Forks, Knives, and Spoons

“Letters and gifts are as precious as any old proclamation.

“I love how you can leave your stuff all over your floor but you unwrap gifts and open envelopes, which are kind of meant to be ripped, like they were rare historical documents.”

How monumental it seemed to be stepping out, a woman with a real job, into real life, her college days through.

She was awash with gratitude for the perspective and determined to branch away from her parents’ views of the world.

“Remember to value who you are no matter what. Believe you are worth being loved and don’t ever settle.”

Living together meant sharing idiosyncrasies with the whole floor.

with the intensity of time together and the immersion in life’s details—it seemed that at college, floor-mates got to know each other more quickly and more personally than in high school relationships.

Fabric-covered books, their edges powdered with a dust that had become one with the paper, juxtaposed rows of sleek new volumes.

. In the absence of the adoring Sparta audience, he was just Andrew Gabel, one among thousands of other clean-slated freshmen trying to stand out.

Veronica was truthful and a realist. She was a rule-follower and she had a knack for pulling things back to center and grounding worries in logic