When I told my friends I would be switching schools, they were stunned. Last year, I chose to transfer from a “high-performing,” well-resourced suburban high school to attend an urban public school in Philadelphia for my junior year. I didn’t get kicked out, and I didn’t fail out. I actually made this choice because I
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In a search for meaning, a social entrepreneur gets back to her roots Illustration by Faye Zhang Essay by Nancy S. Cleveland I had an uncle we thought must be a CIA operative. At his memorial service, I was talking with one of his colleagues (a guy whose body language screamed, “Don’t ask me what
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In an overgrown herb patch, a hitn of health, a family line and leaves of black history By Constance Garcia-Barrio “Your mint’s running amok,” my neighbor, an avid gardener, said one sunny afternoon. “Let it go much longer, you’ll need a machete to hack it down.” Despite the warning, I aimed to let the mint
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After a move to the suburbs, a reckoning By Jennifer Ghymn Before my daughter came along, my husband and I were city folk living in tiny, 500-square-feet apartments. We only had room for the basics, and if something was purchased, then something else had to go. Having less clutter allowed us to make the most
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Pondering Philadelphia’s resilience in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma By Sam Boden Every day, I walk the cement patchwork of the city’s streets and sidewalks, navigating the bumps and cracks of the well-worn roads that make up our neighborhoods. I have seen the ways water gathers in the streets after a heavy rain
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A West Philly high school student reflects on how we curate our lives Illustration by James Heimer By Cameron Swann The first time I realized that I could make my world beautiful was during a summer program from The School of the New York Times, where I spent two weeks looking at how the curation
MoreIllustration by Carter Mulcahy Celebrating V-Day by Kate Jacoby One evening in 1999, I ascended the monster of an escalator out of the Dupont Circle Metro in Washington, D.C., fresh from my idealistic internship at the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, African Subdivision. I was definitively out of breath because my angsty, prove-something-to-the-world, late-teen self
MoreIllustration by Ruo Fei Zhang Beauty in Every Moment essay by Mike Sparks Most of my friends refer to me as an adventurist, but I don’t think of myself that way—I just love to be outdoors. My three most common modes of transportation are biking, running and motorcycling, and I’m happy whether the sun is
MoreIllustration by Jameela Wahlgren Uphill, Both Ways essay by Ginger Osborne It amuses me when I hear young cyclists complain that some car driver yelled at them while they were biking. Yelled at them. This upsets them. Being yelled at. I started riding a bicycle around Philadelphia in the mid 1970s. There were no bike
MoreIllustration by Carter Mulcahy A Fisherman’s Tale essay by Stephen Kurian Working as a forester for the Idaho Department of Lands, I befriended a fellow hunter named—no lie—Hunt. During long hours in the wilderness, he’d entertain me with stories of fishing adventures in Bristol Bay, Alaska: the bracing water, the impetuous weather, working day and
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