Category Archives: Essays

My life changed the day that I took the PSAT. It wasn’t because I earned an unprecedented score and won a scholarship, or because I earned an abominable score and decided I would clean hotels for the rest of my life, but because I checked the box that asked, can we share your information withContinue reading “The PSAT Changed My Life”

Jonathan Edwards is best known for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In it, he harped on God’s judgement of sinners. The sermon had a big impact; Edwards couldn’t even finish when he preached it in Enfield, Connecticut, because his audience was screaming, crying out, and fainting. Because of that sermon,Continue reading “Not Just Fire and Brimstone”

In the movie Wonder, the main character, August, seemed like a normal person—until you saw his face.  Because of certain genes he had inherited from his parents, he didn’t grow right, and even after plastic surgery his face was grossly deformed.  As a result, many people shunned him and kept their distance.  August didn’t fitContinue reading “Belonging and Unspoken Rules”

Pride, according to Stuart Scott, is “The mindset of self… a focus on self and the service of self, a pursuit of self-recognition and self-exaltation, and a desire to control and use all things for self” (179).  C.S. Lewis describes it as “the complete anti-God state of mind” (94).  We’re being prideful when we don’tContinue reading “The Essential Vice”

Henry VIII is one of those kings to most people.  He is widely known as the fat old king who had a lot of wives.  There are a lot of things out there about him: novels, movies, songs, magazine articles, tall tales, you name it—it’s out there.  But very little truth is known about “BluffContinue reading “The Truth About Henry VIII”

On Saturday, March 2nd, 1776, the British were not sleeping peacefully in Boston.  They were exchanging gun and cannon fire with the American army camped outside their walls.  But according to David McCullough in his book 1776, “Little damage was done by the exchange.  It was nearly all noise.” The Sunday night was similar, andContinue reading “Dorchester Heights”

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is regarded as a classic, and though I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, I finished it with the decided opinion that it wasn’t as good as many of the other classics that I have read (take Pride and Prejudice, for example).  My mom was of a similar opinion whenContinue reading “What Made “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” a Classic”

More than 620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War, as well as countless civilians. This means that the number of Americans who died during that one war was as great as the numbers of Americans who died in all other wars through Vietnam combined. Of course, this statistic is helped immensely by all of theContinue reading “The Necessity of the Civil War for Abolishing Slavery”