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 […]
Personal Narratives
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 […]
The Pages I Feared
After moving back to New York from Chile, where she spoke Spanish in school, the narrator struggles to adjust I started to pant as if I had run a mile, but I had only walked into a classroom. My breath came in quick, short gasps, and my mind was in a panicked rage, trying to […]
The Miscarriage
The cold breeze hit my face when I walked through the school gates. My hair was flying in the air. The tips of my fingers were becoming numb from the cold. Red, orange, and yellow leaves falling everywhere. I could hear people talking and kids laughing. When I turned around, I saw my mom in […]
Actual Dads
“Which one’s your actual dad?” I get asked that a lot. They are both my actual dads. They both raise me and love me. They both always care for me, are always there for me, and always push me to be the best person I can be. They have both been my actual dads ever […]
