October 5, 2019 Redefining What Homesick Means A year ago, I sat in my apartment in Taiwan, staring out at the concrete jungle. Part of me felt completely at ease eating my Bento boxes, writing every morning before work, teaching kids English, but another part of me felt this pull back to America. Like I knew I needed to come back for my next chapter. Truthfully, I was homesick.
May 25, 2019 The Great Divide On the curb outside of Pine Elementary School, Annabelle sat tying her shoelaces. Her hair remained in the braids her mother had put in earlier that day. Over her shoulders, her backpack carried more textbooks than the day before, but for a rather exciting reason: it was the last day of fifth grade.
May 11, 2019 The Power of Words As children, we spend much of our days dreaming. We wake up, daydreaming about last night’s fantasies of candy houses and fairy tales. During class, our mind wanders away to worlds unknown and situations unseen, thinking of another time. And then, we return to our slumber, to our special worlds that only we know, until we have to wake and reenter reality.
May 4, 2019 What Friends Are For It’s weird to think that a little under two months ago, I was living in Taiwan still working as an English teacher. And now I am in Florida, working and mostly settled into a new pattern and a new set of routines. While so much has changed, I was recently reminded that really, when it comes down to it not that much has altered.
December 9, 2018 Culture Kids Recently, a coworker of mine lent me the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. For those of you who don’t know, it was on the U.S. Bestseller list and it’s a highly acclaimed book, and rightfully so. Without giving too much away, the contents of the story are pretty simple: it’s about a teacher reconnecting with his student and their very last class together: a class all about life, and how to be a good human. And as you may guess, it only took place on Tuesdays.
December 5, 2018 Tattooed Back in May 2013, I went in for my first tattoo ever. I was terrified, but I spent a lot of my days back then in a constant state of anxiety. So, in an effort to push myself past my comfort zone, I sat under the needle for about an hour. I got my first tattoo, and one that would cause me a lot of controversy for a couple of years: a girl breaking out of chains.
October 28, 2018 Solitary Today is the day he loses his daughter. He could tell by the silence—stronger than usual and more prominent—and the quiet packing in her room she conducted that morning, trying to be as invisible as possible. He has no idea why she would decide to leave. He has given her everything, in his eyes, and she just refuses to see it.
October 24, 2018 Clean Slate I stepped around the folded red blankets that hung over the tan couch and took a seat across from my father on the other side of room. He sat upright in the tan chair, paging through a copy of Forbes magazine. His eyes didn’t acknowledge my presence. I cleared my throat.
October 14, 2018 Out of the Box As a young girl, I spent the majority of my time dirtying myself up in the woods of Wisconsin. I loved playing make believe, cutting hair off my Barbie dolls, or jumping off the pier and into Lake Geneva. I was not shy to being dirty, nor was I shy to getting rough with the boys. From a baby to age fourteen, the question of love and who we fall in love with never really bothered me much. As far as I knew during my grade school existence, I’d crushed on a few boys. A few boys had crushed on me. And of course, there were one or two girls who seemed to have feelings for me, but as far as I knew, I didn’t seem to like them back the same way. Over all of that, I played on two hockey teams, so the idea of trying to date was totally off my radar. So I placed myself in the first box: straight. Straight as an arrow. Or so I thought.
October 10, 2018 The Key to a Proper Diet The year is 2011. I was seventeen going on finally being a legal adult, preparing for university and collegiate division three ice hockey. In the spring of that year, I’d written my first real full length manuscript (which I never ended up publishing) and I was attempting to get noticed on other smaller websites or journals. As far as my future appeared, things were looking up. Until I glanced around at the other aspects of my life. Then the truth became more than apparent to me: my diet was inadequate.
