Mental Mapping
We drove over seven hours to watch Adri and ninety-nine other middle schoolers answer questions about culture, economics, and rivers I couldn’t pronounce.
Courtney Zonnefeld graduated in 2018 with a degree in writing. She currently lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she works for Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and saving up for more herb plants. You can usually find her wandering a farmer’s market, hunting for vintage books, or browsing the tea selection in coffee shops.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Sep 15, 2023 | 0 comments
We drove over seven hours to watch Adri and ninety-nine other middle schoolers answer questions about culture, economics, and rivers I couldn’t pronounce.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Aug 15, 2023 | 2 comments
When you visit a city you once called home, a part of you settles even as another part slides out of place.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jul 15, 2023 | 0 comments
If fashion trends exist on the Island of Lost Toys, perhaps they’re all wearing the mismatched earrings and socks our past selves misplaced.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jun 15, 2023 | 0 comments
Over a decade ago on a family trip, my aunt taught me to take close-up photos through Queen Anne’s lace and other wildflowers.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | May 15, 2023 | 0 comments
A good book can fill you with an odd evangelistic urge to press its pages into someone else’s hands.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Apr 15, 2023 | 0 comments
I stood up, ripped my curtain open, and saw the source of the commotion: a blackbird. Fluttering his wings. Inside my house.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Mar 15, 2023 | 0 comments
My Midwestern self would need enough help to assimilate into the real NYC, let alone one where the Woman in White might attack.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Feb 15, 2023 | 1 comment
The best days of our lives are behind us; the best days of our lives are before us.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jan 15, 2023 | 0 comments
Whenever I enter a museum, I rediscover rhythms that I haven’t used since my last trip to Adventureland for nerds.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Dec 15, 2022 | 3 comments
The older I become, the more I am convinced that Christmas is about abundance that looks like scarcity.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Nov 15, 2022 | 7 comments
Perhaps I am a person who loves the seasons because they help me know that time is truly passing.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Oct 15, 2022 | 1 comment
Cruelty and its cousin insensitivity are not surprising in an airport. Kindness is.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Sep 15, 2022 | 1 comment
Fictional characters aren’t the only ones who can’t be described without their settings.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Aug 15, 2022 | 3 comments
Instead of caring about Oberon, Titania, Puck, and their compatriots, I spent my time wondering what chaos backstage had created the confusion onstage.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jul 15, 2022 | 1 comment
Metaphors are tools for meaning-making, and when those tools have harvested bushel after bushel of meaning for my life, of course I struggle to see them as incomplete, limiting, or dangerous.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jun 15, 2022 | 2 comments
If we are not committed to friendship, if we do not grieve and fight and ask questions alongside them, then we are the church but hardly a community.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | May 15, 2022 | 2 comments
Whenever I finish typing out a list of any kind, I’m wincing at the realities my commas elide.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Apr 15, 2022 | 1 comment
Some people might dismiss those films as guilty pleasures, the Little Debbie cupcakes of my media diet—simple, sweet, and absolutely atrocious for my health.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Mar 15, 2022 | 0 comments
Growing up is just a matter of noticing the neighbors.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Feb 15, 2022 | 1 comment
I’ve grown to adore the process of crushing ginger, cardamom, and cloves in a mortar and pestle, of boiling the spices until the kitchen smells like heaven.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jan 15, 2022 | 0 comments
Learning something new often requires a long time where we are the worst in the room. Ugh.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Dec 15, 2021 | 1 comment
If the emotions of the story feel honest and true—even if the specifics of the story are absolutely insane—I’ll be captivated by every moment.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Nov 15, 2021 | 1 comment
I often struggle to admit when I’d rather be anywhere but the kitchen.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Oct 15, 2021 | 0 comments
I identify my mugs by a familiar stain around their edges.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Sep 15, 2021 | 3 comments
But when a place is hardly (if ever) depicted, a place can be stereotyped into invisibility.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Aug 15, 2021 | 4 comments
Reading others’ work and wondering if you could write between the gaps of their legacies.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jul 15, 2021 | 5 comments
The words didn’t seem so distant from everyday life, from the people who’d small-talk about crops over their coffee.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Jun 15, 2021 | 2 comments
The long-dead Ada does not need to be the only woman we know in STEM.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | May 15, 2021 | 4 comments
When I move the last box out of this place, I will no longer live next to four years of memories.
by Courtney Zonnefeld | Apr 15, 2021 | 2 comments
Antonio Vivaldi captured his spring’s breezes in his concertos, and yet I always welcome spring with a wince.