Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Confessions.
Define Functional
Chapter Two: Girls Girls Girls I’m not sure if I ever said it to her out loud but in my head, I called her Jewlz. Her name was Julie and we met during a freshman summer program at Marquette University. It was a program for students with high test scores but lower than expected grade point averages. I was again amongst a group with which I should fit. We all shared the same disease, we could but we didn’t. The program was our chance to prove ourselves and show we were capable of performing at a collegiate level. It was highly structured requiring us to take one 3 credit course and spend the rest of the day in orientation classes and mandatory study hours. I don’t remember exactly how many of us there were but we all stayed in the same dormitory with men and women on different floors. I landed on that campus, 800 miles away from home, after an eventful senior year during which I created my own half-day schedule by skipping half my classes every day. To make things fair I would alternate leaving or arriving after lunch during the week. I didn’t feel that bad about it because to make up for my freshman failure I had two periods of gym every day. I had a grade point average of 1.1 entering the year and really shouldn’t have been promoted to the twelfth grade. I remember a friend who resented my flippant attitude toward school calling me, the summer before the twelfth grade, to inform me that I had failed two classes and wouldn’t be a senior in the fall. Having grown in arrogance, due to the magic doors administrators would open to allow me to dodge consequences, I confidently replied “Well see”. And as I expected, we shared most of the same classes that next year, on the days I bothered to show up for them. When the year ended, I shouldn’t have graduated but to fit the pattern that had been established in my life my English teacher mercifully decided not to fail me stating that she didn’t want to “Hold me back” because “the world needed me”. No pressure right? But despite all the lessons I didn’t learn that year JROTC had put me in a position to go to college. A counselor that worked with our cadets was a Marquette Alumni and found this program for me. JROTC had also netted me a girlfriend and by the time I was leaving for college, we were still in the throes of passion following our mutually lost virginity. Before I left for school that summer, I bought a micro recorder to use during lectures but tested it out first recording her moans during one of our love-making sessions. I and that tape would make our way to a majority white Jesuit campus, with me nervous about leaving its star, nervous about the new world I was in, nervous about meeting the standards of college life, and unknowingly one floor beneath Jewlz.
By JdotFlan5 years ago in Confessions
My worst writing won a competition
I have always been an avid writer, but 98% of the words I have written have never had another pair of eyes criticize them as much as my own have. Most of my stories are mediocre, average at best, with too many plot holes to count and shallow characters that are immune to change. I say I am an avid writer, but I am by no means a good one. I will probably NEVER consider myself to be a proper writer with any considerable talent until I win a Vocal challenge. That seems like an unfair thing to do to myself, I know. There are so many thousands of talented writers on Vocal that, just because they win a challenge instead of me, shouldn’t mean I am therefore a poor writer.
By Eloise Robertson 5 years ago in Confessions
That was smooth
It was my first year in college and I was as equally nervous as I was excited. It was a fresh start and new way to reinvent myself from the person I was in high school. I didn't have many friends and I was heavily introverted. My parents were shocked when I told them that I would me majoring in Theatre. "So you'll be backstage helping with costumes?" they asked. "Well...no...I want to act." Mind you, I had never acted a day in my life because I was so shy. But it was somehow something that I was passionate about and decided to go for it. My first class was a theater and design class. We did the basic introduction of who we were and presented images that we liked. That class would be the beginning of many friendships...and a future relationship. But we'll get to that point soon.
By Nicheal Gadson5 years ago in Confessions
Love, 16
Growing up sheltered makes life hard. You miss out on opportunities to grow and make mistakes that other kids have. Especially when you grew up like me. My parents were strict Mormons and raised me as such. I wasn't allowed to watch TV, I wasn't allowed a phone, I wasn't allowed to hang out with friends outside of school or church and I went to church two times a week. Add this to my crippling social anxiety and you get a recipe for disaster and a girl with barely any friends. And definitely a girl with little to no experience with boys. This is the story of one of my first real encounters with dating, love, embarrassment, and heartbreak.
By Alyssa Zeschke5 years ago in Confessions
Mojave Rain
He promised me coffee…not Starbucks (too stuck up he said), and not Dunkin’ (I have something better). He didn’t want to meet in the silvery light of a November afternoon, sipping drinks in the front seat of his Impala convertible. And he didn’t want to take a walk at any of the beaches that beckoned from Marblehead to Revere. No, for the first date he insisted on showing me his espresso machine and promised a perfect cup of Italian roast. He sang the praises of its masterful mechanism and offered to grind the beans for my pleasure. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I preferred tea, that my mother was British and I’d grown up on endless cups of Earl Grey and Scottish Breakfast, perfectly steeped, with a spoonful of raw honey. I didn’t share that my heart rocketed out of my chest when I drank coffee. Nor did I reveal that I’d never gone to a man’s house before meeting him first publicly. And I certainly didn’t add that the last time I even went on a date with someone I truly desired was two decades ago, when I danced to Springsteen’s “Love is an angel disguised as lust,” and wore skin-tight Guess jeans secured at the ankles with a row of my mother’s safety pins.
