The day my father died was Monday, early in the morning. Normally, I would have taken my daughter to school, but she was home with a badly injured foot. My uncle called and said, “Now I have to tell you that your father crossed the country this morning.” This was a call I had been
I didn’t expect to start my adult life so young, but that’s where I found myself when my parents kicked me out of their house at 17. I learned how cruel life can be by living in a homeless shelter for a year. I cried myself to sleep almost every night and realized that the
My dad is one of the smartest people I have ever met. He was known as a talented poet and speaker at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia. But during this time, Colonel Hugo Banzer established a military dictatorship and, in the midst of political repression against students, left for Madrid
When I started planning a family vacation to Orlando, I knew we wanted to have the full theme park experience: stay at a Universal hotel, visit the new Epic Universe, add a day at Disney, and enjoy the food and attractions along the way. The result was a six-day vacation that cost $8,620 and required
Growing up, celebrations in my family were basically reserved for birthdays and Christmas. We don’t really celebrate academic achievements or traditional milestones. Those things were seen simply as expectations, not necessarily achievements worthy of recognition. Now that I’m a parent of teenagers, I’ve found myself intentionally doing the opposite: celebrating the small victories on the
I’m a summer Grinch. I do not thrive in hot climates. I don’t have money for an extravagant vacation. Perhaps my least favorite thing about summer is that my family’s sense of routine is disrupted. My two children, ages 10 and 12, spend several weeks of the summer at day camp, but we also have