40 mg. Cherry blossoms in disarray. The world falling apart. Maybe it’s just us. “Korea has too many damn mountains,” FCNI (that’s pronounced “Fettuccini”) says, but he’s not out of breath. He moves his legs and floats like a leaf. He’s down to 95 pounds, maybe. I never held him in my arms or anything. […]

We’re 42,000 feet up in the sky, and I have to say, despite having OD’ed on heroin once, this is the highest I’ve ever been. My only memory of this flight, back when I was eight–during the 90’s–was a layover in Alaska. Firstly, because I’d never been to Alaska. I’d never been to Korea either–not […]

Welcome to The Soju Diary. If you are considering moving from New Jersey to South Korea, this raw, personal essay captures the exact emotional and chaotic reality of leaving the Garden State behind for an unexpected family mission in Seoul. It’s 2007, January the sixth officially, about one in the morning. My mom’s upstairs in […]

Every college love story essay has a version of this scene — the “we should start over” conversation that both people already know isn’t going to go anywhere. The way she shunned me afterwards. Like shunned me shunned me. It could have been worse. I could’ve been the target of an elaborate prank that started […]

Most post grad blues story openings talk about the feeling in the abstract. This one starts in the back of a UPS truck at 5 a.m., which is a lot more specific. The summer right before I came back to school I started working at UPS loading trucks and tossing boxes. It was a pretty […]

Every Laos sleeper bus story eventually admits the same thing — nobody actually plans to end up folded against the wheel well, and yet here we all are. Funny I should meet them at the border. One would think I was just waiting for them to arrive. I’ve been loitering outside the bus station for […]

Korean cultural identity is often discovered through ordinary moments, unexpected relationships, and the search for belonging. Meeting Hana Through Yoga is a personal essay exploring spirituality, love, and self-discovery in South Korea. Meeting Hana Through Yoga: Her name was Hana. I was searching for Enlightenment then. Or at least, I believed in such things. I […]

Oxymoron : Addiction, Faith, and the Search for Meaning: “Stories about addiction and recovery often explore the difficult relationship between pain, faith, hope, and the search for meaning. This personal story reflects a journey through addiction, loss, and the struggle to find a way forward.” In memory of Q-Tip  1. Quarter moons and half-moons were […]