It took living in the Northeast to come to know that I’m a southerner—that is, from the American South. I grew up emphasizing my Chicagoan origins rather than my hometown in Tennessee in forgettable introductions to familiar strangers, having learned …
Over spring break, my mom handed me a letter. Sent by Ms. Clapp, my beloved high school anatomy & physiology teacher, it had languished under a mounting mountain of mail for untold weeks, maybe months. The sender’s handwriting surprised me: …
For much of the month of February, on every Monday and Wednesday from 2:50 to 4:15 p.m., I left behind the crisp air of the Maine winter for the thick, implacable fog of Charles Dickens’s “Bleak House.” The novel, which …
Not every 18-year-old can say they’ve been a guardian for a child, much less for three different children. But this past summer, on August 10th, I had one single day where I was.
There’s a small coffee shop right down the street from my high school in Pittsburgh, Pa. It’s one of those newer, trendier local spots—the walls and tables are covered in plants, and Bon Iver and Hozier play quietly from the …
I grew up in New Hampshire, a state that, despite being right next to Maine, many Bowdoin students know shockingly little about. This is what is known about New Hampshire: Our state motto is “Live Free or Die.” We are …
I have always preferred lowlight. Streetlights, headlamps, starlight. Daylight filtered through the trees, sunrises as a wake-up call, sunsets coming like a surprise present. It is here where the most beauty seems to occur.
I believed there were ladybugs crawling around my room. They turned out not to be.
Instead, they were Asian lady beetles (“Harmonia axyridis”). Common on campus in the fall and winter months, Asian lady beetles collect around windows and doors …
A tangy taste on the tongue, fluorescent lights beaming down and a distinct smell of meat wafting through the air. While gross to some, this has always been my taste of home. I am, of course, talking about Jersey Mike’s.…