He was super into God. He was super into church. And he was super into me

This was the summer after seventh grade, and all my thoughts were sinful, according to the church. The year before I had confessed all my crimes and a man in hip waders held me under water until all the evil in me had fled the power of Christ’s approach, but now, in the early stages of my adolescence, I was obsessed with the opposite sex.

My first boyfriend collected knives. He was the kind of boy who listened to Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne, who liked to draw superheroes... more

Soon after I received my first eye injection a decade ago, the movie list began. “It reminds me of that scene in... more

I can’t see the future, though sometimes I see someone on the street and think it’s someone I know, but it’s not; a few minutes later, I see the person I’d thought the other person was. 

This Essay Isn't About the NBA Finals Because... more

Picture a village in south Punjab. Flat, irrigated land, low distant hills, rice and wheat fields.

Of course, Jesus only had hyssop—a bitter wine on a wet sponge—during the passion, but that was not an option at the concession stand.

I don’t remember when portable CD players came out, but I know the one my aunt got me for Christmas was the first to arrive... more

That first year of having her, I would drive by myself, just to feel that relief of no anxiety. I... more

When so much energy is spent on surveying the territory, adapting to the wonders and confusions of a new place, there isn’t always room to develop as a person.

Even when I had my brief zoology phase, in elementary school, I always preferred mammals.

The dog ran alongside me for about twenty yards, then I hit it. Or maybe it hit me. I still don’t know. I felt sick.

I no longer have that lime green vibrator.

Tom Cruise is one of life’s winners. He felt the need, the need for speed, and singlehandedly saved America from those Soviet planes, or something—honestly you never understood what was going on in the second half of Top Gun. In A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson told Tom Cruise he couldn’t handle the truth, but Jack Nicholson was quite wrong.

I will take an infestation, but only if it won’t spread.

I wandered around Sam Goody, more likely keeping track of my ABCs than taking inventory of the... more

Now, you book an appointment on a whim. But it’s not a whim. You’ve been thinking about this for a while.

It was my senior year of high school, either late 1998 or early 1999. Everyone in my middle-class suburb used landlines. I flipped the phone open and closed, removed the battery, pulled out the antenna then pushed it back in.

Like the other day, when we got into a fight about who was the luckier between the two of us to have found the other.

When I was eleven, I saw the hip-hop group TLC bust onto the stage of some live TV show wearing giant colorful overalls... more

For Caite’s Sweet 16 we get a couple rooms at the Motel 6 on Cerrillos, not the one downtown with the outdoor pool, the one on the... more

But I did enjoy some of those late evenings of silly stories and joking around with my students and letting my guard down enough to remind them I was a human person with a sense of humor.

On the contrary: I wanted people to see my spectacle. I wanted them to never forget it. Z had wondered: what if the joy of experiment dies with joy itself? If the relationship ends, what if we’re done with it forever?

That night, long after your mom goes to sleep, when the house settles, you masturbate furiously in a bed that doesn’t belong to you.