Elementary Days: A Nonet
Photo by Natasha Kalsi By Natasha Kalsi Take me back to those days as a kid My grades didn’t define my worth Important decisions were Games to play at recess Scars were only on My knees and I Remember I was Me
We Only Get To Do This Once
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Sydney Stoddard As college students, we always hear how we need to do more, work more, and learn more. We have homework to do, internships to look out for and if we dare miss out on some professional-sounding opportunity – we feel like a complete and utter failure. If we…
Imposter Affirmations
Photo by Lianelys Cabrera By Lianelys Cabrera So we’re talking about school now? Ahh, where do I begin? If you want to criticize a toxic relationship, look at the one you have with school and academia. I basically knew something was wrong the first time I cried because I failed a math quiz in elementary…
Stigma
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Ash Fuentes My high school math teacher used to try to scare my class by saying that about 80% of us wouldn’t graduate from college once we got there. We were in the second-lowest math class that we could possibly take as seniors. She would say she had no doubt…
Starry Eyed
Photo by Bianca Bucu By Bianca Bucu Whenever I think of starting school, my days begin with having coffee in my hands. College was the time I developed a caffeine addiction. I’m always driving to the nearest Starbucks drive thru, or falling in line at some random coffee shop. Before I go into my zoom meeting,…
Remembering the Fairies
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Hannah Berry D’Alessandro When we’re so burdened by the swift passing of the days, it is easy to forget that when one is actually waiting for the sun to rise, it takes an eternity. The rule is: we cannot go outside the house until the sun rises. Unfortunately for us,…
The Recess Playlist
For this month’s theme of recess, Kindergarten contributors hand picked songs we play when we’re walking across campus, songs that get us through the week, and songs we listen to when we study. Essentially, this playlist is your ultimate back to school soundtrack. Listen to the playlist here Kleigh Balugo “Campus” by Vampire Weekend The…
Our Most Embarrassing School Stories
Photo by Kleigh Balugo Illustrations by Kleigh Balugo School is where we spend a good chunk of our lives. We make a great deal of memories spending eight hours a day in a building with a bunch of people our age, being asked to write, solve, socialize. For our theme of Recess, we wanted to…
Academia: A Sonnet
Photo by Tracy Fuentes By Tracy Fuentes i sit in the library with dry, blood shot eyes. how many pages have I read – no, skimmed – today? how many social invites have I had to turn away? i fear that this semester may be my demise. my to do list only grows in size,…
The Only Accurate Portrayal of a Teenager in a Film
Photo by Charlotte Turner By Charlotte Turner Depictions of teens in media run the gamut from beautiful twenty-five-year-olds involved in soap opera plotlines to more accurate examinations of one of the most difficult and transitory times in a person’s life. Although there are plenty of great, interesting, and worthwhile films about being a teenager, I…
Eric Rohmer’s Stupid Men
Photo by Isabel Cruz By Isabel Cruz The sounds of water rolling onto the shore and birds gently chirping make up the soundtrack for “La Collectionneuse.” We are supplied with no music, just the paradisiacal sounds of the French Riviera and a voiceover from our narrator Adrien, as he tells of his experience while at…
Smoke Break
Photo by Vinh Tran By Vinh Tran I actually do want to quit smoking eventually, even if it’s not really smoke–it’s still horrible for you. I want to kick the habit, I want to quit. But that’s the thing about giving something up, some things are worth never returning to again, however, other things are…
A Letter to an Old Friend
Photo by Natalia Lee By Natalia Lee Dear School, I remember when we had a good relationship. I was young and naive when we first met; always open to the world you would show me. You were the main event in my life for years. 12 to be exact. When the time drew closer to…
In the Cool Snails Club
Photo by Eva Vitkute By Eva Vitkute An ode to rejecting the idea of fitting in. As a child, it can feel so alienating even being slightly quirky, and then as an adult, you can only ever dream of being that pure and genuine again.
College Is Just Part Of My Redemption Arc
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Alexandra Pelas The jobs I want don’t require a degree, but I’m still here, majoring in political science and buying used LSAT prep books. A part of me always wants to be the smartest person in the room, I never am, and I resent that. My need to feel intelligent…
Squiggly Lines
Photo by Alex Zavala By Alex Zavala Bring me back to the time where I knew nothing but squiggly lines and that my name begins with the letter “A” Sing a track like Home Means Nevada to let the young voices shine and remember when all you wanted to do was play Cling to kindness,…
Two Haikus: At the Edge of the Waterfall
Photo by Greta Unetich By Greta Unetich Buttermilk Falls State Park Will I be able To jump into these deep and Dark waters again? Will I ever hear Such silence again, like what’s Found beneath water?
“A” Honor Roll
Photo by Ian Watson By Ian Watson I made the terrible mistake of closely tying school to my identity during my adolescence and now I can’t escape it. I don’t think I can clearly pinpoint the exact time where this happened, but it definitely began very early, probably at the beginning of elementary school. Straight…
Don’t Erase Me
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Tracy Fuentes I think we’ve all realized by now that the education we receive from kindergarten to twelfth grade is not very comprehensive, especially when it comes to the history of those who are not straight white men. As a Filipina American, I never learned anything about Filipino Americans in…
Taking Up Space
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Kleigh Balugo There’s nothing that I envy more than people who can unapologetically take up time and space in the classroom. In my freshman year of college I took a feminism theory class. I showed up on the first day with all my squeaky clean notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils,…
Kindergarten 