The summer after my high school graduation, my mom and I took a road trip to Tennessee, stopping in North Carolina and South Carolina along the way. The purpose of the trip, in what we imagined to be the style of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore backpacking through Europe after Rory’s high school graduation, was for […]
In my first column for this newspaper, I wrote about “independence.” Having just completed my freshman year, I saw college as independence: you lived in a dorm, made new friends, learned to adjust to a new environment, spoke a little louder in class. I was worried that I would lose the confidence that I had […]
This column, I realize, is the second to last I’ll write before graduation. Technically, this is the last column I’ll write as a student, considering that my next column will be published after the big day. In honor of this earth-shattering change in my identity, I thought I’d compile a list of quite serious things […]
At 13, I stopped posing for Christmas cards. I finally felt too old to dress up in red and green and stand with my dog on the front steps for a photograph that would be placed on a bookshelf or a mantelpiece or a stack on the kitchen counter in the home of someone too […]
On one of our last nights in Bologna, my American friend and I went to a wine bar that we heard was the oldest in the city and, perhaps, in all of Italy. Turning off of an alleyway into an even smaller alleyway, we walked back and forth a few times before recognizing the nondescript […]
This summer, I worked in a bookstore, a job I’ve wanted — and idealized — for a long time. “It doesn’t matter what work they’ll have me doing,” I told my mom insistently when she pointed out the other work that comes with the job. “I’ll be able to talk with people about books.” Then […]
On Mondays, I help teach English to Italian fourth graders. It’s not so much teaching as giving short vocabulary presentations then helping them write sentences — which turns into a Q&A. “Do you eat corn dogs in America?” one boy asks me. “Does Trump live in Massachusetts?” another asks. The 9 year olds all giggle […]
A few weeks ago, I had a string of awkward hellos — at least, I thought so. First, I walk past a boy who works on the student newspaper with me. We wave and trade “how are yous.” I respond, “Good,” but he says, “Oh, you know, fine,” an answer that perhaps suggests something more […]
During a visit to my college last weekend, I saw an exhibit in the art museum. One wall of the gallery displayed a series of eye charts, each assigned to a president up until George Bush. Instead of letters, words ran down the chart in decreasing font, the largest signifying the word that president said […]
Last week I saw you for the first time since your birth in August. I’ve been in school and my sister, your mom, in another state and now you are no longer a squished newborn but a wide-eyed, responsive 5 month old. Babies scare me, in the way of one who doesn’t know how to […]
