Bicycles are for people who have somewhere to go and money to spend. Emilio doesn’t have either. Not yet, anyway.

Someone wins and someone loses. There are rules to each event. There is order. Control. Precision. It is summer here in the northern hemisphere, and the pools in Greece shimmer like gold. 

Heath blinked in the April sun, trying to remember why he was outside. Thrushes of the swaying plants on the starboard side of his plot of milkweed plants were being chewed to absolute bits by caterpillars. A cloud of orange and white and black butterflies swayed in heavenly arcs above him.

An awesome summer internship publication — writing a Barbie coloring book! Childhood me would’ve lost it.

Club Sunshine, it seems, can change the lives of all who enter.

Nancy’s worldliness inspired me about my  own life as a frequently on the move Army  brat. I didn’t get to see friends or family that much, but neither did Nancy, and she was doing just great.

When I considered the very real troubles of the world, near and far, I felt guilty for being sad over something as simple and precious to me as my vision. The fear of a forever night eclipsed every day.

In spring, the town unravels itself in the newly remembered sun. The farmers’ markets swell. They take over the town square twice a week, even in the rain. With the discipline of an ant colony, every cart takes its time-honored place on the cobblestoned expanse.

“You just pull its head open like this, and then you can suck its brains out.”

I died a little inside that day.

V) Google Vincent Chin. Worry that in 39 years, no one will talk about the Atlanta shootings except Asian Americans, because those are the only people who still talk about Vincent Chin.

Try to say “Xiaolongbao” at home,
but, afraid
to boof it, at the restaurant,
just point at the menu.

Find a used copy of The Tao of Pooh at a bookstore in Boulder, Colorado, surrounded by the whitest people you have ever seen.

Feel terrible about yourself for years. Think about how bamboo can survive everywhere, anywhere, except in your care. Convince yourself you are not allowed to care for living things.

Only after I raised two babies did I see the ocean. It was always there, I guess. On the other side of Virginia where people had homes and families.