How To Adequately Remember?

I enjoy writing letters. I try to write them to friends when they are abroad or if we don’t have the type of relationship where we are going to talk on the phone much. Still it’s always hard to know where to start, especially if its been a while since I’ve communicated with someone. Writing […]

My File Part IV: In Lieu of Birth Certificate

“Affidavit of Abandonment In Lieu of Birth Certificate”. It’s not everyday that I read the above title. A few days ago I was cleaning my room and reorganizing my files and I came across a manila mailing envelope that read “Kumar legal documents” in my mother’s handwriting. “How’d this get into my file?” I thought. […]

My File Part III: Mouse Free

[This is a continuation of My File Part II: Bites Away] A few days after graduating from college and returning to my childhood home I found myself in our dirty cobwebbed basement rummaging through Tupperware boxes. These boxes were filled with contents from my childhood. Most of the contents of the hulking green metal desk […]

“33 Variations” – One Trigger

Katherine began to choke. Hearing her choke, that sound, sent a wave of shock through my body. It was like I totally blacked out for a split second and was immediately transported back into my kitchen as my 13 year-old self. Sitting at the kitchen table reading Sports Illustrated searching for the “Faces in The […]

My File Part II: Bites Away

[This is a continuation from My File Part I: A Baby’s Biography] Sitting on my hardwood bedroom floor I pulled back the manila cover. An old typwritten piece of white stained paper sat in front of me. The top of the page read “Congregation of the Sisters of The Cross of Chavanod” below in bold […]

My File Part I: A Baby’s Biography

As a teenager I never paid much attention to the fact that I knew very little about my time in India as a baby. I was somewhat curious about my biological relatives wondering whose smile I had and more importantly (for a boy heavily involved in sports) how tall I would be. I figured most […]

Life Saving Fantasies

When I was about 10 years old my father was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but introduced to me as ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It took me until the eighth grade when I did a health project on terminal illnesses, about 3 years later, to be able to […]

Unsually Aware

I am an unusually aware person. Or at least I am unusually aware of how people perceive me. As a young adult most people have a strong understanding of how social norms work and thus know how to evoke a desired response in most situations. But as children we are less adept in picking up […]

My Fear of Phone Calls

I always have my phone on me. I make sure I can either hear it ring or feel it vibrate. Before I go to bed I change my phone from vibrate to ringer and place it under my pillow so that there is no way I’ll miss it if someone needs to get a hold […]