Archives | the post calvin

English Eccentricities

by Natasha (Strydhorst) Unsworth | Sep 25, 2022 | Placeless

I guess I’ve reached the point of news media consumption at which I expect the phrase “juicy secrets of stars” to concern some vapid, nosy meddling in some stranger’s affairs—my science communication background and research focus notwithstanding.

The Mice in My Kitchen and Holy Envy

by Joshua Polanski | Sep 24, 2022 | Massachusetts

The trap I placed committed a horrible violence on such a precious creature.

Maybe the Real Treasure Was the Friends We Didn’t Make Along the Way…

by Mitchell Barbee | Sep 23, 2022 | Grand Rapids

It’s not like me eating a sandwich instead of pasta on July 11, 2011, is going to diverge my entire timeline.

Sartorial Struggles

by Kayleigh (Fongers) Van Wyk | Sep 22, 2022 | Placeless

To put it simply, I don’t know how to dress anymore.

No More Dead Fantasy Moms

by Emily Joy Stroble | Sep 21, 2022 | Placeless

The prejudices of this world are irrationally essential to your make-believe one.

Living in Liminal Space

by Katerina Parsons | Sep 20, 2022 | Placeless

In between is an uncomfortable space that is more often “neither/nor” than “both/and.”

Before and After, Pre and Post

by Ben DeVries | Sep 18, 2022 | Placeless

How do you narrate to yourself how you have changed?

Voices of Anxiety

by Laura Sheppard Song | Sep 17, 2022 | Placeless

I’ve been discovering different versions of myself lately as the medicine, or lack thereof, messes with my head.

A Love Letter to the Grand Rapids Swing Society

by Tiffany Kajiwara | Sep 16, 2022 | Grand Rapids

I laugh with them over Codenames and Fluxx, then ask if I can join them for swing dancing the next week.

Personal Geography

by Courtney Zonnefeld | Sep 15, 2022 | Grand Rapids

Fictional characters aren’t the only ones who can’t be described without their settings.

Stickers in a Boomer Neighborhood

by Michal Rubingh | Sep 14, 2022 | Hungary

I begin to think about the time it takes for a tree to grow in a courtyard.

Hallowed Bluegrass Hall

by Olivia Harre | Sep 13, 2022 | Tennessee

On every guitar case and appliance in sight were collections of stickers from anything and everywhere.

Do Not Despise the Day of Small Things

by Jack Kamps | Sep 12, 2022 | New Jersey

Convulsions—shocking, kill-stand-rattling convulsions—are normal.

Sluggard

by Gabrielle Eisma | Sep 11, 2022 | Placeless

For a moment, silence. Then, I was overtaken by ants.

Coffee Crimes

by Philip Rienstra | Sep 10, 2022 | Michigan, New York, Tennessee

Flooding stores with fresh hires just before a vote count in an attempt to dilute the vote? Illegal. Dragging their feet as long as possible with unionized stores, refusing to negotiate a contract with the union? Illegal.

Ten Albums

by Gwyneth Findlay | Sep 9, 2022 | Austria, Canada, Grand Rapids, Scotland

I’d time the queue so that the lyric “can’t figure out / how I’m gonna get through the next 10 minutes” played as we arrived at the pitch.

Smells Like School Spirit

by Josh Parks | Sep 8, 2022 | New Jersey

You could smell the hesitant air looking for its next class in all the wrong buildings.

A Story That Shaped My Four-Year-Old Brain

by Susannah Boersma | Sep 7, 2022 | Placeless

According to Boersma family lore, I had memorized the words to it before I even knew how to read.

Weird and Awkward and Wonderful

by Alex Johnson | Sep 5, 2022 | Massachusetts, New Hampshire

For company, I had my two siblings and other high schoolers from my church with whom I hadn’t exchanged more than a passing word for years due to my aversion to youth group. The food was delicious; the time passed like molasses.

Lessons Learned While Backpacking

by Ansley Kelly | Sep 3, 2022 | Pennsylvania

Each night I picked a spot at least a hundred yards from our tent and then listened, obsessively, for the sound of mischief.

An Open Letter to My New Apartment

by Christina Ribbens | Sep 2, 2022 | Placeless

Okay, maybe it’s best not to dwell on your quirks quite yet—we’re not there and that’s just fine.

What Do You Represent?

by Juliana Knot | Sep 1, 2022 | Placeless

At some point, some teacher or youth group leader or professor will point to Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’ circle of intellectuals to show that Christian scholarship can be more than just inside baseball.