“I was a shy, introverted child. When I was 6, my grandfather brought me to a magic store and bought me a magic trick…
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“We were coming home from a rock concert and were about a mile from our house when we got hit head on by a young woman. She was doing about 60. We were…
WATCH NOW“I founded ERASE Racism in 2001 after being hired by the Long Island Community Foundation to develop a project to address racism rather than its symptoms…
READ STORY“I come from a family of artists. It was always in my blood. I won ‘most artistic’ in school and all that, but my real passion was music…
READ STORY“As a Central American immigrant who became the president of Pronto of Long Island community outreach center in Bay Shore, I have seen the pursuit of the American dream from both sides…
READ STORY“When I graduated from Farmingdale High School, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I started getting into making Vines, which were these 6-second videos, and I had a couple of friends who would tell funny stories on Snapchat…
READ STORY“I had a crazy health scare during my sophomore year of college. I was a healthy student and soccer player. I was walking to class and had a headache like I’ve never had before…
READ STORY“I was in the Air Force during Korea. I served for four years as a medic…
READ STORY“She went to camp one morning in the summer of 2019, and I got the dreaded call that she was really sick. She had a headache, something was wrong with her leg, and they had already called 911…
READ STORY“I was diagnosed with autism at the age of 4. My mom was working as a nurse at Brunswick Hospital, and my dad was about 20 years into the moving business, when my mom found out there was something wrong with me…
READ STORY“I’m originally from Port Antonio, a small town in Jamaica. At age 6, I started getting sick all the time. The doctors gave me a penicillin shot but didn’t test to see if I was allergic. It turned out I was…
READ STORY“My family has lived on Jamaica Ave. in Plainview for 30 years. We have been decorating our house for Christmas for a long time, and we keep adding more to it…
READ STORY“I originally lived in Merrick, but when my parents got divorced, my mom and I moved to Las Vegas after junior high. I got in with the wrong crowd, dropped out of school in ninth grade and got hooked on methamphetamine…
READ STORY“I grew up in Central Islip, and I was always into art. Down the block from my house were an abandoned power plant and a psychiatric center. It was covered in graffiti, and I found a can on the floor, and I used it to write my name on the wall…
READ STORY“Seven years ago, I was asked if I knew of Ward Hooper, because there were similarities between his paintings and my photographs. I didn’t, so I checked him out on social media…
READ STORY“My mom always reminds me, from the moment I could start picking out my outfits, I never let her dress me. It’s been my choice with how I want to express myself…
READ STORY“I have nine children and my husband had a good full-time job as a computer systems administrator for the IRS…
READ STORY“My significant other passed away unexpectedly in October 2019, and my goal was to find a stable home for my 16-year-old son and my 5-year-old daughter. We stayed with my sister…
WATCH NOW“I grew up in a tenement in Manhattan’s San Juan Hill neighborhood, demolished in the ’50s to build Lincoln Center…
READ STORY“One of the misconceptions about people who are transgender is that it’s a lifestyle choice. I laugh inside. A lifestyle choice is I’m going to move to…
WATCH NOW“My mom owns women’s clothing boutiques in Smithtown and Commack. Her primary mission is to make every woman feel valued and great about themselves…
READ STORY“In 2013, I was asked to rescue Long Island’s annual Puerto Rican Day Parade when the organization that had been running it had no money to cover the expenses…
READ STORY“I always try to have a positive energy. Growing up, my two sisters passed away, and I never knew how to handle it…
READ STORY“I delivered my stillborn, beautiful baby girl, my first daughter, Diana Hope, on June 13, 2017, at 8:10 p.m.…
READ STORY“As an understudy, it’s very hard to step into roles where people expect to see someone else…
READ STORY“Even when I was a kid, I wanted to make sure people around me were happy…
READ STORY“I was always interested in airplanes as a little kid. Growing up, I saw movies like ‘Iron Eagle’ and ‘Top Gun,’ that’s what did it…
READ STORY“You have 45 good years; I call that youth. Then you have an option, depending on your genes, of going downhill or, depending upon your decisions, going uphill…
READ STORY“I started boxing when I was 15 or 16. My dad got me into it. When I was growing up, I had pictures of myself at 4 or 5 years old with gloves on, but I didn’t know how to box…
READ STORY“I’m a Brooklyn transplant and I came to Long Island three years ago. My parents were in two different facilities here: Dad was right down the block in a nursing home in Long Beach and my mom was in an assisted living home in Far Rockaway…
READ STORY“I started playing guitar early, about 10 or 11 years old. My father had a music store: Al Marino Music Center in Williston Park…
READ STORY“I am a strong believer in educating and advocating about pediatric cancer, especially brain tumors, because it might save another child’s life…
READ STORY“I have been an athlete my entire life. Basketball was my main sport. My dad was my coach and I was probably 6 or 7 when I started. He treated us equally, he didn’t come down too hard on me…
READ STORY“My parents moved from Haiti around the mid-80s. My dad always said that the first few months, it was just such a culture shock…
READ STORY“It was quite a shock when I delivered. I knew right away something was different. We were unaware that Thomas would be born with Down syndrome. It was scary hearing that your first child is special needs…
READ STORY“I think that a lot of kids today struggle with coming out. It was really hard for me. I wasn’t really into sports, and I didn’t relate to many boys in my grade; I always knew…
READ STORY“I’m known as the Bra Lady. Through word of mouth, people come to see me from many miles away because I’m the Bra Lady…
READ STORY“My dad is passed now, but he would challenge us and say, ‘Work harder, but never forget you need to help someone else.’ He was a Navy frogman and a decorated New York City fireman…
READ STORY“One day, I was at the reference desk of the East Islip Public Library where I work. I got a call from a young man asking about the comic con at the Cradle of Aviation Museum…
READ STORY“Throughout my life, I had tiny psychic experiences. I would see different figures in my house and things like that. My mom shared with me that when she was younger, she had experiences, too…
READ STORY“I grew up on the Shinnecock reservation and went to Southampton High School. Since the reservation was basically in the middle of Southampton, we had a community in and outside of school…
READ STORY“I’m a junior at Marist College in Upstate New York. While I have been here, I’ve seen a lot of people struggling, especially during COVID-19…
READ STORY“Since I was a little kid, I loved coloring books and drawing superheroes. I didn’t take art classes until I was at Walt Whitman High School. I would get into a lot of fights because I moved to Huntington from Queens at 10, and the places…
WATCH NOW“Our daughter was born on Nov. 8, 2019 — the best day of our lives. Everything was storybook perfect for the first five weeks. December 15, that’s when every parent’s…
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