Category: Stories
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The Pain and the Peacefulness
I woke up with the worst sore throat I’ve ever had in my life. I felt like I was choking on a pine cone. Swallowing sent brutal pain through my throat, and yet I couldn’t seem to make my mouth stop swallowing. I lay in a cold sweat, my muscles aching. Too sick to get…
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MOP April 21: Little Sister
“Hey Emily, guess what?” My little sister stood in my doorway at 11:02 last night. “What?” “This may be the last time you’ll see me as a 16-year-old.” Maybe not so little, after all. “Not if we hang out for a while,” I said. She sat on my bed and we started chatting. I don’t…
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MOP April 19: Things in Unexpected Places
Today my friends and I hung out because it was Ashlie’s birthday, and we had a conversation that went something like this: Ashlie: It’s cold in here. Why is it so cold in here? Anna: I’ve heard that restaurants keep things cold so that you’ll eat more to burn more calories to keep you warm.…
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MOP April 13: Vindication
I was pretty bad at academic writing when I started college, which was hard on my ego. I mean, I’d published a book and stuff, how dare my teachers make notes in the margins of my papers telling me to take a writing class? Humph. Still, being of a practical frame of mind, I signed…
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What We Do for Extra Credit
I gotta say, dressing up and lip-syncing to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is the weirdest thing I’ve ever done for extra credit. I posted this picture on Facebook and multiple people asked me for the full story. Goodness. How do I even begin to explain that class? I guess I should have known what I…
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Words of an Educated Amishman
I’ve been spending a LOT of time at school recently, since Ben and I ended up with widely different schedules, yet only bought one parking pass to share between us. Some days it’s dark when I get up and dark when I leave school. As a way to productively fill some of the extra hours,…
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MOP April 30: You, Too, Have the Power to Change Things
My Russian History class is two hours long. I used to think it was absolutely cruel that church services lasted an entire hour…I mean, who could sit still for that long? Couldn’t the preacher condense his message to a well-organized fifteen minutes and still get his point across? Yet here I am, willingly subjecting myself…
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MOP April 27: Why I am the Girl in the Red Rubber Boots
It’s weird how, when you curate an online persona, you end up defining yourself by really random stuff you thought of years ago on the fly. I have a number of readers whom I don’t know, and they all (probably) think of red boots when they think of my blog, so I should really have…
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MOP April 23: Basic Complaints About a Semi-Bad Day
Today had all the benchmarks of a good day. It was a Thursday, aka, the day I have my most interesting classes. I had no homework due. I even ran into an old friend from the ROV club. Unfortunately, despite all those promising features, I had a bad(ish) day instead. First of all, I’ve been…
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MOP April 21: Jenny Turns 16
When she was born, I was filled with an amazement I had never before experienced. A real baby, with a perfect miniature face, and perfect little toes. Even her cry was beautiful. I was convinced there had never been a cuter baby in existence. When she was two we had to share a bedroom so…
The Girl in the Red Rubber Boots 