Gras beads.

Thirty-one other states tax tampons but not other…

He sits in his garage, music blaring throughout the room as he rummages through the endless amounts of fabric. All the materials he needs are scattered around the table in front of him, but none of them…

She looks down, hands covered in flour. The counter is full of baking supplies as far as the eye can see. She’s on a schedule, working endlessly to meet a deadline. Birthday parties and special occasions…

His mind is blank, there is nothing except his own thoughts. Thoughts about what is in front of him and how much control he has over it. With breathtaking speed, he dribbles the ball across the field avoiding…

The oatmeal cream pie on the kitchen counter was a luxury I refused to indulge in, couldn’t indulge in. 

One bite and suddenly there was 170 calories down my throat.

One bite and it would change…

They are both covered in mud and sweat, egging each other on to keep pushing. Everything is a competition to see who is faster, stronger, better. They clamber onto the netting, neck and neck as they train…

The lights are dim as she steps onto the stage. She takes a deep breath, taking a couple moments to focus on her breathing and get in the right mentality. As the music fills the auditorium, she forgets…

“You’re not my daughter.”

Those words ring in my head over and over again, each time with an extra sting to them. My hands shake and I feel a sharp pain in my heart as tears cloud my vision. I…

He sits on his bed with a pencil in hand, a piece of paper in front of him and headphones over his ears. He listens to the rhythm of the music, tuning out every other sound as thoughts race through his…

Another doctor’s visit. I sit on the bed, hearing the paper crinkle under me as I try to get comfortable. The unpleasant sterile smell infiltrates my nose as my eyes wander to the outer space-themed…

He’s got a routine.

Like most other head orchestra directors, Bill Zauner begins every day by tuning the violins and cellos, as well as leading students in warm-up exercises. However, his life…

An ordinary day in her life smells like paint and charcoal. Ah yes, the sweet scent of creativity and self-expression. Some people depend on their morning coffee for a sense of stability. To her, art is…

It’s Monday morning. For the majority of people, mornings are accompanied by the frantic clatter of alarms. Those people reach over in desperate attempts to stop the god-awful ringing. Five more minutes….

My friend found out.
“You’re gay? Cool, now I have a gay best friend.”
She’s known me for years but minimized me to just the gay friend.
I’m more than that.

A random guy talked to me…

Sweat drips down his neck as he attempts to catch his breath. He isn’t going to give up. Not now, not ever. He has trained for this marathon for years, and he isn’t going to let his hard work be for…

This story was originally published on Farmers’ Harvest on November 7, 2019.

His voice lowers, then rises again during rehearsals. Tongue twisters allow him to work his voice so he can perform to the best of his ability. The walls of foam lock in the sound and he feels at peace,…

It was a sticky, hot Independence Day in 1992. Inside a garage that evening were two brothers with a hobby. A pastime which should have been nothing more than that, merely just a way to keep themselves…

Twelve years. Twelve years is the time it took to arrive at this destination. What began as a mere pastime is now the center of her world. The blood, sweat, tears and countless hours of practice are all…

Halftime: the moment every drill team dancer counts down to in excitement.Friday night football games are known for their intense rivalries, raging crowds and overpriced concessions, but for senior Farmerette…

It’s halftime.

She makes her way over to the podium, finds her place and waits. This is it. For the next few minutes, she carries an important task: keeping the band in time.

Under the bright lights…

Odd, overdramatic and just plain weird sums up Ryan Murphy’s newest original series on Netflix, “The Politician.” After producing TV classics such as “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” Murphy…

Every year, 16 teachers from around the nation are nominated for the National Life Changer Award, an annual award that recognizes teachers for their hard work. By going to the website, anyone can nominate…

Lesbians can only be extremely masculine or feminine. 

Gay men can only be flamboyant.

Bisexual characters are unfaithful.

Transgender characters don’t have any other personality traits.

…

One of the first things I do after I wake up, whether in the morning or after a nap, is check my phone. The evening of Saturday, Aug. 31 was no different, other than the flood of notifications on my screen.
…

The sound of people cheering in the stands seems distant. He focuses on the quarterback, waiting for the ball to be thrown his way. The eighth-grade wide receiver watches as the ball leaves the quarterback’s…