Introspection
Chicken Soup with a Side of Hypnosis
I felt sure it was not a mind problem, but a physical one — I had the bloat to prove it. When I asked how I might resolve said “mind-body” problem, she prescribed hypnosis.
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
My dad is a cardiothoracic surgeon. He performs one or two open-heart surgeries a day, but at times he’s completed more than 25 cases in a single week.
Fixing Things and Other Such Pastimes
As I watch the patient’s heart rate slow on the monitor, it strikes me that I am watching a major event in someone’s life. The scar on the patient’s chest will be permanent, and I am here to witness it form.
My Favorite Things
My grandmothers saw my brother and me as battlegrounds for their cultures, each trying to make sure theirs didn’t disappear.
What Are You Lifting: Lululemon
Deep thought is a sweat-inducing process, blurring the boundary between mental and physical discipline. Athleisure and sartorial control are attempts to prove intellectual control.
The Karate Girl
I had begun karate in pursuit of knowledge and Danger, but by age twelve, I simply enjoyed the sport.
The In-Between
Skinner says he chose “First Fig” because the poem sums up his approach to life. “I’ve never been much of a planner. I’ve never been much of a long-term worrier,” he says.
How to Treat a Burn
Before I knew it, I slipped into a heavy slumber, somehow missing the fact that my leg was leaning directly against the heater. A massive blister cropped up just off of my left knee, and I acquired a gigantic scar—two inches of darkened skin.
At Attention
I slid into a line of girls combing through racks of nude-colored sports bras and thonged one-piece bathing suits. I hadn’t actually picked a costume yet—nor was I even thinking about what animal or character I’d pretend to be. I just knew I was going to wear as little as humanly possible.
A Hope for the Day
I didn’t imagine that much about my faith would change when I was surrounded, for a few weeks, by donuts and daytime television at the hospital.
How to Untangle Knotted Hair
Perched on the edge of the bathtub, I balance a laptop on my damp knees and squint through a protein-oil haze. Conditioner drips from damp spirals. The weight of the overpriced hydrating cream is so heavy that I can barely read what my fingers have frantically been typing into the search bar: “how to untangle knotted hair.”
How Do I Tell You This In A Way You'll Understand?
Narratives of sexual violence fill the public air these days like gnats in summer, but I do still find them fairly invisible in life here.
How to Get Lost in the Woods
There was an unspoken divide, invisible lines we crossed and continued to cross. We must have had some lingering fear of the unknown, which was tied up with our thirst to dive deeper and drink in every sun-flecked atom of the land that felt like ours.