Last week, the game of baseball was changed forever. All it took was a 409-page report with 86 named players.

The Mitchell Report, released Thursday, identified some of the biggest names in the game. Then again, some of the names were … not so big.

How do you identify when you are mixed? This is a problem I have always dealt with. When people first meet me, they normally assume that I’m Caucasian and not mixed…this is because of my pale skin and brown hair. Occasionally people will remark that I have “very Indian features”, but I’ve also been more incorrectly mistaken for being Latina and also Greek.

It was 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and the chess team and I had just obtained our second-place trophy at the West Chicago Open Team Tournament. We were ready to leave and begin our three-hour drive from Chicago back to Champaign. However, the moment we exited the building, we were immediately struck by a huge gust of wind, and we saw that the landscape was covered in a layer of white.

With Christmas quickly approaching, I am happy to once again feel the holiday cheer. But one area where the holiday spirit is startlingly absent is my home.