After a lifetime of living other people’s stories, I’m finally choosing my own — I’m turning 60 soon and I’m finally taking my gap year. I meant to do it sooner, at age 22 or 25, but I was too old back then and way too sure of everything. I knew women who gallivanted off to Europe at age 18 or right after college…

Kentucky Bourbon, Mississippi Catfish, Louisiana Blues — Dear Reader: If you’re in the U.S. and haven’t voted yet, put down your phone/tablet right this minute and get out there and save democracy. I’ll wait. Hello friends, Like six million other Black Americans, my mother’s family came north from Mississippi to Chicago during what became known as the…

Maybe I just … forgot. — My mother went through “the change” like this: Me (on my way out): Mother, do you need anything from the store? Mother: I’m out of tampons. Me: Okay, I’ll grab some. Mother: Well, actually, I don’t think I’ve had a cycle in about a year. (pause) Hmmm. Never mind buying…

But I wonder who will write mine? — There’s always one person in the family who is the designated writer-of-all-the-hard-things. In my family, I’ve been that person since I was 14. “Oh, Kiki will write that letter for you,” my mother would offer breezily to some random relative on the phone. “She has a way with words.” By…

And loves you anyway — Hello my friends, I was in San Diego last week, visiting friends and stalking Married at First Sight couples, because that show just cracks me up. While I was there, I emptied out my storage unit — you know, the one I rented back in 2019 when I started my…

You don’t mind rassling alligators for your food, do you? — Southern Louisiana The sweeping field behind my place in Southern Louisiana sloped gently into a greenish, drizzly swamp. My neighbors called it a bayou, and spent many early morning and late evening hours lazing there, fishing poles in the water. To me, it looked more like a creek, or a…

from Biloxi to Belize — Hello my friends, A year ago this week, I was sitting with my father during the final days of his extraordinary 87 years on Earth. His passing was like the last breeze before you set sail, the one that unties the last rope, and releases you, finally, to the whims…

The more family I lose, the more family I find. — The Gulf of Mexico waters on the tippy toe of Biloxi, Mississippi may be vast and mysterious — but they sure ain’t blue. Or even what you might call pretty, most days. If you’re used to the sparkling beauty of San Diego beaches or Hawaiian lagoons, well, this may look…

Microfiction — There’s dumb: Breaking up with your boyfriend while he’s trying to outswim a gator. There’s dumber: Thinking anybody can outswim a gator. (Well. Maybe I could. I’m a lawyer though, and entitled to a bit of professional courtesy from other reptiles.) And then there’s me: Hurling a blue velvet ring…