Love As I Know it Is…
Ed note: Or at least, love as I knew it just after college love was. When I was 18, I discovered Aaron Cometbus’ Punk Rock Love Is…and thought it was the most brilliant thing I’d laid eyes on. Four years later, as I began grad school, my friend E and I wrote our own versions. […]
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Everything But
We go through a lot of trouble to try and like someone “like that.” Mantra-like, we repeat their positive qualities to ourselves and maybe even our friends: they’re fun, they’re hot, I love how excited they are about sending motivating letters to prisoners, they always say “yes!” to my weird ideas, and we laugh a lot. […]
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Pascal
He wasn’t just obsessed with triangles and theorems. French mathworm Blase Pascal was a bit of a philosophical chap as well. Exhibit A: The heart has its reasons that reason doesn’t understand. A messy translation of an equally messy concept. As people, we are made up of both heart and reason, and yet, the two […]
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You Will, Too
Whenever someone I’m dating or talking to (textversating, as it were), gets overly apologetic for letting me down or hurting me, my gut reaction is always to shrug and say, “I’ve survived so much before this.” I find rehashing all those things I’ve lived through or returned from to be the most comforting of thoughts when […]
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35
I’ve always liked Sandra Cisneros’ Eleven — and even though in a few hours I’m turning 35, there’s a lot about Eleven (and let’s be real, eleven) that still makes sense to me. Like the idea that we are every iteration of our former selves no matter how old we get (and the idea that when offered the chance, one should […]
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34
I don’t recognize myself. It’s not the small purple streak in my hair, or the tiny crow’s footprints that don’t wash away when my face resumes a blase pose — my external self has remained steady enough for the best part of a decade that I don’t notice physical changes so much as discover them. […]
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Don’t Wait for Friday
Ed note: Sometimes I come across something beautiful that makes me want to do a few things. First, toss up my hands and say “why do I bother to put pen to paper?” followed quickly by wrapping my arms around said thing and squeezing until it is somehow part of me and I part of it. […]
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The Right Regrettable Decisions
Over late morning coffee, far too bold for my liking even when cut with sugar and cream, my friend’s companion said, Sometimes the right decision is still regrettable. We were packed into a booth like matchsticks in a box, and once he said it, I couldn’t shake the smokey remembrance of the time I’d stubbed […]
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Let’s Love
Let’s love silently. Let’s love fiercely. Let’s love whether anyone is looking or not, and whether anyone is listening or not. Let’s love for the sake of how love feels when it’s curling over your bones and pecking at your heart. Let’s love to give that feeling to someone else. Let’s build a never-ending love […]
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Scene From a Train Station
The fog draped over the rolling hills, a hijab hiding the stories they had to tell. Secrecy had been long brewed into the air, making any fresh breath a gulp of momentary relief before I plunged back into wondering if I was being a made a fool. Once I stepped on the train, I’d have a […]
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