Conversations with my Grandmother
by Zoë Owens ‘22
CW: implications of eating disorders
She didn’t look at me as she said it. It was almost like she wasn’t saying it to me; she was saying it to get it out of her head and off of her heart.
Read MoreOn Explanation
By Parker Piscitello-Fay ‘22
I have two beautiful mothers, an amazing younger sister, a sperm donor father, and at least three half-siblings. I don’t know how to explain how this feels to strangers.
Read MoreA Dispatch from the House of Mirrors
by Megan McNally ‘20
I know, of course, that the world has changed. But sometimes I am surprised at the ferocity with which it has not.
Read MoreWaldeinsamkeit
by Corinne Muller ‘21
Several years ago, I happened upon a website entitled “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.” Compiled in this dictionary are words mostly derived from the Romance languages, German, and Japanese that somehow encapsulate those feelings that always seem impossible to adequately identify, those feelings whose pulse the English vernacular never satisfactorily touches.
My Body
by Mar Barrera ‘20
Content warnings: gender dysphoria, mentions of transphobia
My body feels like a political statement, even though it never asked to be one. Wherever it exists (or doesn’t, according to the Wellesley College administration), it must be prepared to justify and explain its existence.
Zippers
by Roz Rea ‘19
Content warning: suicidal ideation
Senior Spring has culminated in one event after another where I am supposed to wear outfits that make me look “nice.”
Senior Soirée required “cocktail attire” with the caveat of “whatever makes you feel comfortable.” But if everyone else is in cocktail attire and you’re not, you sure won’t feel comfortable anymore. I wore a blue lace cocktail dress. It didn’t zip all the way up.
Read MoreWhat are you going to do with that?
by Lydia MacKay ‘19
When I tell people that I’m majoring in History, their first question is often, “Well, what are you going to do with that?” Is there a good answer to this question? Sometimes I list out some “acceptable” responses—law, business, the usual—but other times I’m just sarcastic. As if their skepticism isn’t bad enough, people often feel compelled to offer their advice that I choose a more profitable major. True story: once I talked with this man for all of five minutes, and he recommended that I switch my major to accounting.
Read MoreStar Island
by Ely Willard ’20
Every summer, my family goes to Star Island for a week. It’s a tiny island ten miles off the coast of the New Hampshire-Maine border, in a cluster of eight other islands known as the Isles of Shoals. For the past hundred years, Unitarian Universalists and Congregationalists have hosted week-long conferences there throughout the summer. My family always goes to one of the UU weeks even though none of us go to church that often. But people from all faiths are welcome, and most of the programming has no direct religious connection. It’s kind of like summer camp, but for whole families, not just kids.
Read MoreThank You, Molly Bloom
by Maggie Roberts ’20
That semester, I was reading Ulysses for an English class. I had been too anxious—for no particular reason, just mentally fried—to commit to the novel. I viewed reading it as a chore instead of as the stimulating, enjoyable challenge it should have been for me. Finally, at the end of April, when I had just about given up on myself intellectually, writing myself off as dumb as well as fat, I was able to fall in love with the novel, its creative language, its self-involved, ever-so-realistic characters. Most of all, I fell in love with Molly Bloom.
Read MoreIt’s Oscars Night and I Miss You
by Delaney Robertson ’21
Content warning: family death
You used to stay until the end of the credits after every movie you saw, and boy, it drove me crazy. Now I can’t seem to leave the theatre until the lights come all the way up. Someone needs to continue your tradition. It feels like the least I can do.
Read MoreChoosing the Instance of Gender Euphoria
by Gus Agyemang '22
Content warning: gender dysphoria
What I have now come to understand as “gender dysphoria” became my problem around the time of puberty. Like most teenagers, I noticed the changes my body was going through, but what really bothered me was how different it was from my friends’. My voice didn’t drop, and I didn’t grow tall, and people were now referring to me as she. I felt disgusted by my budding breasts and hips and enraged that I was to feel proud of them.
Read MoreTell Me I'm Pretty
by Seren Riggs-Davis ’21
On June 1st, I broke up with my boyfriend. It was a surprise for both of us. We saw our relationship as long-term, there were no noticeable problems between us, and we definitely enjoyed our time together, so a break up was the last thing on his mind or mine.
Read MoreXylocarp, or Homeschooling for Beginners
by Eleanor Nash ’21
“I know what you’re thinking. Homeschooled kids are freaks, or that we’re weirdly religious or something.”
Read MoreRainbow Turns Gray
by April Poole '19
Content warning: homophobia, homophobic language
I met my best friends on the first floor of my dorm, nervous that someone was going to see us and just know that we were going to the party at the Queer Studies House.
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