I Look, Therefore I Am?
Names have been changed. It was the day of my friend Amanda’s bat mitzvah. She was more of a recent friend, someone who, with my implicit permission, tended to degrade me on a daily basis. Nonetheless, I liked her, and at one of the final parties of the year-long bat mitzvah season, I wanted to […]
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Hershey and Her Pink Castle
When I started middle school, there were a lot of things I didn’t like. I didn’t like the teachers. I didn’t like the building. Honestly, I didn’t even like the girl I saw in the mirror. She was quiet, self-conscious, and afraid of not fitting in. But I loved our class pets. There were snakes, […]
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Forgiving My Dad
Before I started grade school, my dad was the stay-at-home parent. I was an only child, so we spent all day together while my mom was at work. He doted on me and taught me to cook, exercise, and enjoy music and films. I followed him everywhere, wearing his clothes and wanting to be just […]
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Pedaling Towards Happiness
In 2017, when I was 10, my parents separated. I was close to my mother, who dressed me up and took me to her friends’ homes where I listened to their conversations in Spanish. My father and I weren’t close. But my siblings and I were forced to move in with my father because he […]
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