Growing up, I was fascinated with the idea of North Korea. I watched documentary after documentary, trying to wrap my mind around a place so unlike my own home — a place without freedom, education, or opportunity. Watching one of these documentaries, I listened to the story of a girl who had escaped...
When Lent rolls around each year, I find myself dreaming up a list of sacrifices I can make with the intention of becoming gloriously perfect by the time Easter arrives. And every year, I’ve failed. This year, I’m reminded of Lent as a penitential season set aside, not to demand perfection, but to redirect my...
News media fell for North Korea’s newest strategy for gaining soft power when a charming young woman, the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, made her debut during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The Olympics made controversial headlines over the weekend when Kim Yo-Jung, the dictator’s sister, suddenly was chosen to...
Imagine you and your brother have $5 to buy candy. He wants Tootsie Rolls and you want Oreos. You argue about what to buy. Suddenly you realize, “Why argue? Let’s buy $5 of each!” Unfortunately, life does not work that way. You cannot buy $10 of candy with $5. Similarly, you cannot increase the budget...
By the time the hot water hit my feverish head, I realized I wasn’t hungover on a Tuesday morning. The headache hadn’t passed, my skin was oddly numb despite our enthusiastic water heater, and my body felt like a piñata salvaged from an eight-year-old’s birthday party. Getting sick during the school year is a higher...