Archives of Inspiration

Our Relationship to Our Bodies: Kanaan Rhodes

By Kanaan Rhodes For me, tattoos enhance my perception of my appearance. I got my first tattoo when I was 18 years old. It was a simple design, but it started a lifelong journey to decorate my body — now, I have more than 50. The feeling of empowerment that comes from getting a new […]
6 months ago

Our Relationship to Our Bodies: Susan Winkler

I have a love-hate relationship with my body. Because I hate being disabled. But on the other hand, there’s always a worse-case scenario, someone that’s worse than I am. And sometimes, mentally, it affects me, even after 20 years, but I have ups and downs with life, like anyone does. But I’m thankful that I […]
6 months ago

From the Editor Summer 2024: Wonder

I think we can get used to it, being alive. We go through our day-to-day and hardly notice it, the smell of the coffee as we pour water over ground-up beans, the touching of our feet to concrete, to grass, to floor, the singing of the bird in the tree while we taste the sweet […]
9 months ago

from the editor: Spring 2024, “open”

In the first draft of this letter to open our issue on the theme of “open,” I wrote an anecdote about the students I taught in Greece who used the phrase “Open the lights” or “Close the lights” when they meant “Turn on the lights” or “Turn off the lights” in English. Their phrasing always […]
1 year ago

Long-Distance Friendships: Maintaining deep connections in adulthood 

By Jasmine Jones  There is a specific sound: a low hum, a soft ding, an echo of a ring that I now associate with my two best friends.  It is not the sound of metal spoons colliding in my dishwasher in my usually-quiet studio apartment; it is the sound of Facebook Messenger. A notification.  When […]
1 year ago

Solo Travel: Get out and explore

I was 22 and in Venice, Italy, for four days by myself, walking through winding streets while the city was waking up, women hanging laundry on lines between windows, setting out pastries they’d already baked by breads on shelves, men pushing wheelbarrows over cobblestones to pick up trash. I napped in the park as teenage […]
1 year ago

from the editor, Winter 2023: present

These past few months, I’ve been working towards a goal I felt incapable of achieving. The end product I wanted to get to felt far away, overwhelming; my progress and my own ability, discouraging. So, I mapped out deadlines and timeframes for myself; if I could mercilessly work toward the goal by adhering to a […]
1 year ago

from the editor: Fall 2023, “lineage”

My mom is really good at raising kids. While I know that could sound like bragging, and maybe it is, I am grateful to her not only for the way she raised me, but also for the ways she has taught me about how to parent in a way that teaches children to trust themselves […]
2 years ago

from the editor: Summer 2023, “nostalgia”

We didn’t get tickets to Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour. We tried really hard, but we were 11,000 and some people back in the Ticketmaster queue, and it didn’t happen. So, instead, we decided to dress up as our favorite T. Swift era, make our own playlist of our favorite Taylor Swift songs from each album […]
2 years ago