EVERY HOOFPRINT

I vividly remember my mom telling me to flip my head over and applying Aussie Sprunch Spray in my hair when I was a kid. I had brown ringlets with blonde highlights because my mom would also spray Sun-In all over my curls. Everyone called me Shirley Temple and people with naturally straight hair would tell me that they wish they had mine. I felt the same exact way. All I ever wanted was their hair. You can only brush curly hair when it’s wet, or else you’d look like a circus

As the world recovered from the Covid pandemic, the West Haven Veterans Hospital allowed 25 youth volunteers back into the building in the summer of 2022. I was one of them, three years ago. All masked up at the tail end of the pandemic, I initially got the gig to get community service hours for my high school. I eventually racked up about 130 hours that summer. Most of the patient escort job involved waiting for elevators, sitting at the front desk and taking phone calls, pu

I wandered through a world of noise,  Where silence used to scream.  Each echo told a tale undone,  Each shadow held a painful wound. My heart longs for belonging and safety. The faces I pass blur into one endless crowd. Everyone seemed to know who they were and where they were supposed to be. Here I stood still, unable to move a muscle. Letting the world rush past me, wondering whether I will learn to move like them. In the end, the noise never became familiar. I remained a

SATIRE No one ever in the wildest dreams ever expects to be viewed as THAT person. The person who ends up experiencing such a tragic event that they are forever known by it. They are marked by the thing that happened to them, the thing that is so unspeakable, so… traumatic.  This is my story.  My daily walks are part of my special routine and it is something that I pride myself in; they're my way to decompress after a hard day crossing the road. My path is always the same fro

I let my anger get the best of me. Just like him. There are no words to describe being compared to someone your memories villainize. Though I knew my father beyond the anger, having one of your first memories of someone be something so traumatic doesn’t set a great tone, especially when you see them once a yNineteen. The last year of one's teens. The last chance to be a kid before the impending doom of your twenties begins to sink in. The age I am now and the age my father wa

My weight enters the room before I do. It doesn’t matter if I’m having a good hair day. It doesn’t matter if I walk in with a smile on my face. It doesn’t matter if I’m wearing makeup. My body is the first thing people always notice. The first time I noticed I was different was when I was five. I was going on the bus to school and made friends with two twin sisters. The seat I sat in that day became my assigned seat on the bus. I didn’t know the choice I made would turn out t

Jade Dream Edwards-Figueroa. It's 24 letters, 25 characters that define who I am. Without a name I am simply just someone. I could be...

“I am never going to have children.” That’s what I always said — until I started working at a before-school program with my mom. What began as a job I took just for the money turned into the best part of my day, as the kids slowly won me over and taught me that caring for them didn’t mean losing my freedom... it meant finding purpose.

When I’m alone in my car, the world melts away. I crank the music, the bass shakes the seats, and for a little while, I’m free to just be myself.

The definition of the word “family” is “the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children,” according to Merriam-Webster.  But families are complicated. What about half-siblings? And can you still call someone a member of your family even if you’re estranged?

University was a fresh start, a world full of opportunity just waiting for me to dive in. I stepped onto campus bright-eyed and bushy-tailed

Is it possible for one person to have lived many lives? I know cats have nine lives, but humans have just one. One life to love, one life