Do you remember how we used to be little kids? With baby fat protecting the veins on the backs of our hands and the bones beneath our cheeks. When you look in the mirror, do you see your face? Is it the same face you’ve always had? Maybe it’s thinner, stronger, more tired. Maybe you’re happy to be this older version of yourself.
Read MoreI was always the last one to finish the mile in middle school. Chubby and morally opposed to forced exercise, I found myself minutes behind my classmates– always sweaty and short of breath by the end of my seven laps, embarrassed that I couldn’t keep up.
Read MoreLately, I’ve been noticing the large amount of songs in my rotation that contain the word “honey”: “Honey Hi,” “Hunnybee,” “Honeybody,” and just plain “Honey.” Instead of just making a playlist with songs about honey, I decided to switch it up a bit, alternating each honey song with a song about, or vaguely relating to, lavender.
Read MoreJohnny Cash. Stevie Wonder. Tom Jones. ZZ Top. Jimmy Dean of microwave breakfast stardom. What do these artists have in common? They’ve all covered the song “Sixteen Tons,” originally written by the American folk artist Merle Travis in 1947.
Read MoreAs a bit of a running joke, my dad famously woke up to the song “Need A Little Sunshine” by Augustana every morning for several years. It’s a perfect song for easing into the day; it doesn’t jolt you awake, but it has just the right amount of energy to motivate you to get up, get dressed, and get out of the house…
Read MoreThe summer after my senior year of high school, right before we all headed off to college, my best friends and I would go on these long drives. Mostly, we’d fantasize what the next four years would be for us, and we’d always come back to the fear we’d become such radically different people. The fear that one day, we wouldn’t know each other anymore.
Read MoreI imagine that, in the fifties, things were simple. A boy asked you out, you were “going together,”, he took you to the sock hop (what even is a sock hop?) and then he dumped you right before home-ec. I’m not saying it was easy, but it was simple. It was clear cut. (Or maybe it wasn’t at all, sorry grandma.)
Read MoreI live in Bushnell, on the south side of campus. It's one of the two ski lodges they're about to bulldoze to make way for “apartment style housing.” If you're wondering, it is absolutely charmed to live in a building the college has already decided is functionally useless and has no value. We did a great job with the wall decor, though, which helps.
Read MoreOver the past few months I’ve begun to notice an abundance of songs in my rotating music collection that have to do with “Georgia.” By this I mean either Georgia the state, or Georgia in reference to a person. I’ve never been to Georgia, and I don’t know anyone named Georgia personally, but for some reason I’ve become invested in accumulating this music.
Read More