Introspection
crying on a plane
I cry every time I’m on a plane. This is distressing for many: the people in my row, the flight attendant around the corner, and, to some extent, myself.
To Be Tamed
“The Little Prince” makes me homesick for all the places I’ve been and all the places I have yet to see.
room cover photo
My collage brings to mind precious experiences that I’d have otherwise forgotten. It’s like a library of my life, which challenges the ephemerality that my memories can easily take on.
sam junior year room
Every square inch of Sam's walls, and even parts of her ceiling, are covered in decorations this year.
sam room freshman hs
Sam's room freshman year of high school. After freshman year, she resolved to hold onto every single scrap that represented a moment she found herself in.
sam senior hs room
In senior year, Sam's lived with her best friend. They decorated the room by combining their ephemera collections, and the room reached its peak as a vibrantly cozy haven.
Nesting in Ephemera
I sliced up some magazines, printed out a few photos from my camera roll with a sticker printer I’d just received for my birthday, and stuck it all above my bed. The mere presence of color, and the memories each small picture held, felt like a balm — something consistent and bright and mine to return to. With a couple scraps of paper, I’d planted roots.
Srija Graphic
We go to bed expecting that we will wake up the next morning — that our loved ones wake up the next morning. Paranoid that this simple ask wouldn’t be granted had me regularly waking up at 3 a.m., wondering if I would again open my phone to a wave of calls, texts, or Facetimes to deliver some unfathomable bad news.
Seeking the Past
For a while, I couldn’t help but to think pessimistically about life. What if this phone call is my last? What if this joke is my last? What if this outfit is my last? After all, friends, family, and circumstance remain victims of life’s volatility. It felt rather odd to be working toward something; what if the future I’m hoping for isn’t realized? What if the future isn’t realized?
kate home introspection
On the subway, you’re between where you were and where you’re going: everywhere and nowhere all at once. No matter how hard you try, you can’t pin yourself down.
Anywhere I Go
When you lose the trappings of the familiar, you have no reminder of who you have been, or who you are supposed to be. So being in new places, at least at first, is both terrifying and exhilarating: You get to move a little more freely, losing the weight that expectations and environmental cues hold.
Salt Lake City Temple
It was strange, returning to that personal mecca. It was here that I had made pilgrimages throughout high school and college, where I had implored God for strength and guidance. Now, even as someone unable to enter beyond its foyer, I found myself praying.
summer away from home introspections
Six writers each reflect on their summers, looking back on the new routines they made across the globe — and the personal growth that came with it.
Gabarone, Botswana
Living in Botswana was watching moonrises and mixing up sample IDs and learning to say hi to strangers on the street.
Nafplio, Greece
And there were moments I wanted to keep for myself, like walking the paths of ancients in Mycenae, floating in water so salty I barely had to tread to stay afloat, discovering hidden beaches populated by cats along cliffside trails.
Los Angeles, California
I miss lazy afternoons sunbathing alongside two Great Danes and one little mutt.
A Summer Far From Home
I thought maybe this was just it. About how after graduation, we’re left with the rest of life — running through these days, decisions unserious and significant, one after another, guessing, astonished and grateful for the world.
Memories of a City I’ve Never Known
Where we were was the gated avenues and green-grassed gardens of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs; where we weren’t was South Africa.