My parents married really young and had a total of 12 kids. Sadly, eight died in infancy, leaving them only four to raise...

Addiction isn’t picky. Trust me. You can come from family dinners and a good education and still fall into dependence. I sure as hell did...

My father made little money as a government officer and could not afford to take care of us kids...

I grew up in Pune, India, in a middle-class family. My parents had corporate jobs and worked from early morning to late evening to provide..

I used to ask, “What is the purpose of educating young girls? What are they good for? Why would I ever want a daughter...

The country of my mother tongue, my family, a great deal of my childhood, and my culture actually isn’t where I was born...

Back then, there were no doctors and nurses, at least, not the way we think of them today. Only midwives delivered babies...

Each time we visited the hospital with the fear that this would be the time, the moment life would leave my father...

More to get him to shut up than anything else, I walked to the sliding glass doors. I’ll be damned. Two dudes were climbing the fence...

Miami was sleepy in the ‘50s—nothing like the bustling buildings and energy it has now. When my family moved across town...

Growing up in a very strict Christian family, I was expected to settle down and start a family. As I waited for Mr. Right...

People used to look at me and see nothing more than an addict who couldn’t keep a needle out of her arm long enough to...

I’ve often wondered what drove me to have those wicked thoughts of wanting to commit suicide. Did I, in fact, have a mental illness?...

From a young age I dreamed of distant lands. Adventures in exotic places filled my head as I made my long walk...

Even now I’m still stunned when I think of the way it all went so fantastically to hell in front of my eyes...

As the positive comments rolled in at the potluck, I could feel myself begin to float. Maybe I really could do this...

...In that time, race was a pretty big issue, with African Americans having spent the past decade fighting for their civil rights...

My father was a Kashmiri Pandit, a Hindu in a Muslim-dominated area. But in those days, it was no real threat other than...

You never think it’s going to be you until it is. And then it is...

To me, my father, my so-called “hero,” single-handedly ruined my life and my family, all over a personal dispute...