A few years ago, a rumor about a sexual assault circulated at the high school where I teach. Conversations in the hallway moved online; an Instagram account was created where people anonymously posted their experiences as well as hearsay. The student newspaper, which I had been hired to advise one month before, wanted to report […]
The kids run in circles on the fields. They chase each other: passing a soccer ball, throwing a football, lunging to tag someone. They are red-faced and sweating. It is the last day of school and, finally, the kids get to play. At the end of the day, the kids line up to get their […]
It’s a Friday night after dinner and you’re ready to go out for the night. You take a car from Boston to a function hall in Revere. The space is beautiful — a ballroom with glass windows, hardwood floors, and a big band right in the center. To one side stand clusters of boys; on […]
On the first warm day of spring, the day when half of New York wears puff jackets and the other dons tank tops, I went for a run. I ran past my old apartment, turned onto a path by the river, and veered back into the city, finally stopping to investigate a kind of commotion […]
If you were to walk into my childhood bedroom, you’d think I was still 13 years old. Flowered wallpaper lines the walls; posters of 2000s heartthrobs peek out from under the couch; snow globes gather dust on a shelf. A corsage from a St. John’s annual father-daughter dance, from a year when I could still […]
Around this time last year, I made social plans for the first time in five months. Case numbers had gone down enough that my family felt comfortable venturing outside of our household. I traded my sweatpants for a sundress, packed extra masks and disinfectant wipes, and drove 15 minutes to meet my friend at the […]
Minutes after the first day of school let out at Canton High School, the fire alarm went off, capping off an already tumultuous start to the school year. Technically, this was the third “first day of school” — the first day happened when all students logged on remotely, and then again when ninth graders arrived […]
In the hours before and after performing surgery, Sue Harrington makes masks. A veterinarian at Randolph Animal Hospital, Harrington knows how important proper personal protective equipment (PPE) is for healthcare workers — and how problematic it is that hospitals around the country are already running low during this time of crisis. Harrington knew how she […]
This month feels overwhelmed by lists. There are holiday wish lists, gift shopping lists, to-do lists before you get a few days off or take a vacation, lists of subscriptions you have to renew or cancel, resolutions for next year. As always, these lists can give particular structure to the busyness around us, keeping us […]
It’s sometime in the future, and you’re reading this on the library’s equivalent of microfilm because newspapers, as long feared, are out of print. Well, not all print. The top two national publications are thriving — and at odds with each other — but local newspapers across the country have published their final issues and […]
