Backpacking Beginnings: Gap Year Week 33

Involved mild destabilizing anxiety, graffiti, and backpacking Europe.

Castles in the Air: Gap Year Week 22

My aunt and uncle and I are eight hours away from the heavy gray blotch where Delhi hides. We’re one thousand and three hundred meters up, high enough to see through the plains, the silver river winding like a question mark through, low enough that thick forests surround our upward drive. I’ve spent three days…

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Diving Deep: Gap Year Week 19

"This is why I’m taking a gap year—to come to things, new or old, and dive in headfirst without needing anything from it. For these firsts that let me see the world in fresh ways, over and over, from beneath the surface."

The Morning Forest: Gap Year Week 2

There’s always something new, even if it’s not what you’re looking for, even if each discovery is not flushed with the adrenaline of drama but rather the soft thrill of witnessing drawn out over time.

Serpent Stars

A species of brittle sea star sprawls, indolent on a sun-bathed rock, one arm testing a crevice it can secret itself in. It spreads itself, comfortable in its long limbs that name them also serpent stars. They are quick and flexible; we find them hiding under rocks, jammed in impossible small cracks. They are slender…

Vernal

Vernal hanging parrots streak across the forests in emerald shards.

Jumping

The jumping spider scuttles along the edge of my bag, pauses, stares up at us with small black eyes. I stare back, entranced by the hairs on its body that is only slightly bigger than our fingernail. I put a piece of paper next to it, trying to coax it on; instead it hurries further…

On a Goldcrested Afternoon

The spring is on the verge of tumbling into the fields in London.

Moss in the Afternoons

The afternoon sunlight dapples moss in a forest in the Western Ghats.

Morning in the Ghats

Mornings in the Ghats are an exercise in pastel.