Dark Blue, Painted The Sky

Journeying through the mountainous desert towards this remote, yet beautiful park, I was shocked by the extent of the untamed land. I searched my mind, tempted to recall a time. I gazed upon an expanse of earth so untouched by human hands. Before me, the earth and sky unfolded, stretching for miles with little interruption. The closer we journeyed to the park, the more I began to feel isolated from the rest of the developed world. Overcome with feelings of excitement and curiosity, I felt

This memoir was quite the interesting one and left some bit of a mystery for us to guess on finding out or to never find out. The main point of the memoir in my opinion was to understand that people will be treated differently due to that one person's culture. As well as how others see things differently due to other people's culture and their preferences to that. So in this memoir they were in India and I'm guessing or assuming that Premila’s teacher must have had a conflict with Indians on how they do things or how they act.“We had our test today, she made me and the other Indians sit at the back of the room,with a desk between each one”(Rama Rau page 39 ) First evolve why would she do that seems cruel and unfair on how she just put the Indian children in the back for no reason or even an explanation why? “Why was that, darling” she said it was because Indians cheat,” Premila added. “So I don't think we should go back to that school.”(Rama Rau page 39). So this bothers me on how that Premila’s teacher has to be like this does she just hate Indians and their culture and or cultural way they do things, wearing certain clothes,and or how they celebrate things culturally because her one voice can change on how a society view people around the world due to that culture with that one statement. Even though I can understand where their teachers coming from a little bit tough but, tough but not really that doesn't mean that

I was a passenger in the backseat of our family vehicle. The small bumps in the pavement lulled me to a place of perfect repose. As we looked outside our windows we could see the sky painting a magnificent show for us. The sun was going down, but the heavens were brighter and more astounding than I had ever seen them before. It was as if someone had set the clouds alight with raging wildfires and splashes of pink and purple scattered about. I never wanted it to end, but the sky had other plans. The masterpiece before us began to recede into darkness as the nighttime engulfed the sun and put daytime to

Life is unpredictable and no one could gifted with a foresight. I still remember that day when I boarded the plane, from China to America, up to eighteen hours of travel. When I step on the land of America, my life instantly changed. The exaggerated graffiti on the wall with a twisted smile looks like the one who is saying “Hi.” to me. When I go in to my “home”,mice and cockroaches are all around. The teen who stand near the door says, “Welcome to America.”

I walked around unsteadily all day like a lost baby, far away from its pack. Surrounded by unfamiliar territory and uncomfortable weather, I tried to search for any signs of similarities with my previous country. I roamed around from place to place and moved along with the day, wanting to just get away and go back home. This was my first day in the United States of America.

The sky was lit up with blended colors of orange, red and yellow. The contrast created between the dark waters and the luminous sky makes the horizon look like a meeting of two worlds. The outer edges of the blazing sky have begun to cool with the indigo of the night, as it slowing sinks away. Before we knew it, it was pitch black dark and all you heard was a big pop, bang and boom. A soon as the firework popped in the sky, different colors lit up the sky. Fountain of colorful sparks, racing into the dark night sky. Crackling fire crackers creating a rhythm of sound. The ocean acting like a mirror, reflecting the colors of the fireworks on across the water. Everyone’s face lit up with excitement as the fireworks, pop and seen a glare of light across the sky. Kids running around with sparkles and roman candles, holding them up to the sky as they shot our like rockets toward the sky. The fireworks went on and on for about another fifteen minutes and we all called it a

Stepping out of my first plane ride, I experience an epiphany of new culture, which seems to me as a whole new world. Buzzing around my ears are conversations in an unfamiliar language that intrigues me. It then struck me that after twenty hours of a seemingly perpetual plane ride that I finally arrived in The United States of America, a country full of new opportunities. It was this moment that I realized how diverse and big this world is. This is the story of my new life in America.

The radiant rays of light leapt off of the sun’s surface while a tiny flock of hummingbirds filled the azure sky with their sweet song. Meanwhile, the sky itself was clear, a blank canvas of light blue painted across the horizon. At the time, I was 5’5, athletically built, and relatively average in height compared to my seventh grade classmates. I had uneven locks of black hair that seemed to go out in every direction, similar to the quills of porcupine. Nevertheless, my body movements were sluggish due to the lack of sleep I had been receiving.

I had already moved once to a different country where, from my point of view at eleven years old, the culture and the people were strange. The change from Cuba to Mexico had been difficult and adapting to their traditions and their dialect had been challenging, but I was able to adjust to this new place. It wasn’t bad, moving from my birth country to Mexico had taught me to observe the world in a different perspective and while struggling to adapt I learned a lot about myself.

The first thing I ever felt was intense wind and somehow I knew that when I opened my eyes alI I would see is blue. Light pale grey blue. Blue so light that the horizon can’t tell where the grey water ends and the sky begins. Blue that promises rain and storms and chaos. I was sitting on something. Something with scales and muscles pumping, up and down, up and down and I could only grin because I knew. When I finally opened my eyes and looked at the dragon on whose back I sat, all I could feel was peace. Peace in the air with the slate skies. The dragon pushed harder, flapping it’s wings faster. Up up up up. I thought the farther up we went, the less air there would be, but no. There was more. I felt it in my blood. It flowed in constant wind, sending us through the layers and layers of atmosphere.

(226) : In 2015, I had the opportunity to volunteer abroad in India, which was nothing short of life-changing. Though some parts of India certainly enjoy many first world luxuries, simply being outside the United States of America was a learning experience. Growing up American, many of the things I experienced in India were new and different to me. While there was resistance and discomfort at first, I ultimately found ways to appreciate and learn from them.

“It’s difficult to describe this part of India to people, because you can’t understand what this country is really like until you have actually been here and experienced it,” Colleen Clines, the co-founder and CEO of Anchal Project, points out as our vehicle zig-zags its way through livestock, people and the occasional camel. We were with a small group of people that included Colleen’s mother, her sister Maggie Clines who is also the creative director at Anchal, and another writer from Kentucky. As we make our way towards a local children’s village, I take a moment to reflect on the fact that I was sitting comfortably in the Nashville airport just two days ago. Now, I was taking in the many sounds and smells that India had to offer on an overcrowded

Growing up in Lewiston, a big city only by Maine’s standards, there is not much opportunity to experience other cultures. Perhaps the only diversity comes from the lone Indian restaurant and the few Halal markets that inhabit the “downtown.” There was always more to be desired, which drove me to seek distant civilizations and ways of life through books, the internet, and music. Likewise, I am fortunate enough to have a Gung Gung from Guangdong to provide me with a direct connection to a faraway land. Still, having a living link only formed a deeper yearning to know the vast world that

The sky was crying, wetting the scorched earth trying to heal its wounds. The jewels seeped deep into the core, breathing life where previously there had been none. I breathed the fresh smell and imagined that it could fix me too… but the precious drops dripped off me, repelled by my bright red

“75 years ago, back in 2216, you could look up, and actually see blue sky, not grey clouds from pollution. Now all you