By U.S. State
By Country
On Patience and Hope and Grace
by Jaclyn Mae Vander Zee | Sep 29, 2019 | Chicago, Grand Rapids
So during my sixth and final semester at Calvin, I waited.
and waited.
and waited.
Z is for Zebra Mussels
by Jon Gorter | Sep 28, 2019 | North Carolina
Maybe restoration doesn’t have to be all or nothing, maybe it doesn’t have to be so black-and-white.
Y is for YNWA
by Brad Zwiers | Sep 27, 2019 | Placeless
If a soccer club can sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and then, for the most part, follow those words with action, Christians (read: I) can say “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,” and then live that out. Right?
X is for X
by Annaka Koster | Sep 26, 2019 | Michigan
X is for kisses. X is for porn. X is your signature and where you sign.
W is for Work
by Katie Van Zanen | Sep 25, 2019 | Placeless
But I am not paid for caring about my job.
V is for Vegeta
by Leigh Peterson | Sep 24, 2019 | Grand Rapids
Vegeta, it turns out, is snotty, entitled, hot-headed, easily manipulated by evil influences, and ultimately, just less powerful than Goku (not to say that’s why I was losing).
/æ/ is for Accent
by Alex Westenbroek | Sep 23, 2019 | Placeless
“When sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow.”
T is for Tradition
by Emily Joy Stroble | Sep 21, 2019 | Placeless
Do you think people’ll mind if I write something that doesn’t mean anything except maybe moving, missing, and rebellion?
Rr is for Rosalía
by Gabe Gunnink | Sep 20, 2019 | Placeless
Rosalía manages to marry the coolness of a modern pop auteur with the sublime terror of a Dalí painting.
S is for Slytherin
by Mary Margaret Healy | Sep 19, 2019 | Michigan, Placeless
Ambition requires imagination, but it is not satisfied with daydreams.
R is for Rapture
by Ben DeVries | Sep 18, 2019 | Placeless
Maybe my own childhood obsession with Jesus’s nuke-bright descent onto little Lansing, Illinois, reflected my peripheral engagement with wider, turn-of-the-millennium Evangelical culture
Q is for Ten Points
by Laura Sheppard Song | Sep 17, 2019 | India, Kentucky
What is a “QINTAR” and why do I “SUQ” so much at this game?
P is for Pterodactyl
by Kyric Koning | Sep 16, 2019 | Placeless
But—a precaution—do not be prejudiced. My prerogative was purely positive.
O is for Out
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Sep 15, 2019 | Grand Rapids
Several things happen at once: ba-boom. Flicker. Shatter.
N is for Northwest: A Letter
by Will Montei | Sep 14, 2019 | Washington
I can’t get over how urgent this essay published in 1836 remains today. And I urgently, madly want to annoy you all with it.
M is for Music City
by Olivia Harre | Sep 13, 2019 | Tennessee
Can I carry around a sign that reads: “I’m new here”? Can I attend the adult version of Cokes and Clubs?
L is for Linger
by Abby Zwart | Sep 12, 2019 | Placeless
So I guess I’m waiting. Statistically, that shoe’s gotta fall sometime.
K is for Know-how
by Matt Cambridge | Sep 11, 2019 | Placeless
What you’re really saying is “I’m fairly certain I’m right but I also want you to know how humble I am.
J is for Jordan
by Jordan Petersen Kamp | Sep 10, 2019 | Placeless
It’s certainly not against me.
I is for Infinity
by Gwyneth Findlay | Sep 9, 2019 | Placeless
Pondering infinity serves little practical purpose in our finite lives, yet the concept thrills and inspires.
H is for Hoax
by Josh Parks | Sep 8, 2019 | Placeless
When scrawled or scratched on the skin of a beast
Or the earth’s frozen entrails, or the flesh
Of a leaf-maker, then I last longer.
G is for Ginny Weasley
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Sep 7, 2019 | Maine
The days don’t vary much, and nobody minds.
F is for Fermata
by Josh deLacy | Sep 6, 2019 | Florida, Washington, Wisconsin
I don’t know what home means without you.
E is for Erasure
by Alex Johnson | Sep 5, 2019 | Placeless
I began to evaluate and push back and question. How much was I erased as a student? Where did my own beliefs lie dormant as I absorbed others’ words?
D is for Disarmament
by Comfort Sampong | Sep 4, 2019 | Placeless
I picked through the trash for the unraveled strands of yarn and carried them outside.
C is for Cravings
by Ansley Kelly | Sep 3, 2019 | Placeless
When unchecked, they are bad toddlers, eating bags of gummy bears and staying up all night.
B is for Beach
by Cotter Koopman | Sep 2, 2019 | Michigan
I can never remember summer in the midst of a polar vortex, but I’m comforted and chastised that it comes.
A is for After
by Katerina Parsons | Sep 1, 2019 | Washington, D.C.
After I have been
Back in the United States for a few weeks, I find myself
Crying at the strangest things.
Open Doors
by Nathan Slauer | Aug 31, 2019 | Michigan
I’ve had people rip up my fliers, call the cops on me, and even fling dog shit at me.
If It Bleeds, It Leads
by Avery Johnson | Aug 30, 2019 | Placeless
In separating ourselves from our emotions, are we losing what makes us most effective?
