“Before we go, look at how hilly it is.” “Okay.” “And then look how flat it gets on the drive.” And off Matt and I went to Michigan, where it was indeed much flatter than hilly Ithaca and seemingly everything was made of brick. I only had 36 hours in Michigan before flying home to Portland, and I…
I remember the photo I should’ve taken–two teenage girls in plaid skirts chatting and leaning on a police barricade as if it was no big deal. I remember the bizarrely empty 2am bus. I remember not expecting forgiveness. I remember not being forgiven. I remember sitting with her on the back patio, hating every single sound she spoke and…
As soon as I could write independently, I was creating characters and developing plotlines and establishing settings. In seventh grade we learned how to write academic essays, including writing theses and citing quotations MLA-style and analyzing their significance. Suddenly writing was tedious, unrewarding work. I had to follow a formula, not my own inspiration. Creative writing…
“April showers bring May flowers,” goes the saying, but it took me eighteen years to discover that on my own. See, in Portland, March showers bring April showers which bring May showers. The only difference between winter and spring is the number of daylight hours and a ten degree temperature difference. It’s rainy starting in…
I tell my friends all the time to do what they want, regardless of expectations or others’ perceptions. “You do you” is a phrase that comes out of my mouth daily. And yet, I found myself failing to follow my own advice. Towards the end of fall semester, I realized that my major, speech-language pathology, wasn’t what…
Dear Sabina, age 10, I know you’re frustrated right now—you fight with your friends weekly, you would give anything to quit swim team, and school is so easy and boring that you fake sick to stay home and read. You just want to be in the real world; you crave change and understanding. In the…
I read this poem in my freshman Honors English class in high school, and it’s one of my favorite poems of all time. In honor of World Poetry Day, I’m posting it here. Enjoy! “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins The whole idea of it makes me feel like I’m coming down with something, something…
Despite its holes, this fence is a wall between space developed by humans and space reserved for nature. It separates swampy marshlands from sidewalks at one of my favorite nearby parks. That park will never fail to remind me of the better times from high school: walking around its forest perimeter on dates, lazing around on…
“Do you know anyone in jail?” the officer asked. “Um…” I thought through everyone I went to public school with. One them had spent some time in jail, but I was pretty sure he’d been released. “No.” “Hold out your arms,” he instructed. He ran a metal-detection wand over my body, but it didn’t beep. I’d…
I recently spent two weeks on crutches after falling and badly bruising my femur. I’m in less pain now, but stairs are still difficult and I can’t bend my knee enough to sit in the back seat of a car. I’ll admit that I spent a lot of the first few days on crutches being frustrated…
Victim to Charm 