On Oct. 20, I visited the World Press Photo exhibit at Brookfield Place in Toronto. The exhibition had prize-winning photographs assembled by World Press Photo, the organizers of “the world’s largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest.” As an amateur photographer, I went looking for inspiration. I received so much more than that.

I wasn’t in the habit of regularly going to church until five years ago. I was bored by the Mass as a child and found very little reason to attend if I could help it. As a pre-teen, I openly resisted Christianity. I rarely went to church in those years of adolescent angst. Even when my parents dragged me to church, I felt uhappy to be there. 

BRAMPTON, ONT. - The law might give some students a pass from religious studies in Catholic high schools, but that doesn’t mean non-Catholic students are opting out of religion class. 

TORONTO - As due dates for university applications are fast approaching, many Catholic students are taking time to consider faith before making any final decisions.

TORONTO - I expected much worse when I sat down recently to watch The Book of Mormon musical at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre.

Conchita D’Souza, a second-year Christianity and Culture student at the University of Toronto, equates voting with flipping a stone into a pond. Each vote can create “ripples that will go towards influencing society,” she said.

It has been a month since recent high school graduates like me began their lives outside of the walls of high school. Be it post-secondary education or the workplace, beginning a new chapter in life is like moving away from a place you once called home. The “real world” — that is, the people and culture outside of your home — is seemingly heedless.

“Why are you busy Sunday morning?” my high school friends would ask. “Oh, I have Church,” I would reply. 

While watching a sappy reality dating show a few years ago, the TV host made a statement that stuck with me: “Are you always the bridesmaid and never the bride?”

A recent study by the Council of Ontario Universities paints a rosy picture of post-graduate life. Within two years of graduating, 93 per cent of graduates are employed and the average salary for someone working full-time is just under $50,000.

Dylan Robertson has gone from Youth Speak News reporter to homegrown terrorism investigator.

Grandparents are an undervalued resource 

When I was eight, one of my friends made a statement that baffled me: she didn’t know any of her cousins. Growing up, I had this precon-ceived notion that everyone had a large family, and every Sunday my peers, like me, would go to church, walk down to their grand-parents’ house afterwards for brunch and play with their cousins long into the afternoon.

TORONTO - Pornography deadens healthy sexual relationships, says Moira McQueen.

Following a traumatic injury and several surgeries, a friend I had once known to be free-spirited came out of the hospital a different person. He was healed physically but, mentally, he was far from fine. He called me one night as I was working on a school assignment. All notions of a quick conversation dropped when his shaky voice collapsed into a cry for help.