Samrah's Stories

  Does anybody truly own a name, or is it merely a borrowed title passed down by our parents?   For our entire lives we claim it as our own, and act as if thousands of other people don’t have the same name. Even though we grow into it and shape it with our experiences, it never truly belongs to us. Babies will continue to be born with our name, and even though we borrow it for a lifetime, it will remain long after our death. This same notion of borrowing a name resonates with me when I reflect upon my own, “Michael”, even though it’s just something that I borrow, it holds deep personal meaning.   On my father’s side, there is a tradition where we are given biblical names that connect us to figures of strength and faith. For my father it was Saint Thomas, for my brother it was the Apostle Matthew, and for me it was Arch Angle Michael. Arch Angle Michael is a figure of extraordinary resolve and strength, he is the champion of justice and the prince of Heavenly Host. In th...

Through my literary journey of discovering how “literature is life”, there has been numerous threads of support that helped weave my growth and shape me as a writer. As I reflect on this journey, I can only feel gratitude to the people and pieces of literature that have played pivotal roles in honing my literature skills. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Ms. Valentino, she is a great teacher who focused on our progression as writers rather than having us do tedious assignments (what every other Ap lang teacher does). Her emphasis on fostering our writing skills rather than drowning us in paperwork has truly made a difference in my literary journey.   All my friends have told me about their experiences in AP Lang, where they had assignments like annotating 30 pages of literature and then having a quiz on the material. Through this teaching approach, I was able to learn how to successfully lock down text and find nuanced details. I learned so many different writ...