I’m reposting something I wrote a year ago over on another site, because I feel that it’s still relevant, particularly for my Appalachian friends.
on expectations
A few days after my thirtieth birthday, I drove over to a lakeside resort. I didn’t have a room booked, but I planned on taking a day trip to look at the water and the geese.
These days, when I take out the trash in the evening, I’ll give the can a good shake before I open the lid. The raccoons that live in the can aren’t rabid, but they are mean. They growl, they spit, and they…
It’s not easy to be alone.
Sometimes, I get an almost animalistic desire to hide under my desk when I’m the only one in a room, in case someone else walks in. If another person enters the room, it would just be the two of us — and I would feel defenseless. I…
When I was nine or ten, I often went over to a neighbor’s house.
The neighbor, a childhood playmate, lived in a building that would best be described as ramshackle — though that word is still far too quaint to describe the damage inside. In one part of the house, the floor…
The first time I watched Derry Girls, I was immediately struck by one thing. In the opening sequence of the first episode, a military transport truck — hauling two armed soldiers — winds its way around the outskirts of Derry.
Last year, I shared a story about my Andalusian and Atlantic Creole ancestors. I explored these families in a longform piece, where I sketched out some of the lingering influences of having ancestors from these regions. Yet I neglected to mention one of the most important touchstones of any culture: food. This essay…
There will be at least one dollar store within walking distance of the house.
There will always be at least five or six cans of chicken Vienna sausages in the pantry.
Granddad down in a mine,
me down in a cave —
both of us going deeper into Kentucky
I sometimes think about what the love of my life will be like. I never go anywhere where I might meet this overly-romanticized person — he’s entirely fictional. But in my head, the only place where this guy exists, he’s exceptional.
