Laura Hinnenkamp
Author
October 10, 2018
Art by Kirsten Hemrich
I was at a sleepover for my best friend’s birthday party when I saw my first and last scary movie. It was Orphan, and afterward I had to lie on an uncomfortable couch and try to fall asleep. I knew I never wanted to watch anything like that again. My friend’s basement had a sliding door that went directly out into the backyard, and even among a...
September 25, 2018
Art by Kirsten Hemrich
A deep pit in my stomach. I checked the time on my phone every fifteen seconds, waiting for the perfect time. The perfect time to ignore down the rapid beating of my heart and the sweat that began to form under my arms; the perfect time to decide, “fight or flight?”. I picked “fight” every time, because I had no other choice.
I convinced myself I had no other choice.
I latched on to safe spaces, safe people, and...
May 08, 2018
Art by Kirsten Hemrich
Over spring break, I was at Panera with my parents when my mom said something that offended my overly sensitive nature and within minutes I was fully crying in the middle of the restaurant. I am not a pretty crier--there is a picture of me when I was young on Halloween where I was crying in my devil costume, and my face certainly matched my ensemble. A friend of my parents stopped to say hi in the midst of my breakdown, so I had to try to discreetly wipe my cheeks, put on a smile, and hope that my eyes weren’t too red as my parents...
April 24, 2018
Photo taken by Chandler Collins, originally published in the Cavalier Daily.
When I was in elementary school, I would anxiously wait for the letter that would decide my fate for the next 9 months: which teacher I would have. Throughout anything that could happen in a year, my teachers remained a constant and defining presence. In third grade, I had a brand new teacher, fresh out of college, who wore Abercrombie chinos and carried the same pattern of Vera Bradley lunchbox as me. I obsessed--I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. A year later, I would have a teacher who taught both my brothers before me and...
March 28, 2018
Art by Kirsten Hemrich.
Often when we think of love, we think of a relationship between two people. Whether familial, platonic, or romantic, these relationships tend to define our sense of who we are. And when love relationships go awry, or become less than perfect, it can be difficult to not let that affect our self-esteem and view of the world. Here's the thing: we can't entrust our emotional health to our exterior relationships exclusively. We need to cultivate self-love if we want true emotional fulfillment.
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February 26, 2018
Art by Kirsten Hemrich
Pretty much everyone hates the new Snapchat update. You don’t even have to use Snapchat to know this--so many users have been sharing their displeasure on social media. I have yet to update the app, so while I’m not suffering from the new version it did get me thinking about what it even means to update something. In this case, the content of the app didn’t really change,...
February 12, 2018
Art by Kirsten Hemrich
The beginning of the semester is exciting. We get to come back to Charlottesville to see friends we’ve been missing, we start new and (hopefully) interesting classes, and we all feel invigorated to rock this semester. But all that can also drain us of our energy. Before we know it, we’re a month into classes and feel drowned with work and February weather. During times of change or transition, I always feel a disruption in my mental health, and I never need to look any further than the start of a new course load or the new year for these feelings to resurface. After years of not even...
December 15, 2017
As a society, we love to follow the trail of a murder case or missing persons case with close attention as the media sensationalizes the events (some more than others). However, when such a horrific mystery happens so close to home, the feelings change. Hannah Graham’s...
November 15, 2017
Art by Kirsten Hemrich
I’m not one to hide the fact that I’m on my period. “Feminine hygiene products,” in all their shrouded mystery, are really just a necessity. This isn’t always the mode of thinking. The start of menstruation is classically hailed as the day a girl becomes a woman; it is also the day she starts to hide this womanhood. From the moment we are labeled women, we learn that the supposed “essence” of womanhood is a taboo for everyday conversation. We discreetly slip tampons or pads into shoes, waistbands, or sleeves before heading to the bathroom during class.
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November 03, 2017
Art by Kirsten Hemrich
I played basketball throughout high school and middle school, and before that I played on travel teams and in intramural leagues, and before that I played in my cul de sac with my two older brothers and dad. Basketball was a big part of my identity, something that shaped me and helped me grow.
Unfortunately, the sad fact in my life is that boy’s basketball is considered simply more interesting than girl’s basketball. Women are shorter, not as strong, slower...