learning how to sleep [lifestyle]
By Gabrielle Yuan | April 9My mother likes to bring up that I used to be a heavy sleeper—a good sleeper—when I was young.
My mother likes to bring up that I used to be a heavy sleeper—a good sleeper—when I was young.
I practice curling my tongue, enunciating, moving my mouth in unfamiliar directions. The sounds of the spoken language ring true—I grew up listening to my mother tell me Chinese folktales of a woman stranded on the moon for infinity, or hovering above my shoulder to reprimand me for my poorly drawn ...
I open one eye and peer down toward her hands. Her shaggy, black hair has grown longer, the uneven ends resting across the front of her shoulders. The patina white yarn is stretched across her lap. While her face is not in view, I know her mouth rests closed, lips pressed gently together. Her eyes are ...
The red bench stands out in the stark whiteness. The tarp above, which sits at a slight tilt from the weight of the fallen snow, protects the bench from icy remnants. The steady shiver of my hands, a few brave fingers dangling out of my parka, is perhaps a sign of the harshness of winter. If I tasted ...
There is nothing that causes me greater anguish than the thought of wasting time, if only for just a second. Every night before bed, my mind twists and unravels, looking for particular solutions to this dilemma: to maximize every conversation, every moment in-between class—even during mealtime, where ...
At what point do you take a look at your new friend (the one you met in class just a couple of weeks ago) and say: “Want to grab a meal?”
I find myself in an ebb and flow state of mind—wandering in and out of consciousness—one part of me here and one in my hometown. Feelings like this regularly shadow me throughout late summer, the seasons unraveling into one until every part of my routine is twisting and turning without reason to ...
I wonder when I started being afraid of alone time. It’s been an unconscious, foreboding feeling for so long; I’ve adopted it to the point that I feel like I exist as a result of the feeling. What happens now, when I’ve grown used to relying on others? Memories of my childhood sporadically come ...
Now that I'm in college, where it feels as if I meet new people in waves throughout the day, I worry I'm not choosing who I can be, but instead matching the personalities of others. It can be exciting to navigate the journey of being your most authentic and genuine self, but occasionally I stray into ...
Autumn