Archives

Age 18, Massachusetts, USA A friend asked me to move the large cargo truck she rented. Even though I’d never driven one before, I took the keys. And I backed up and dented a parked car. It [...]

Age 19, Los Angeles, California, USA I was desperately in love with you. We were both nineteen, born only nineteen days apart. You were my first boyfriend. I was your first girlfriend. I was a [...]

Age 13, Baltimore, USA When I was in eighth grade, I was friends with Leslie (not her real name), a Jewish girl in a predominantly black school who wore raggedy clothes and often smelled of [...]

Age 15, Indiana, USA Mom, I know you’re upset that I spent Thanksgiving with Dad. But I really wanted to see my cousins and Gran and Gramps. I’m sorry you felt I abandoned you. [...]

Age 15, Wisconsin, USA I had known Mike since second grade. Another friend, Sarah, kept bugging me to talk to him, to tell him I liked him more than as a friend. I had a serious crush, but was [...]

Age 13, USA I was thirteen. My sister was eighteen. I read her diary. There were things about her life I wish I never knew. Like the guys she had been with and what she had done with them. I also [...]

Age 17, USA We had been best friends and “sisters” since seventh grade. And having you as a friend meant that I no longer felt alone, no longer felt like an outcast. I didn’t [...]

Age 13, Buffalo Grove, Illinois, USA In junior high, I was labeled a nerd, and I hated it. Being forced to carry a label you don’t want is torturous. I wanted to be popular. When one of my [...]

Age 19, Calhoun, Georgia, USA I was full of many emotions. Not just your regular teenage emotions, either. Later, I would  be diagnosed with Bipolar. But at nineteen, my mental illness, though [...]

Age 19, Michigan, USA When I told you that I never wanted to be like you and you slapped my face and I hit you back. I hope you can forgive me, Mom.