Tag: parenting

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Women and Love by Olive Riley

 Author’s Note:

These are fictional stories with themes form real people’s stories. Almost everything is made up, but the emotions are as real as I could make them. My goal is to make people feel less alone in their experiences, or at least somewhat understood.

Elizabeth

She sat at her desk Thursday after school working on an assignment due the next day. Her spindly fingers urgently typing trying to get her assignment done so she could go to bed. It is 8:08 p.m. She has to wait two more hours until bed is a socially acceptable thing to commit to. Outside she hears laughter from people who are celebrating the end of their Thursdays a bit differently than she.

This happens most Thursdays through Saturdays, so she purposefully keeps her assignments unfinished until the last minute. This gives her a reason to tell herself why she is staying in. The door slams below her window and she hears laughter from the group of girls who had uncomfortably invited her to their “non-solidified” plans that evening in the dining hall. From the sounds of their laughter diminishing with the growing distance between them and her spot at the desk she concludes that their solidified plans did not include her as a detail.

Another hour passes and she is almost done with the homework that is due on Friday. Elizabeth decides she needs to procrastinate. Procrastination now meant less lonely feelings later.

Continue reading “Women and Love by Olive Riley”

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Isolation and Parental Attachment in Adolescence: Young Adult Fiction as a Window by Madison Glennie

While the existence of trauma for adults is a major topic of study and accepted as a true issue, adolescents deal with their trauma while enduring the reactions of a society that does not believe in the legitimacy of their feelings. Youth are “more likely to experience impairment than adults” from trauma, and without support from their parents or community, their trauma symptoms intensify.[1] The adolescent mind remains an important but often unacknowledged space, craving understanding. Young adult fiction provides an avenue to understand adolescent mindsets and critique parental behavior. Throughout young adult literature, adolescent narrators deal with trauma, prompting them to isolate from family, friends, and their community. Differing depictions of isolation emphasize nuances in adolescent experience where seclusion is a tool with varying outcomes. Texts, such as Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, showcase isolation’s role in adolescent trauma, magnifying youth’s unacknowledged complexities and adults’ complicity. Adults within young adult fiction and within reality need to be more cognizant of the struggles of adolescents, but these texts also demand that readers view isolating behaviors holistically, realizing the depth of young adult experience. Continue reading “Isolation and Parental Attachment in Adolescence: Young Adult Fiction as a Window by Madison Glennie”

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Flawed by Jessica Banks

Characters:

TALIA: Woman in her late 20’s, mother of Sophie and wife of MARK. She is a stay at home mom.

MARK: Man in his late 20’s, father of Sophie and husband of TALIA. As time goes on he is home less and less, seemingly consumed by work.

CAITLYN: Mutual friend of the couple. Has spent the day with TALIA and the baby to help due to the baby’s illness. She is also the baby’s godmother.

At Rise: CAITLYN is bustling around the stage, set up as a living room and kitchen, cleaning up the mess left over from the day. She wipes countertops, picks up baby toys, and does other miscellaneous chores. Mark enters stage right, dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase. Both characters are clearly very surprised to see each other. Continue reading “Flawed by Jessica Banks”