THE SETTING by Emily Vest

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The Crescent Woods Skate Park Drake chants from teenagers’ Bluetooth radios, his voice reverberating against the hot metal skateboard ramps of this summer evening. Elementary school kids sneaker up the ramps and slide back down,...

IF YOU LEAVE, WHERE WILL YOU GO? Lisa Hoelzer

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I recently left the strict high-demand religion I belonged to for the past thirty years. The values and practices associated with my faith shaped every part of my life: family priorities, Sunday behaviors, clothing,...

THE CATCH by Kristen Langlois

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I’ve always hated fishing. My father took me when I was a teen, and the horror thatfollowed ensured I’d never do it again. My husband loves fishing, and when he first asked mewhy I...

WHAT I REMEMBER OF THE DRAGON by Kaylin Moore

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At nine years old, I was Hermione Granger. That all-too-familiar feeling of adrenaline and fear always seemed to creep in at the most inopportune times, that beast. It made my tiny hands shake at family...

HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR FIRST JOB by Ella Mear

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What time is it? I pull out my phone and look at the time. 10:30?! It’s Friday, and we have been closed for two and a half hours! Why is it taking so long?...

LETTING GO by Brooke Castillo

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            I look at the grass art, leaning towards me at a 45-degree angle. Six flags are overlapping one another so elegantly, every blade of grass not surpassing the one next to it. I...

NEW BEGINNINGS by Lisa James

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Sydney McLaughlin shattered her own world record by .78 seconds.  That was world record number four in two years.  Her first came when she became the only woman to dip below 52 seconds in...

TENSE MATTERS by Chelsea Owens

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The Past My brother, Justin, died in June 2022. The exact date, cause, and time were a mystery. The coroner said “when they cut him open” he had upper and lower GI bleeds, severe cirrhosis...

ILLNESS AND THE MOVEMENT OF TIME by A.M. Palmer

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Illness and the Movement of Time Reflections on Architecture, Music, and the Benefits of Raw Honey (2018) The movement of time becomes painfully apparent when one is ill, either droning on during treatment and recovery, or...

HOW TO TELL PEOPLE I AM WORDLESS WHEN I AM UNABLE TO SAY IT...

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People used to say I was special. It wasn’t so much that my personality set me apart, I was painfully shy and gave little of myself away. The “gift” I was told I had...