The boys were handed 15 yards of braided polypropylene rope, a serrated knife, dried meat, and plátanos secos carefully wrapped in a woman’s headscarf. As Elio packed these items into his small military-issued backpack, Omar and the troop leader stood silently. Words were not exchanged; words were not needed. The only thing being traded at a higher value than words that summer were MP5s – and plane tickets. Either way, the Asociación of Salvadoran Boy Scouts had nonexpendable

I have a lot of room to speak on impulses. They define most actions. You see, whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right. So, I always think I can, and I think that’s the way to live. My coach would tell me “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Or, perhaps that was something I read on the wall in seventh grade math. I used to write the witticisms in chalk on the driveway. If the neighborhood couldn’t see what I saw, I’d teach them myself. Follow one pink arrow, y

What is difference? What is similarity? Are there definitions for these words or are am I asking some philosophical question? I sat in my school’s meeting house as my mind raced with questions. The facilitator had asked the group us to divide into “white” and “of color.” My thick fingers gripped the black denim covering my – even thicker – thighs. My feet tapped back and forth, playing their part in the colonial room’s deafening symphony. My peer’s breaths escaped in and ou