(That’s it, that’s the joke, please don’t sue me for making a punny reference, Disney) By Sarah Cooley —– I suppose it was my own damn fault. That’s just what you get for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, you would think I’d know better by now, but I guess when I stopped maturing physically it also stalled my mental improvement. I was never a brains guy anyway, was always ready for a fight, less so for helping with math homework. Eh, I’m getting ahead of myself though. I suppose I should start at the beginning, when I first met Gloria, and defied everything my common-sense told…
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Don’t Fear the Reaper
by Johanna Kumpula The first time I heard Don’t Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult, I was sitting in a dingy hospital waiting room riding the tail end of 1982. Hospitals were my entertainment at the time, a whole bunch of sick folk in one area waiting for death knocking on their door to finally get fed up with waiting and break the door down. It was a playground for someone in my profession. Come on baby, don’t fear the reaper. Shuffling through the fluorescent hospital halls that smelled of blood and cleaning supplies, I glanced into each room, looking for my next unsuspecting victim. Room 313 had a…
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I Shouldn’t Have Stayed in Bed!
By Orion Waters You are awoken by the sound of the alarm on your phone. Still half asleep, you hit nap on the phone and close your eyes, only to be awoken again from the second alarm you set the day before with a message on it,” Don’t hit the nap button this time!” You wake up after cursing the past you for knowing exactly what you would do after the first alarm, so you get up. Still groggy and annoyed, you now sit up and get yourself get out of bed, only to immediately bump your foot on the clothes bin knocking it over. “Fuuuh… of course.” You…
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Physician Assisted Suicide
by Johanna Kumpula I largely support the legalization of physician assisted suicide; an ethical issue that has been causing widespread problems across the United States. California, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana are the few states that have made this practice legal. There are some obvious qualifications needed to participate in assisted suicide; patients have to be diagnosed as terminally ill, they have to be able to take the drug themselves, they must have the mental capacity to understand what they are doing and the consequences that come along with it, they have to make two verbal requests and one written request with two witnesses, and an attending and consulting physician…
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One Hundred Thousand Chevy Tahoes
By Allen Ginnett If you were to ask me to describe Anchorage, Alaska in one sentence, with no hesitation I would respond, “Imagine a hundred thousand Chevy Tahoes.” To put it perspective, take away all preconceived notions of Alaska and imagine a transparent box of metal and glass with no blind spot vision. Combine these elements with a dolly and I can take any car I want. This is power in the black market of bartering off the internet; that’s just an example. The Tahoe is an asset, an advantage, a tool to live life to the fullest in a extreme climate like Alaska. Today I’m located in the most…
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The Six Year Old Inside of Me
By Allen Ginnett My stomach was rumbling as I tried to pay attention to the teacher. I had not ate all day and I smoked a bunch of weed; this was not the feeling. “Blah, blah-blah, blah, blah-blah.” The teacher continued to talk as I sat in my chair and attempted to listen but the rumbling in stomach was too intense. It was like a baby was kicking inside me; weird. “Blah, Blah-blah, blah and I swear Allen has a six year old inside of him sometimes the way he structures his writing.” Bam, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Everything in my entire life was put in…
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Raising Rabbits
by Kyle Mayer I guess it started when my dad mowed up a baby rabbit. I was swinging under the apple tree from the wooden tower that doesn’t exist anymore, the one that would lift up in one corner if I swung too high, where the ants made a nest every year no matter how many times my father poured poison down the holes that left our lawn looking like worn pumice. The post had rotted through and a more modernistic viewpoint would have marked the entire tower as ‘not safe for children’ but in those days things weren’t unsafe until someone got hurt, and so I was swinging as…
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First Day
By Marcel Bergeron 2003 was my final year of high school. It would also be the last time I would attend a formal school for over a decade. I spent most of my high school career battling disappointment, fear, and confusion as I struggled to complete my classes. I eventually came to a point in life when I realized that to advance in my career, I needed to further my education. With a good support system and a lot of encouragement from my wife, I mustered the courage in 2016 to apply for college at Alaska Pacific University. That spring I opened a letter from APU and read the black,…
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A Family Tradition
By Fari Sylvester My mother grew up without a lot of family traditions, so she and her four brother and four sisters decided to create a tradition of their own. In 2000, we took our first family trip with 45 people to Homer for the Memorial Weekend. My mom and her siblings grew up in Homer, so this wasn’t their first stroll down the Homer beach. My mom was excited to share their stories and reminisce about life growing up. Fast forward to 2017, and we have kept this tradition alive. My brother Derrick has become the leader of the pack. There are 34 of us first-cousins and it’s a…
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The Summer of the Pitchfork
by Quinn Berry This was the summer before my sophomore year of high school, so about four or five years ago. I was out in my backyard digging holes to plant apple trees. Although the trees we were going to plant weren’t my favorite (Red Delicious is obviously the best choice, considering it has the word “delicious” in the name), I wasn’t going to argue with trees that provided apples without making a trip to the store. What I was a bit upset about was the fact that I had to dig the holes on my own. Being not the smartest 15-year-old, I decided to start digging the holes only…
