precontemplation My mom runs down the decrepit sidewalk, her bare feet tickled by the crabgrass emerging from the pavement cracks. Her...

Sometimes, for a moment, you didn’t feel like you came from there. It’s not that you hated the place. The psychedelic Chinese...

Donna Summer’s ethereal voice melted on the record player’s rusting needle while she rolled each body of flour and sugar, water and...

My teacher stands in front of me. “Jeffrey, please come outside with me,” she says. Her shadow looms over my book, the darkness sucking...

Seeing the red, shiny slide that has sudden swerves makes my face beam immediately. The swings sway even though no children are on them....

My past self was an idiot. He and I don’t see eye to eye on some ideas and arguments. Sure, there are some similarities; we both like to...

On my dresser sits a small stuffed dog. He’s old and worn, and on his front legs you can see where the seams have begun to come...

As the day’s last one-way ticket train pulled in, I had no other choice but to let Her slip away from my tight embrace. Her head nestled...

I was sitting on the porch, leaning into the wooden chair, painted in white that was flaking off, leaving little black speckles peeking...

I stare blankly at my seventh-grade English teacher as he summarizes one of the most devastating events in history—the Holocaust. Each...

A large part of the Qinghai Province is prairie, and its inhabitants usually live in tents because they have to move constantly for the...

Every time I pass by the signpost of “Danpung Neighborhood Park”, I'd often hear the sound of the dried maple leaves, crackling, under...

I watch the boy approach, rushing, stumbling towards me with one sleeve of his winter coat on his arm, the other dragging across the...

There was never one interaction, one moment, where I found it blatantly clear to me that the bitter people at the ominous security desks...

“There are roses in the basement.” In the morning, no one is ever really awake until they’ve eaten breakfast. This was true for me last...

Sometimes, at restaurants, thighs slicked to plastic booths, the four of you get funny looks. It takes her time to understand why. You...

I woke up in a hospital room, surrounded by wires and doctors, to find myself the star of a real-life mystery. Growing up, I had immersed...

“And here you are living despite it all.” - Rupi Kaur Part I. The Clear Bag Clouds filled her brain. A warm fuzzy feeling. The darkness...

“Everyone please pay attention and be quiet so that I can take attendance.” Ah, the dreaded five minutes of a substitute teacher taking...

i. I listen to music so much that headaches start to sprout. They blossom like mushrooms on my temple, a few inches from where my glasses...