Nothin' but Nihil

T he day I first walked into Mrs. Valentino’s AP Language class, I didn’t know what to expect. Here I was, decked out in my new back-to-school drip, looking for an empty seat and our new teacher, Mrs. Valentino, when all of a sudden, I see a young, bald man in her place, talking about the new Kanye album. From that moment onwards, I knew that I was in for a ride. I fastened my seat belts and experienced the joys and thrills of The Great Gatsby , A Raisin in the Sun , and The Clan of One-Breasted Women , while also experiencing the pains and miseries of homework (don’t worry, I still enjoyed reading pieces such as The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and annotating other pieces). And while I’m talking about how great this class really was this year, it would be disingenuous of me to continue onwards without giving a proper appreciation to all the people and pieces that have made this year and this experience possible.  First, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the two teac

This is a picture of me, back in our old apartment at Somerset. You can tell from our apartment that it was merely a humble abode with everything I ever needed. Well, it was humble enough until I saw something on TV. Or at the library. Or at Barnes & Noble. And then I absolutely needed it, no matter how much it costed, or whether we even had any room for it back in the apartment. We were at Toys R Us that evening, and it was the usual window-shopping, until I happened to stumble upon a train set that happened to be so beautiful that only god himself could rival its beauty. You see, I had always wanted a train set to call my very own, even from a young age. My aspirations were habituated slowly by watching Thomas & Friends for hours upon hours each day, but I never realized my love for these toys until a visit to Barnes & Noble changed my life in ways I can barely describe. I was just wandering around, trying to find a book on dinosaurs or the Magic Tree House series or som