millennial blog project

The Writing

  • Cheap jewelry and women’s underwear: a meltdown

    I had a meltdown in Walmart about a month ago. I’d grabbed my Suave Sweet Pea and Violet body wash, pack of men’s razors, perused the small appliance aisle, picked up a few vanilla-scented votives and successfully located my mother near the grocery section so I could place my items in her cart. When I Read more

  • Ten reasons why Emily shouldn’t get a dog right now

    10.) Money. Vet bills. Accessories. Cool collars, beds and fun toys!!! Wait. Focus. Why care for someone else when I’ve only just begun caring for myself (and the giant peace lily in my family room)? 9.) Shedding. Unless I get a hairless dog, like Cruella de Vil’s Fluffy: 8.) Barking. Because my neighbor’s dog is kind of Read more

  • Hakuna Matata

    My grandmother used to do fingernail inspections. “Let’s see your nails,” she’d say whenever we had a free moment together. She’d usually make a little clicking noise of disapproval with her tongue because, c’mon, I always bit my nails and often had dirt under their gnarly remains after playing outside with the boys. She would make a clicking Read more

  • Indefinitely growing up

    Burning the “Boyfriend Box.” Finding handwritten notes shaped like a triangle or artfully folded into a square and throwing them away without even reading them. Not getting upset when your dad paints over the height measurements you –– at 13 –– and your ex boyfriend had recorded in brown Sharpie on your closet’s wooden frame. Read more

  • Fame to shame and back again

    Fame to shame and back again

    The high school’s athletic department spelled my last name wrong on my first-ever MVP plaque for varsity cross country in 2006. Trevor, the men’s MVP recipient and my then-senior-in-high-school brother, hadn’t noticed the misspelling on his own plaque. The physical education teacher apologized profusely, taking them back and promising to have them redone. That plaque Read more

  • ‘Though years have fled and years shall flow’

    ‘Though years have fled and years shall flow’

    My voice wavers during the Alma Mater, turning into my grandmother’s not-so-great singing voice I remember hearing during church services while growing up. Think about Bradley. Think about those quotes that supposedly make you feel better about things being over. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Yeah. That crap. You paid thousands of Read more