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I write.


Sometimes I even like how it turns out.

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Unaccompanied Minor

Thu Apr 13 2017

I had watched the girl crying on her father’s lap in the pre-boarding area. I knew there was no part of her that wanted to get on that plane, but nine- or ten-year-olds don’t get a say in such matters. View at huffingtonpost »


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Faking It

Mon Apr 10 2017

When it comes to being a “pants on fire” variety liar, reputation helps. Read more »


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Card Night

Sat Apr 01 2017

We played cards, using nails instead of pennies to place our bets. We called the box of nails “our nail collection” as if it were something special, searched for, and discovered like jewels from a sunken pirate ship.  In the one-pound box of nails—galvanized, roofing—there were two we most coveted: one stubby runt-nail, and one extra-long one. I think we all like the shortest nail best. Read more »


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Essay Notes on Attachment Disorder

Mon Mar 27 2017

“Essay Notes on Attachment Disorder” makes its deft way in the world as draft and fragment, beautiful in its brokenness, and yet seems to suggest the entire life, the only life, for now. View at americanliteraryreview »


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Why I am Not Going to See the New Beauty and the Beast

Mon Mar 27 2017

Our relationship mimicked the romantic theme of “girl falls in love with a man who has an anger management problem, but their love heals his beastliness and turns him into a kind prince.” Except in my case, it didn’t work out that way. View at huffingtonpost »


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Memory Dissection: A Statue, My Father, and a Camera

Thu Mar 23 2017

The bronze statue looked almost alive—a young girl, life-sized, or nearly. Her small breasts and slim hips placed her at the start of puberty, around twelve or thirteen—we were about the same age. Her mouth was open in a perfect oval. View at roarfeminist »


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We Actually Do Need Another Hero

Tue Mar 21 2017

We need heroes. We need people—both alive and deceased—to inspire us, but it has to be the right fit. We need people we relate to in order to show us that we, too, can achieve greatness. View at huffingtonpost »


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The Talk of a Lifetime

Mon Mar 13 2017

So how do we facilitate conversations that spark memory and move to deeper levels? By asking questions. How do we think of good questions? By using other people’s questions. (it's not laziness, it's efficiency.) Read more »


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Elementary School Maps Messed Me Up For Life

Wed Mar 08 2017

I can't be the only one who screwed this whole thing up. Read more »


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When Hate Crimes Hit Close to Home

Tue Mar 07 2017

I clicked through a photo gallery of vandalism at the Waad Hakolel Cemetery, where my great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles are buried. Toppled graves, defaced photos on headstones. Defaced sounds clinical, but here it is an exact word—care was taken to destroy only the faces on the mounted photos. There is no chance that such damage occurred from weather or settling earth. View at huffingtonpost »


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Free Sticks are Bad. Expensive Sticks Are Good

Mon Feb 27 2017

I think I’m going to un-schedule my kids, at least a little bit. Instead of signing up my little one for the next round of sports, I’m going to buy him a tent.  I’m going to encourage him to poke more things with sticks and will occasionally even let him borrow my pocket knife. Read more »




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Copyright © 2025 Lara Lillibridge

Public domain imagery courtesy of Snappygoat.com