by Amanda C. R. Clark Available for purchase is a perfume named “Paperback,” another called “Replica: Whispers in the Library” (which claims to smell like paper and waxed wood), and an oil titled “Library,” which claims to allow you to “Indulge in a cozy day cuddled up in a nook of bookshelves. The smell of … Continue reading Perennial Loves: The Book and the Academic Library
by Sara Whitestone With a splash, I step off the anchored boat. Bobbing in the warm Atlantic waters, I check my equipment one more time, making sure my mouthpiece and mask are in place before I let the air out of my scuba diving vest. Then I descend into the sea. Even though there are … Continue reading Shaping Identity: Belonging
by Liz Backstrom "To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We've got it down to four words: ‘Do what you love.’ But it's not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated.” Paul Graham, 2006 I always wanted to be a scientist as … Continue reading Shaping Identity: Not Suited to this World
by Julie Riddle I have a child for you. In an instant these six words dismantled my long-held identity as a woman who had chosen to not have children. (On my bookshelves you will find a copy of Beyond Motherhood: Choosing a Life without Children. Its pages are heavily highlighted. That book got me.) I … Continue reading Shaping Identity: This Beautiful Mess
by Karen Bjork Kubin This butterfly is going to sit on your arm for a while, okay? I’m sure I nodded, but I don’t remember. The idea of the butterfly gracing my arm with all its pink translucence was just the sort of magical thing I’ve always been drawn to. It was attached to a … Continue reading Shaping Identity: Breathing
by Laura Bloxham I have always loved reading. When I was a child I gravitated toward Nancy Drew, who solved mysteries, had a supportive father, although largely in the background, a best friend, a boyfriend, Ned, and a car. She was independent. I avoided animal stories, which almost always ended with the animal dying. I … Continue reading Shaping Identity: Literature that Lives in Me
by Sunni Brown Wilkinson I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly average person but for one thing: growing up, my tastes never seemed to align with those of my peers. In high school I dressed far too old or too quirky (blazers with shoulder pads, suspenders, tights underneath shorts), I read the English pastoral … Continue reading Shaping Identity: Musical Misfit
by Susannah Brister For twenty-two years, I didn’t really know what my body looked like. Whenever I got in or out of the bathtub or the shower, I never looked straight at myself. I averted my eyes from the mirror, afraid that seeing my own nakedness was somehow wrong. Raised in the homeschooling evangelical Christian … Continue reading Shaping Identity: Body
by Ann Marie Bausch There is a famous family story about my husband as a little boy. At a gathering, a relative asked one of the only questions adults can think to ask of children: “So what do you want to be when you grow up?” Wes, five years old, looked puzzled, and then replied, … Continue reading Shaping Identity: The Identity that Wasn’t
Rock & Sling 