Open Thought

Short Stories Featured

Tuesday

She felt as though one day her view of the world had shifted—like she could no longer perceive a single color. It wasn’t enough to threaten her life, but enough to blur her clarity, to disorient her rational mind, and let catastrophe seep into her heart.

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Bruno Flores

Twice, maybe three times a year, the family is together. Last February, we took a trip to the Philippines and before that we spent my dad’s birthday and the new year together. The next plan was to reunite in San Antonio in October, when the summer heat would give

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Calgary, Alberta (August 16, 2024)

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Fourth Wing is a Cosmic Brownie (February 2024 Round Up)

This weeks feature image is a photo I took during my trip to the Philippines. I bought a point and shoot camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100, for that trip and to use as an "everyday carry", but this photo was shot with my Nikon D5600 with a 35

Reviews

January 2024 Round Up

Happy 2024 everyone! With some help, I've compiled a list of movies to watch this year. It's somewhat of a "greatest hits" list with the intention of filling the gaps in my pop culture awareness. Of course, this list is subject to change as

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San Antonio (February 4, 2024)

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Oregon Coast (November 22, 2023)

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Writing Sprint: Five Senses

The sprint started as a way to personify the senses, but as we wrote each entry, we uncovered the emotions we delicately packaged into them. Taste is cultural pride, touch and sight can hold grief, and hearing can cleanse.

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These Things Happen

I’m grateful for the unity between me and my friends' because it’s evidence of the strength of our bonds. We molded shared identities through experiences, music, humor, and suffering. In time, we mimicked each others’ idiosyncrasies and let them become part of us.

Glacier National Park (May 17, 2023)

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Yellowstone National Park (May 14, 2023)

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Yellowstone Wildlife (May 13, 2023)

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San Antonio Museum of Art (April 23, 2023)

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Hill Country (April 1, 2023)

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King William (April 08, 2023)

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Lyric Essays for Life’s Uninitiated

I imagine the lyric essay is liberating to the writer, unburdened by citations or counter-claims. But for readers, especially first time readers like myself, it’s disorienting. It’s like I’m invading someone’s thoughts—someone’s consciousness.

Reviews Featured

What is Identity? (The Namesake)

Molded with time like clay work, their identities are their personal qualities retaining the past, interacting with the present, and projecting into the future. Nothing was lost within themselves between the different timepoints, their identities were simply reworked, reshaped.

Moments, moments, moments

For 6 weeks I was home. Home, as in Florida, spending quality time with my family. In July I tore my ACL in a intramural basketball game. The details aren’t quite important, but I’ll give the run down. Down by one. Foul. Hard right step. Ouch. On floor.

A nun and a young man

As a child, I used to imagine myself being the “first” to do something. Walking to the park, I was the first to jump from a bench, clap, then kick a rock with my right foot. In all of history, not a single living thing, did that exact thing in

The New Yorker Stack

The same cannot be said for those that truly experience loss and pain. They plug their ears and still hear cries. They shut their eyes and still see catastrophe. And months after the media and public spotlight shifts, the pain of loss still etches deeper wounds—this is the tragedy after the tragedy.

The Letter, 1968

Poetry was always practice not leisure. Only for the sophisticated to enjoy—untethered by grammar or convention—poetry sits somewhere between classical music and abstract art.

Running as a Non-Runner

The outside world is messy. It’s ridden with uncertainty, mishaps, and unrealistic expectations. A run, as a proxy for life, allows us to glean lessons of control, mental strength, and realism that we can employ mid-run and beyond.

Shifting Social Media Incentives with the Subscription Model

The individual cost for a free service may be unquantifiable, but the societal damage is undeniable. The ad revenue model skews the incentives for tech platforms to optimize for engagement, even if it’s at the cost of public health.

The Democracy of the Self

In general, believing that you are the collective sum of your actions makes logical sense, but I think this begins to break down when we consider our moral values. What if our intended actions cast a vote for our desired self and contend with our values?

Life Transitions and A Love Letter to Strangers

Not only do I realize an individual's life complexity, on my best days, I’m fascinated and inspired by them too. It’s this feeling that introduced me to strangers who’ve become friends and it compels me ever so more.