The Girl in the Red Rubber Boots

Category: Stories

  • Lancaster Pennsylvania

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in ,

    For the month of April I am in Lancaster Pennsylvania, in a little house behind a hot dog factory. Sometimes I get a good whiff of hot dogs as I walk up the street on a warm day, or when I open the bathroom window to get some air circulation while I shower. The windows…

  • A Moldy House and a Dying Car

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in ,

    I hate being overwhelmed. It’s why I pack like a minimalist, and why I don’t bother with face creams, and why I don’t make to-do lists longer than five items at a time. Needless to say, the REACH week was full of overwhelming situations, from uncertainty about my living situation, to ill health, to the…

  • REACH 2019

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    Before I talk about my two days at REACH, I should mention that there was even more drama regarding my family’s travel plans. Originally we all had an Airbnb until Friday. Friday evening I’d go to Philadelphia and Ben would go to his friend Daniel’s house, and Mom and Dad would drive to Baltimore for…

  • Amanda and Bryce’s Wedding

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in , ,

    I went to Amanda and Bryce’s wedding last weekend. It was wonderful until it turned terrible. This is my story Part 1: Alone I came to the wedding alone. I knew the bride. That was it. Our short list of mutual friends, for several semi-complicated reasons, were not going to make it to the wedding.…

  • Travis and Christina’s Wedding

    Travis and Christina’s Wedding

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in , ,

    When Travis was in town, things were different. Before he arrived in Oregon to sing for Gospel Echoes, our local prison ministry group, my brother Ben and I were pretty much the only single people in our 20s at church. But after Travis came, we hung out with him, as well as his roommate Javen…

  • The Fantastic Puns of Teenagers

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    One of the highlights of my job is that, now and then, one of the students will effortlessly spit out a truly fantastic pun. Here are some of my favorites. The first occurred some months ago, when Mr B and Ms Shea took all the honor roll students on a delightful honor roll trip, and…

  • The Way We Live Now

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in ,

    Every February the ladies at my church have a ladies retreat, and then a week or two later the youth at my church have a youth retreat, and I have to decide whether to go to one or the other or both. It’s always at the coast. I don’t know what people do who don’t…

  • The Strangest Day of my Life

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    I’ve been looking forward to watching this eclipse for months. I love bizarre, dream-like experiences where the normal rules of life don’t seem to apply. Like when I was in Thailand, exploring a semi-abandoned mall, where I’d walk through movie theaters and ice rinks and no one was there. Or when the floods of 2012…

  • The Weather is my Real Boss

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    In midsummer, the sun rises in the northeast, shining through my north bedroom window and straight into my eyes. In other words, if I don’t wake up at 5:45 AM, there is enough cloud cover that I might not have to go to work. I used to read old books and wonder why everyone was…

  • Stop Being Spooky, LinkedIn

    —

    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in ,

    I have a very weird story about LinkedIn that has puzzled me for three years. It actually began six years ago, when I started my very first term of college ever, at Bridgewater College in Virginia. Bridgewater required that every student take a class called “Personal Development Portfolio.” It was kind-of a weird class. We…