Today’s post originally appeared on YSA blog on May 3, 2012.

While gearing up for Global Youth Service Day, the annual celebration of service, I spent some time reflecting on service and realized that I had new and significant reasons to celebrate service this year.  In March 2011, a little over one year ago, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  When I received this shocking diagnosis from my oncologist, my mind immediately began racing, franticly looking for answers, a plan, calmness, something familiar and comprehensible to cling on to.  I began asking myself, “What can I do, starting today, to overcome this situation?  What can I do to restore my health?”  During the days following my diagnosis, I thought about times in my life when I succeeded, “What did I do in those situations to succeed?   How can I apply those lessons to overcome this…

[Originally published by The Russian Reader]

Yesterday, April 26, 2013, a district court in Zubova Polyana, Mordovia, denied imprisoned Pussy Riot activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s request for parole. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Judge Lidiya Yakovleva agreed with arguments made by prison authorities that it would be “premature” to release Tolokonnikova given that she “had been cited for prison rules violations and expressed no remorse,” and had not participated in such prison activities as the “Miss Charm Prison Camp 14 beauty contest.” Judge Yakovleva made her ruling without allowing the defense to make a closing argument, thus allegedly violating the Criminal Procedure Code. Tolokonnikova had written her statement out in advance. The translation below is of the Russian original as published in full on the web site of RFE/RL’s Russian Service (Radio Svoboda). Photos courtesy of the Free Pussy Riot Facebook page.

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“Has the convict started down…