I adopted my cat on April 3, 2023, the day before my 26th birthday. She is a tiny, partially blind, black cat named Dahlia, but has somehow gotten the nickname of “Shmoo,” which is the only thing she responds to. She is sweet, cuddly and everything you could want in a pet. Shmoo is the first pet I e...

I’ve always loved writing. In particular, writing stories. Telling a story takes a lot of skill; you have to describe people without just listing off attributes, you have to keep the storyline simple enough so that your readers can follow it and, God forbid, if there’s any plot holes. Writing a stor...

I haven’t always loved Halloween. Growing up, my parents were kind of anti-Halloween and instead of trick-or-treating, we would go to our church for an All Saints Eve festival. As a kid, I didn't know any different. The festivals were fun, with games with prizes to win, like candy or cupcakes, and y...

I came to journalism in an abnormal way; I am not a traditional, go-to-college kind of guy. Instead, I started my adult life by going to cosmetology school. I graduated in 2019 and started in my first salon in the middle of January 2020. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic happened. We were all in quarantin...