Category: prose

I have always expected more from the dishwasher. I used to watch, dumbfounded, as the adults in my life scrubbed the dishes clean before arranging them onto the racks of that lazy and sparkling silver appliance. And one day I finally did it. I asked the question that marked the beginning of my becoming a person: “Why would I wash…

As I sit stationary at the red light just north of Tennessee street, my hand hovers under the indicator before I remember that I am not heading back to my apartment, that I don’t have an apartment anymore; despite what my bank lists as my billing address, I no longer live across from that biscuit company just off the edge…

It’s hard to explain but I recently encountered a younger version of myself. She was exactly sixteen and she was crying in her childhood bedroom, a bedroom which was recently obliterated to bits by some indifferent man on an indifferent bulldozer, by someone paid to destroy what was in order to make space for what will be. And her tears…

In a podcast* episode promoting his new film* Dan Levy said things that solidified to me my own purpose. I am meant to write. And it’s a truth onto which I keep circling back And it is my worst fear that I will not take the steps to realize my dream. My calling? My purpose? My what-I-am-meant-to-do. Because it is…

Quitting! Giving up! That’s right! You heard it here first folks! I will not be finishing this through-hike! *GASP* Well, I will be finishing it! In fact I am quite close to being finished with it. I think it’s safe to say my finish line falls just a bit short of the supposed “real” finish line is all. “WHY?!?!?!?!?” I…

As in Navigate As in Use a compass for the first time Also as in Find my True North Whatever that means I am typing from inside my roomy new Big Agnes tent (brand chosen after what I would consider extensive research on “best ultralight backpacking tents”), still connected to WiFi in my backyard, which is “the garden” to my…

You must visit home because if you do not, you will not be there to hear your brother remember how you used to take your tea and your oats on the go when you were driving that old manual Jeep that would one day be his in high school. You will not then, as you take that corner on this…

As in Core Values Here are some values given to me by others throughout my years: communication, hard work, accountability, trust, leadership, diversity, loyalty, love. Like guides, these themes have led me to well, here. And now what? Who guides me now that I get to choose? One beloved English teacher once said that in the practice of literary analysis,…

Like the countdown to Christmas onward from December 12th, it sounds good on paper but anyone who knows anything about how time has a way of passing does the math to find, somehow, today is only one day closer to tomorrow than yesterday was and that seems impossible and requires far too much presence. I release the fear of being…

There are no natural predators in New Zealand. This was one of the very first things I learned when I got here; Kiwis claim it quite boastfully, almost completely ignorant to their privilege and the implications of their circumstance.  60-ish days in to my stay in Cape Town, I drove a co-worker home and as we passed family homes, all…