By Derek Baron

By E. W. Wallof

I learned to fly in the USAF, after being called to active duty upon graduating from S.M.U. in June of 1951 with an Air Force R.O.T.C. commission. I went through both basic and advanced with my closest friend, Robert Johnson. He is now better known as Representative Samuel R. Johnson, Member of Congress from North Dallas. (His name will come up again later in this narrative.)

By Randy Smith

Giggling and squealing, the school girls skipped away from the water taxi that brought them home from their school on a nearby island. Math and science give way to beaches and starfish. Whether splashing in the reef-protected ocean or part of a pick up game of soccer, homework is forgotten before their book bags hit the ground.

These children of Caye Caulker, Belize are blessed with ocean sunsets, not video games. Warm ocean breezes, not iPods. They are blessed with a community, not a neighborhood.

By Mel Meshad

One modification that would have made the general concept of childhood
slightly more interesting is the idea of a child being able to relay his or
her thoughts in legible paragraph format. Novelty usually spurs the desire
to communicate and explain. If I had been living in someplace like Benin I
would naturally have found the concept of writing about it extremely weird.
Then again the arrogance coming with thinking that one’s words might
have the effect of the other five senses just might ruin the humbling

By Lily Serfaty

By Jaimie Carlisle

By Molly Glad

Day one in Seattle was busy, busy, busy! Mom and I were both exhausted from our travels on Thursday--by the time both of our planes arrived, Em picked us up, and you factor in the time change we stayed up until 3:30am Michigan time. I left my house at 12:30pm and arrived in Seattle at 10:00pm...Mom left our house at 5:00pm and arrived in Seattle an hour before me. Connections are the worst!

By Molly Glad

My first day in China: A journal to friends and family

Emily is my sister and fellow traveler

Shelley is the friend I went to visit in China

Greetings from across the ocean,

We’re in China!!! So, so, so, surreal. That place on the map- that place on the other side of the world… we’re there right now. So, so, so, surreal.

By Kathy Neiswanger

That evening, as the moon began to disappear, the view from the fourteenth floor at work was spectacular — no clouds, twilight sky, wispy shadows about to impinge on a frigid moon. I decided to rush home and bring the kids back to watch the eclipse from my office; we’d never find a better view and we’d be comfortable besides. So I dropped what I was doing and hurried to catch my bus.

By Cheryl Tucker

Everyone who lives in Florence, or is here for an extended stay, has a piazza.

It’s the piazza that you have to visit after being away, the piazza that you show off to your visiting friends, the piazza that feels like home. It’s hard to explain what it is that pulls us to a particular one,* but I’ll try.