I don’t want to get into it, but irrelevant conversation can be one of the most friendship-building and love-sustaining experiences. And it starts with nonsense. Let me take you on a tangent. There’s...

The best week of my life happened just after I learned that the mountain by my house was a volcano.   I woke up every morning, and I was so convinced that any day now, it would reduce everything...

It is 5:15 a.m. I’m lying on the dining room floor of my friend’s house. A heating pad stretches across my stomach as I shiver, grateful I packed it at the last minute. The only times I remember being...

I stand outside in the open as the snow comes roaring down on my face. It’s dark outside and there is a small street light above me. All I see are layers of snow for miles and miles, not a person or...

I knew I was too much in ninth grade. Mr. Stenz drew clownish, red lines across my essays. I learned bodily cleanliness. The purity of tendus. Over and over and over again. My teachers told me to cut...

“Today of all the days so far is the nicest,” said one of the men. “How so?” said the other. “The leaves, it’s perfect today,” said the first man as the wind gave a small draft cooling their...

That blaring sound again, never really knew how to describe the sound, but everyone knows the sound in their own way. Always needed when we need to wake up for something important, or I guess something...

I promised her I wouldn’t cry on our wedding night, so it was funny when I did. Same went for the night Charlie was born. Then Samantha. Soon I was hopeless—any graduation and every Christmas morning....

I’d spent the night at the family house, waking up to tangled sheets and dripping in sunlight. It was bright for sleepy eyes, warm for my body, and slowed time down to the consistency of honey. I woke...

“Charlie! Did you get any today?” I held up my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He grinned, showing me his turkey melt. We scarfed them down, leaving the best part for last. The wax paper. I stuffed...

“Pull the switch,” they were saying while I stared at it. It was the switch for the fire alarm. “Benny Martinez did it and he was okay.” Yes but Benny Martinez also gets to school late and the...

    I feel like I’m holding hands with the whole campus right now. Except instead of each other's hands, we are all holding the same drink. But there is still something lovely about that,...