Memoir & Personal Essay

The Seasons of Love

By Yasmin Zayed

Love has been written about in thousands of ways across the short 4.5 billion years the earth has spun around the moon. Read the perspective of this young, hopeful romantic, navigating nature and the seasons of love.

Back From Aruba

By Onnah Plummer

“Back From Aruba” is about how I began to encounter parts of being a teenager on this trip I took with my nephews Andrew and Jack.

What does it mean to be in my body?

By Grace Cuddihy

My mentor Caroline gave me the free-writing prompt, “What does it mean to be in my body?” I immediately began thinking of my own experiences being someone who is both female-bodied and chronically ill.

On the Intersection Between Teenage Sexuality and the Objectivity of Women Across Races

By Amina Castronovo

This piece analyzes a girl’s friendship with a boy at school, one that shows her that taking ownership of her sexual desires should be done without shame.

Seepage

By Irene Hao

Spilling thoughts on paper; the unrefined, unfiltered, unmuted musings of Lavera Yul.

The Pieces of Us

By Erynn Gutierrez and Sarah Firshein

Do physical things mark the passage of time? What we hope to reveal is that these seemingly mundane objects have lives beyond the obvious—and that they’re filled with love, pain, stress and hope.

I’m sorry. I didn’t do it right.

By Lauren Cichon

This personal essay is a capsule documenting life in my bedroom and wherever else I’ve spent time since the pandemic upended normal life. Since March, I’ve been daydreaming and losing time through fantasy and writing.

5 Ways to Celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year From Home

By Michelle Cao and Emily Gregor

With the impact of COVID-19, events have continued to move from large, in-person celebrations to virtual gatherings, including the 16-day Lunar New Year.

A Winter in Quarantine; My One Year Story

By Tracy Wang and Caroline Cooper

And then I feel anxiety for a good thirty minutes, hating how I was the only one concerned at that moment

A Harvest of Memories

By Alyssa Olmeda

Hi, I’m Alyssa. I’m excited to be able to present my work to you! I love nature, and I hope this piece is able to transport you all to the countryside with me.

Martha ‘Marty’ Farias

2020 f*cked with us all, and no words can describe the pain and trauma people all over the world went through. This is a tribute to the people we lost, to the pain.

Negativity Is Destruction

By Michaelle McCaskill

I was inspired by the illusions in my head as if there was a hamster in a wheel and it kept spinning. I felt that the only way to get the wheel to stop was to write my thoughts out on paper.

Finding Home

By Rachel Young

I started this piece after I went to the doctor’s office for the first time during COVID. I realized this would be the last time I would be in this small office because I’m turning 18 and next year I may be far from home because of college. It reminded me that I might not always have my mom by my side in places where you have to make important decisions or hear sensitive information. The possibility of being away from home for the first time made me wonder how my connection to myself and my family would change. This piece is about the worries of growing up, the changing bonds of family, and finding home when everything seems to be moving under your feet.