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Denver Reflections

It was so incredibly nourishing to meet so many new PLAers on the Denver trip over spring break, and I’m so grateful to everyone for welcoming me into their conversations and adventures. Going on my first PLA trip during the last semester of my final year here at Penn...

The Violence of Choice

Oftentimes I find myself overwhelmed by the sheer incomprehensibility of probability. The universal experience of the graduating college student is a near incessant chorus of “What’s next?” in all its permutations that drone under one’s last semester. My answer these...

Morbitity for the Morbidly Facinated

What makes a fascination morbid? Apparently, it is merely the interest in topics that could be described as morbid themselves: death, crime, decomposition. I suppose this tracks. However, I always had a different perception of the phrase. To me, a morbid fascination...

So… I went to church.

     Twice actually. Both of the last two Sundays I found myself back in Pittsburgh and joined my mom at my childhood congregation. For context, I grew up Mennonite and chose to be baptized into the church at 13. The thing is, I never really believed much in God. I...

Eco Anxiety #4: One Small Thing

     Concluding my semester-long tirade on single-use plastics, I would like to take this time to perhaps ease your mind. The situation is dire, we are in danger and we must demand policymakers and corporations shift towards more sustainable practices. This would, in...

Eco Anxiety Mambo #2

     I use a plastic water bottle maybe once every six months. And even then, I usually will reuse the same bottle another four or five times just to be sure I’ve utilized its full potential to me. Then I pull the wrapper off before throwing it in the recycling bin;...

Eco Anxiety #1: It always starts with arts and crafts

     Yesterday I had a panic attack in my car outside the Michaels. I have a pair of hand-knit fingerless convertible mittens, you know the ones with the mitten bit that flaps over the fingerless bit? Originally those flaps were held in place by a button. Those...

On Realizing Too Late

The sweltering sun driving the people into doors The brave tomato plants sitting on stoops Like it’s their turn to drink shandies and shuck corn on the concrete Toes wiggling in their shoes to leave this town      It’s trembling bridges           And it’s open wounds....