Thank you! It’s an absolute privilege to be nominated.I’m thankful to my colleagues and professors. But I’d like to pause and acknowledge my mother. When I was 8, she got pregnant because her birth control failed. “Abortion?” society gasped! “What if that unborn child grows up to cure cancer someday?”…

Melanie walked around the house, putting away a toy here, fluffing a pillow there. Another dreary day in a rather mundane week. Endless versions of Coffee-breakfast-laundry-lunch-cleaning-school-snacks-homework-nag-homework-bath-dinner. Every single day, the absolute same. “The Thrilling Life of a Housewife, Chapter 1031”, she thought with a grimace. Her back ached, her eyes…

So much of what we know about love, we learn from movies and books. Dashing dudebros on motorcycles and sultry femmes in their pastel best. A formula for romance, peppered with grand gestures and heady kisses. Ah, so magical! We yearn for those fireworks and try our hardest to replicate…

The queen rubbed her aching neck. It had been a long day. Perched on her head, the crown was an object of absolute splendor. Encrusted with rubies and emeralds, it glittered darkly in the evening sun. Five hundred of her subjects waited in tense silence, their eyes flitting back and…

Brighter than a thousand suns, a curly mop of hair. Wiser than your four years, a breath of summer air. (Shine on my little girl. Shine on.) Spunkier and braver. Smarter by a mile. Full of untamed fire, you live like you smile. (Shine on my little girl. Shine on.) …

The moonlight gently hit the sloping roof of the house and then popped inside the open window. The bedroom attached to the window was rather average. A dresser, a closet, a door leading off to the en suite bathroom. Nothing special. Standard pictures of happy smiles adorned the walls. A…

Love at 5 is when you share your cookie with the new kid at the playground. And when she leaves to go play on the big scary slide that makes you dizzy, you stand up and yell, “Hey. Hey. Wait! I’m coming too!” Love at 10 is rushing to the…