Introspection
Breaking Hive
"Four days after the Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, I was running through drills. No, not root-word exercises. Not etymology practice. Football drills."
Primary Source: 2007-2008
“I am a book today. Smart, with information in my pages. Look me up, I’ll have it. Pages and pages of information, non-fiction and biographies and history. I know it all, I know it all.”
For Tomorrow's Paper
This was the Doomsday Situation, one of the overwrought scenarios passed down through decades of Crimson lore as a “What if?” meant to test the freshest batch of editors—and we were nailing it. My endpaper would write itself.
Primary Source: 2006-2007
“I want my reader to know exactly everything about all the details. To think exactly what I write. I want my reader to know everything.”
The Fake Outdoors
It struck me that the Ridge Top Camp Out lacked something. That it was too planned. Too tame. The Camp Out wasn’t real camping at all (which would be raw and wild), but a simulation of it. It was fake. If real camping prompted a return to nature, the Camp Out boiled down to a staged encounter, a well-choreographed rendezvous.
The Word: Treat
This was a constant mystery to me back then: What did white people have for dinner? What was American food?
Endpaper: Dignified Work
There is no room for considerations of minimum required work hours or potential access to faculty mentors. For me and many others, a job means money.
Primary Source: 2005-2006
"Benjamin is a very interesting little boy. He, at times, presents himself as a ‘50 year old man.’ In fact, last year at recess, he rarely said that he played with the other children, and preferred to hang out with the lunch aide."
The Word: Trick
Once, I assume, we did not say; we asked. “Trick or treat,” after all, is a question. We, the variously-costumed youths of America, asked the lording homeowners whether they would like to punish or reward. Stick or carrot. “Trick or treat?” An up-talk, a genuine query.
Dear Michael
You stayed at work too long. You always left the toilet seat up. You paid more attention to the TV than to me.
Coordinates: Amazon@Boston
There is only one other customer in the store, who seems to be waiting for an Amazon staff member to appear behind the counter. He turns, we make eye contact, and he looks back at his phone. Neither of us went to an Amazon pick-up location to interact with other people.
Primary Source: 2004-2005
"Are there any benefits to placing limits on a first-grader’s creativity?"
Epidermis
I usually make my pilgrimage when the start of school is in sight. While the ides of August have many people clinging to the hard-earned summer in their hides, I am eager to shed and start anew—and I mean this very literally.
The Word: First
Lately, people have been asking me how I like being the oldest of four children. “That’s a lot of pressure,” everyone says. “They must really look up to you.”