By U.S. State
By Country
Kitchen Lovely
by Meg Schmidt | Dec 3, 2017 | Placeless
It’s not the kitchen I imagined. In fact, it’s nowhere near the kitchen I imagined.
But there’s no place I’m happier in.
The Lady Bird Holiday Gift Guide
by Carolyn Muyskens | Dec 2, 2017 | Placeless
This is why Lady Bird is the perfect holiday movie; ultimately, Lady Bird asks us to reckon with what we’ve been given by our parents and by the places we grew up in.
All the Things We Don’t Know
by Katerina Parsons | Dec 1, 2017 | Honduras
We keep getting messages, some true, some false. It’s too hard to make sense of a moment when you’re in it.
Marked
by Heather Tills | Nov 29, 2017 | Placeless
One day, her first love asked her to go with him to get a tattoo and she decided to mark herself with an image of the flower she was named after.
You Don’t Understand
by Matt Coldagelli | Nov 28, 2017 | Placeless
My supervisors all tell me you never forget your first patient.
No Strings Attached
by Brad Zwiers | Nov 27, 2017 | Grand Rapids
The concert was that night (THAT NIGHT!), so I ran upstairs to change. I hoped to find something trendy, something that would let everyone at the concert know that this nine-year-old could ball.
Hips Don’t Lie: The Story of a Broken Bone & A Broken Ego
by Nick Meekhof | Nov 26, 2017 | Grand Rapids
This is also the first time I ever took ibuprofen.
A Brand New Bag
by Jack VA | Nov 25, 2017 | Placeless
You have to choose a direction every single day and hope you’ve chosen right.
First, Grow Up
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Nov 24, 2017 | Placeless
First, you’ll notice that the world isn’t just orange push-ups and Math Blasters on CD-ROM. Then, you’ll notice that there are people with Flip Glosses, hair straighteners, and boyfriends.
Dulce Domum
by Julia LaPlaca | Nov 23, 2017 | Placeless
But to return to reality, the sweet normality of home becomes sweetest after absence. The familiar is defined by exposure to the foreign and new.
First Frost Wine
by Paula Manni | Nov 22, 2017 | Placeless
Gather the large stock pot (it’s in the basement), a pillowcase from the linen closet, sugar from the pantry, the glass mixing bowl, and a yellow packet of yeast from the refrigerator door.
Out and Back
by Gabe Gunnink | Nov 20, 2017 | England, Illinois, Spain, Washington
And I realized these are the first things: not medals or adventures, but the cinch of laces around a foot and reliable slide of mud and bitter perfume of sweat rising like smoke off shoulders.
The Broken Streak
by Mary Margaret Healy | Nov 19, 2017 | Placeless
I’ve developed this existential dread of that First Failure, but I can do something about that. I can have as many First Failures as I have Streaks, if I want to.
Reticent Wizards and Founding Fictions
by Ben DeVries | Nov 19, 2017 | Placeless
“Merdarth, general of the Dark Lord’s army, stood, terrified, before the Orb.”
Economics + Gymnastics = Fantastics
by Tony Ditta | Nov 17, 2017 | Placeless
One reason is that we can get insight into human behavior by comparing what people should do in this situation (if they want to maximize winning probability) to what they actually do.
Seeing Things Again
by Andrew Knot | Nov 16, 2017 | Germany
There’s a Dutch phrase about the Dom, my grandpa claims. “See the Cologne Cathedral and you can die.”
If Dog is Real
by Cassie Westrate | Nov 15, 2017 | Placeless
Isn’t there a certain bit of wonder involved in math when it’s stripped down? Even when solving proofs, the first line is given.
I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS
by Catherine Kramer | Nov 13, 2017 | Placeless
Then one day it occurred to me how insane it was to keep a journal on the family computer.
Begin to Hope
by Abby Zwart | Nov 12, 2017 | Grand Rapids
I have no dancing around my bedroom with a hairbrush microphone to Britney Spears to look back on. That’s because I didn’t listen to anything other than CCM until high school.
Young and Brave
by Elaine Schnabel | Nov 11, 2017 | Placeless
My body went hot, my hands shook with James’, and I felt again for the first time in over a decade what it really feels like to fear your peers.
First Person
by Jenna Griffin | Nov 10, 2017 | Romania
You are always you, always becoming you. You’re always your own first person, over and over and over.
The Ones
by Bart Tocci | Nov 9, 2017 | Australia, Chicago, Massachusetts
I grew up knowing that I would not date a woman unless we were going to get married. No pressure, you’ll know when you know, but figure it out and don’t mess it up or your entire life will be ruined.
I Want to Believe: Conspiracy Theories and Trump
by Paul Menn | Nov 8, 2017 | Placeless
If you look at any conspiracy website, this is essentially the narrative you will find.
First Light
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Nov 7, 2017 | New York
Crowds of people stand with their backs to the colors, their eyes on their phones or on the train tracks. “Turn around!” I want to say, “You’re missing it.”
The Death of What You Thought Was Your Soul
by Josh deLacy | Nov 6, 2017 | Washington
The last time I knew who I was I had acne, four AP classes, and a Bible in my senior photos.
Imagining Homelands
by India Daniels | Nov 5, 2017 | India
I’m named after my father’s homeland, a place I know very little about. Because he’s dead, Indian culture is not something I absorb in my everyday life.
Confidence in the Flesh
by Caitlin Gent | Nov 4, 2017 | Placeless
The right idea about me is that I am a confident, empowered female person who rejoices in her sexuality.
First of Something
by Meg Schmidt | Nov 3, 2017 | Placeless
When I was eleven, the barn cat we kept outside to catch mice had kittens.
5 Get-To-Know-You Games That Almost Made Me Drop Out of Calvin
by Carolyn Muyskens | Nov 2, 2017 | Grand Rapids
I wonder, though, if we haven’t forgotten what vulnerability actually means: exposure to harm, physical or emotional. I wonder if we’ve glorified vulnerability.
First Drafts
by Katerina Parsons | Nov 1, 2017 | Arizona
My real fear is not that someone will think that I write poorly, but that people will think I write without having anything to say.
