I am surrounded by metal arms swooping forward in a salute to those who lost their lives. Golden lights illuminate the tiny engravings, hundreds of names and dates, names and dates that mean the world to some.   The families who lost someone on the planes seem to be there, standing with me. Their cries […]

  The rough pool deck digs into my feet like tiny knives. Sounds of shouting people and lifeguard whistles fill the hot and heavy air.   The water stretches out in front of me, perfectly smooth, perfectly flat, perfectly undisturbed. Go, I tell myself. My legs spring off the deck. I soar through the air. […]

As soon as we disperse from our teacher, I’m drawn to the water. A wave passes through the shallow pool, so serene and quiet.   Another wave ripples through the water, suddenly books about Japanese-American families being forced to leave their homes, sell their stuff, shipped off like cargo to a camp, flood my mind. […]

From the clogged streets of a bustling city, a cutout corner of earth gives visitors a quiet place: a place to remember, a place to shed tears.   My feet carry me down the curved path toward a shining black wall covered in the reflections of its surroundings. On the outside, a shadowed park; on […]

The windows are down and the wind breezes by my face. The street is crowded by houses that lie on top of one another.     I see rippling lights, flickering to a rhythm that is not heard.   The sky was pitch black with small sparkles hardly seen.   I walk on the lumpy […]