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splotches of color: purple, pink, orange

Dear Man with the Matches,  Do you remember seeing a gaggle of college kids making their way down the street late one night?
Bailey Middleton

hand painting a blue gift box

My family has a long tradition of creating handmade gifts for each other.
Caroline Silvera

streaks of pink

Start with a mantra. And a mirror.  The same words, daily. 
Cassie Dallas

hands writing a list

The crazy combination of emojis I’ve saved beside your name in my phone pops up, and I instantly smile.
Ella Powell

a plane, a train, a car

Once a year, in the midst of the holiday oasis of Thanksgiving, my immediate family stops for one, pumpkin-pie-scented moment.
Susannah Baker

hands holding a gift

1. Burnett’s Liquor  If they’re over 21, this is an insult.  
Cheyenne Butler

hand holding a letter

Dear Beloved Reader,
Jasmine Wang

3 going out tops

Walking into a dimly lit room, bass vibrations rattling the windows, I look around—the women are in uniform. So am I. The year is 2023.
Eryn Rhodes

dying flowers on a windowsill

The theologian Kallistos Ware wrote that Now is all we really have: the past and future exist only conceptually, framed by present experience.
Emily Miller

dying flowers on a windowsill

The theologian Kallistos Ware wrote that Now is all we really have: the past and future exist only conceptually, framed by present experience.
Emily Miller

3 going out tops

Walking into a dimly lit room, bass vibrations rattling the windows, I look around—the women are in uniform. So am I. The year is 2023.
Eryn Rhodes

hand holding a letter

Dear Beloved Reader,
Jasmine Wang

hands holding a gift

1. Burnett’s Liquor  If they’re over 21, this is an insult.  
Cheyenne Butler

a plane, a train, a car

Once a year, in the midst of the holiday oasis of Thanksgiving, my immediate family stops for one, pumpkin-pie-scented moment.
Susannah Baker

hands writing a list

The crazy combination of emojis I’ve saved beside your name in my phone pops up, and I instantly smile.
Ella Powell

streaks of pink

Start with a mantra. And a mirror.  The same words, daily. 
Cassie Dallas

hand painting a blue gift box

My family has a long tradition of creating handmade gifts for each other.
Caroline Silvera

splotches of color: purple, pink, orange

Dear Man with the Matches,  Do you remember seeing a gaggle of college kids making their way down the street late one night?
Bailey Middleton

hands holding letters

Every year on my birthday, I write a letter addressed to myself a year from now.
Jasmine Wang

person in graduation ground sitting

Returning to Grounds as a fourth year, I feel as though life is moving too fast and has suddenly gotten away from me.
Talia Pirron

ink pot and feather pen

When I was in first grade, I wished for the first time to be a writer.
Susannah Baker

paramount theater

On a recent Saturday morning, I was bursting out of the dimly lit Paramount Theater in Downtown Charlottesville with furrowed brows and a long
Eryn Rhodes

cassette tape

Who were our parents as children? What were their hopes, dreams and desires? What did they have to give up in order to become adults?
Caroline Silvera

small girl walking through a river in a forest

There was a beautiful girl who lived mostly in her head. She wasn’t beautiful for any notable extrinsic features.
Ella Powell

matches and candle

One thing about me? I take birthdays very seriously. One birthday in particular, actually—mine.
Jordan Coleman

hand holding four leaf clover

Did you know that everyone in the world is different from everyone else? It’s 2001 and Disney Channel just discovered race.
Cassie Dallas

burning fire with hearts

The love I had for you  I did not know where to let it rest
Cheyenne Butler

fairies and stardust

when you look up at the night sky  what do you see?
Bailey Middleton

palm with lines tracing everywhere

there is a longing within me for something that is not there
Lindsey Smith

envelope sealed with wax amid images of iris flowers

In the fifth grade, as leaves cascaded down into a shriveled crisp and as the autumnal air descended upon us, I begged my mother to be Little Red R
Jasmine Wang

bunch of colorheads with glinting earrings

I am instantly hit by an unforgiving wave of humidity and booming trap music.
Ella Powell

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