For the author, a bad hair day turns into a bad hair week
Personal Narratives
The Road Home
For the first time ever, the author is given permission to go outside alone—in New York City
The Bakery
A visit to a favorite Los Angeles bakery sparks a series of memories about the writer’s family When I walked into the bakery on Cesar Chavez Avenue in East Los Angeles, my lungs were instantly flooded with the sweet air of butter and sugar wafting from the kitchen while pots and pans clanked and banged […]
Brewing Trouble
A tense moment sparks a meditation on friendship Friends. Friends whose shouts are the reverberating crash of ocean waves on a rocky cliff, slowly sanding down its rough edges in the way that we shape each other. Like the slow ascension of water as it marches up the steady inclination of a beach. Those are […]
Believing
Waiting to hear if she and her dance teammates won nationals, Lily reflects on the ups and downs they met along the way I walked onstage slowly, following the dancer in front of me. I was sweating up my costume, partly because of the intense heat coming from the blazing stage lights overhead and partly […]
Scared
A strange noise spooks the narrator My eyes were wandering around the page of my book as I was sitting in the fort I made. The moon was strangling the sun and winning for the next eight hours until he was finally defeated at dawn. A frightening sound whispered through the window. Horrified as a […]
Cody’s Last Day
The writer recalls the day they had to put down Cody, her pet rat The day Cody was put to sleep started off terrible. I thought my day couldn’t get any worse. At school I was barely there. “Elena. Hey! Earth to Elena!” My friend Penelope brought me back to reality. “Are you okay? You […]
Life in the Jungle
A trip to the Ecuadorian jungle prompts the writer to reevaluate the comforts of her life in the U.S. An observant onlooker, upon watching her fellow passengers in the airplane, might have noticed a girl who lacked the lethargic nonchalance of the other voyagers. This girl peered, fascinated, through the stained window. She appeared to […]
Riverside Kingdom
A magical trip to Yellowstone, perfectly preserved in the writer’s memory Sunlight pierced the split in the canvas tent, awakening the rustic room. The pellet stove glowed lightly and sounded like afternoon rain on a tin roof. Warmth filled the room. I rolled over lazily and looked at the crowded tent. My brother and I […]
Story
Asher writes about his difficulty finding a supportive, safe school environment Second grade did not go well, but my story begins in first grade. In first grade, my teacher was strict and made me think I could not read. I did not like reading to myself. I still don’t like reading out loud. My friends […]
