Friends drift in and out of my life with time and change, but certain figures remain in my memory, resting well above the shifting winds of circumstance. Eight years have passed now, but the memory of Annie still remains engraved in my mind, forever creating a lens through which I see the world. Ironically, in fact, because she is blind.
    Annie wasn’t lucky enough to be born blind- she began losing her sight when we were in 4th grade. When...

    My mother came to the U.S when she was four years old, and spoke no english. Her parents, my grandparents, owned a shoe repair shop in Tampa, which they operated from  5am-9pm Monday through Saturday. On school days, my mother and aunt would rise in the grey mornings, dress themselves in their homemade clothes, fix themselves a bowl of cheerios and skim milk, and walk to the bus stop in the frequent rain.
    My mother attended the public...