“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.” - Yann Martel, Life of Pi “Hey,” I say with a sly, stupid smirk...

I hate saying goodbye. As a little girl, my mom would take my brother and I to San Antonio to spend time with my cousins. Those one week vacations every winter and summer break was something I looked...

It began with a click. In sixth grade during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021, I searched up my first name for some unexplainable reason and found myself staring at a response that read “Shrika Vurimi...

Sometimes when I daydream, I am on the edge of an overpass I’ve crossed hundreds of times, watching the flow of Interstate 635 below.  Keeping with the realism of good ol’ Texas, it isn’t rainy,...

The margins of my math worksheets were my canvas as I drew 50 differently sized cubes with my mechanical pencil.  A younger version of myself would have lit up with joy upon the prospect of spending...

Every morning for 14 years, I have stared at Spider-Man swinging his way past Doc Ock.  I cannot give you a good reason why. It’s more by chance than something I sought out. As one of the oldest...

I always saw teenagers my age going out of town on trips or going to camps and wondered why I wasn’t able to experience the same. I entered my Sidekick class one day expecting the usual announcements,...

“It’s cloudy outside,” I say. It’s a stupid thing to say. “...”  “...Yeah,” my uncle walks away. There’s nothing left to say. I’d rather stare out the window at the blank concrete...

“I wanna be a pediatrician.” That is all I can remember since I could talk. That is what I said when someone asked the dreaded question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  For...

My ninth grade art teacher Elsa Reynolds opens an envelope to a certificate reading “Gold Seal for Kevin Gunnampalli” and my brain rejoices in glory. This was a mere upgrade to the career, but everything...

For most of my life, I’ve enjoyed writing. Not writing essays. Not writing journalism (although I have gained an appreciation for it from my two years in The Sidekick). But writing fictional stories. You...

Dinosaurs, castles, spaceships and stormtroopers inhabit containers and shelves throughout my household, scattered like remnants of some lost empire. They once stood proudly over my desk, covered the...