Friday Lunch Blog
Dig in every month as our Lunch Ticket staff brings you thought-provoking personal essays and nonfiction stories in our Friday Lunch Blog. From stories about grief and loss, to tales of growing up and overcoming challenges, to celebratory pieces about love and family, these stories are shared every second Friday of the month. With these blogs, we aim to give you a glimpse into Lunch Ticket and the values we stand by for this literary publication, to empower writers and readers with the knowledge and skills to lead meaningful lives and to advance social, economic, and environmental justice. We hope you enjoy!

When You Have NPC Parents and No Cheat Codes
Stephanie Teasley
This whole situation was like trying to find all the hidden items of Zelda. Can’t you enjoy the game without…

Admissions: Part 1
Louise Rozett
I was 16. It was fall of my senior year, and I was applying to colleges. But I knew where…

Julian
Cristina Medina
Shame defined my womanhood, then motherhood when I gave birth to my first son two years later. The vessel in…

The Mind, The Body, The Voice
Regan Humphrey
When asked, I almost always give up and offer the term “a nonsexual orgy.” People enter a dance studio in…

What We Think We Know
Sarah Haas
I wondered what it must be like to live every day looking death so directly in the face. I stepped…

More Than Four Squares
Tom Pyun
A recent DNA analysis told me I’m “less likely to freckle,” “more susceptible to male pattern baldness,” and have “a…

What We Hold Inside
Janet Rodriguez
Nesting Matryoshka dolls were originally created as an homage to family, each doll at home inside a loving matriarch. Now…


For the Love of It
Liz Tynes Netto
am·a·teur·ism /ˈamədəˌrizəm,ˈaməˌt(y)o͝oˌrizəm,ˈaməˌCHo͝oˌrizəm/ noun: amateurism …

Center of the Living Room
Cristina Van Orden
My father is a simple man in old age. He lives on the outskirts…






Big Sib, Little Sib
Adrien Kade Sdao
I was 14 when my mom told me she was pregnant. Right away, I knew it would be a little…

Invincible (Two Missed Calls)
Esteban Cajigas
It’s the eve of my mother’s heart surgery. I’m not referring…






Awakening the Unconscious Legacy [trigger warning]
Kate Carmody
I dreamt I was a sex slave. One of many, though I couldn’t…


Finding the Woman with Jasmine: A Self-Portrait
Cristina Van Orden
My husband kissed me in the middle of the night eight months…

How Roland Barthes Changed My Life
Gene Manne
My original piece for this was titled “What It Means to Be…


The Passport Nightmare
Jasper Henderson
They say that as much as the human mind can remember experiences…

#VirginiaWoolf, #Instagram, and #Feminism
E.P. Floyd
#ARoomofOnesOwn What would Virginia Woolf do? Upon…




Packing Lists and Passed-On Traits
E.P. Floyd
Thick wool hiking socks, check. Eight pairs of underwear,…




The View From 10,000 Feet
Jasper Henderson
One day when I was thirteen, I took my allowance down to Windsong…

Delusions of Grandeur
Esteban Cajigas
What's Past is Prologue The man said sorry. That's all he could…

April Brucker: International Woman of Mystery
April Brucker
It’s 8:30 a.m., and unlike me, New York City is already fully…





“We Are Connected, We Have the Same Blood”
Yvonne de la Cruz Sanchez
This morning was as close to a semi-typical morning as it…


Separated Faces (A Year in Baltimore)
Esteban Cajigas
My mother opens her eyes to a vast cloud of nothingness. Freckles…







Oversharing 101: #getoversharing
Kate Carmody
Sometimes I have a problem with oversharing. The lady next…
