Category: Reflections

Prison Politics

Teaching at Garden State Prison the morning after the election.

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Playing House at 18

“I played pretend at young motherhood, not bothering to correct the well-intentioned stranger(s) who asked, ‘it goes by so fast, doesn’t it?’”

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Bickering Ivy

I always assumed that I would join an eating club, but put no effort into understanding the process of joining. As such, I found myself in a foreign country, learning that I had not only missed the first round of sign-ins, but that bicker started immediately after break.

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The Opposite of Hunger is Still Hunger

“But you put me here in America— in rich, white, suburban America, where the people are bland and the food even more so. You put me here in this diner, and I hate you for it.”

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Orange Juice 1989

“Orange-wet fingers and the acid is on her eyes, on her cheeks, running down with the tears and cheap makeup. My father reaches toward her—she is wearing a black silk headband, and he tries to pull it from her hair to wipe her eyes. She yells at him in Greek and he retracts.”

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Nass Memories

“I cannot do justice to the absolute force for good the Nassau Weekly was and is in my life.”

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The Lady and McQueen

The emergence of Lady Gaga’s alien-like back-up dancers—bedecked in all-white outfits of synthetic leotard, tall spiked crown, and go-go boots—from their perfect row of white coffins in an entirely white room announces from the outset that “Bad Romance” is going … Read More

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Reminiscence

As we approach the Sunrise Senior Living Home in Farmington Hills, Michigan, my grandmother explains that it houses two separate programs. The primary one is for the elderly who cannot fully care for themselves. The second, called “Reminiscence,” is for those who also have severe memory problems. That’s where my grandfather has lived for the past six months.

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They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Every Thanksgiving, the rest of America puts a turkey in the oven and sprinkles marshmallows over sweet potatoes. They sleep in late, watch football. Or so I would imagine.

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The Princeton Life

Throughout my first year at Princeton, I’ve felt haunted by a specter of inadequate productivity.

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Telescoping Fear

We asked our stable of unstable writers to reflect on fear — personal, conceptual, metaphysical. They started with 300 words and narrowed focus and word count, by halves.

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Despite Everything

“I had resorted to music to help deal with the hopeless
passivity I had subconsciously nurtured, so it was music that shook me awake.”

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