By Julia Bobkoff5 years ago in Confessions
I Made a Coloring Book for Amazon
Once again the mood music is set (breast pump and the baby's sound machine). My coloring book is now LIVE on Amazon and I just about flipped out with excitement. It feels like a big accomplishment. I set a goal, worked towards that goals in small, manageable chunks, didn't beat myself up for missing a day here or there, and steadily reached the goal.
By Jessica Stapp5 years ago in Confessions
When You Change The Way You Look At Things...
The Instagram Version of My Former Life For ten years I had a gruelling, job for which I gained no sympathy from my friends. They saw only the sparkly, shiny surface of my life; jetting off constantly to Paris, Madrid, Rome, Barcelona or Athens on a weekly basis.
By Deborah Wilson5 years ago in Confessions
Idaho 1 Me 0
Idaho 1 Me 0 So late last summer Tim Ure and I decided to go camping, we’ve both watched every season of Alone so we figured we were ready, I should have figured better. This may get embarrassing for me, but what the fuck, I’ve embarrassed myself so many times already it’s become standard fare.
By Gregory Dolan Dies5 years ago in Confessions
“Blindly” ripped off
I am a big believer in soul mates and love at first sight, but I guess Todd* already knew that! Todd reached out to me on Facebook. At first, I was hesitant. I do not usually talk to men I do not know on social media. But Todd seemed different. Todd had suffered an accident many years ago that left him legally blind and he had a gorgeous puppy that was training to be his new service dog.
By Karen Stevens5 years ago in Confessions
Oops!
I wish I could say this incident only happened once in my life, but unfortunately there's been many times I've walked into the wrong bathroom in a public place. I think the big question is, which one is worse: A woman walking into a men's bathroom? Or is it a man walking into a woman's bathroom?
By Megan Miller5 years ago in Confessions
Dry Heat
I am not a violent person but nothing would make me angrier than my dad constantly asserting that the scorching Arizona summer was “dry heat” and therefore not as bad as it could be. The lack of humidity, he would assure us, would allow our bodies to cool themselves. Bullshit. You had to think twice before touching anything in this hellish desert; accidentally grazing the metal part your car or your keys would feel like taking a tray out of the oven without gloves. Even our backyard pool, which initially excited me, was turned into a sauna from the months of May to September.
By Shawn Daring5 years ago in Confessions
This isn't goodbye
It's know ones fault really it's just something that wasn't expected or foreseen, by the time you read this I would have already boarded a plain for destinations unknown this will be a new life a fresh start! There's know point looking for me or calling as I've already taken care of everything in in other words i won't be contactable until i find my forever home, Once I've established myself I will be in touch. I'm sorry I know that this is going to come as a shock to some of you as you all thought I was in a loving happy marriage unfortunately it wasn't as it seemed turn's out I'm a better actor than I thought! I was desperately lonely & so insecure of my future. I'm not shaw when I finally realised I was know longer in love with this man all I know is that I saw inside myself & realised I didn't want to end up like our Parents, I want an open honest happy relationship with someone who know's nothing about me or my background, I want to spend the last part of my life being happy, not constantly questioning my choices this time! I'm jumping feet first with know general plan really other than I now want to be happy, I've realised that I've been miserable and living in a loveless marriage for Mmmmm well who knows how many years I guess? don't get me wrong I will always love the father of my children but I finally realised I wasn't in love with him, Can you imagine how draining & exhausting verbal abuse can be especially when that person is drunk it becomes to overwhelming & the fact that he never listens to me, he never stuck up for me he left me in jail, I was never secure nor did I ever feel secure he always made me question myself & I always felt inadequate, what I've realised is that everything has always been one sided in our marriage why else do we have seperate bank accounts? This certainly didn't help matters much it just made me more aware how selfish he really is, I was becoming numb not showing any emotion it was almost non-exisiting, I asked him if he could pay for me to have surgery when he received his inheritance as I wanted what was called a Mummy make over, which would have cost $25.000 & he said No, I think thats when I realised it was a one way street all his way & nothing my way, I thought of all the things I'd sacrificed over the years & why I'd done that or made those choices, the more I thought about it the more I didn't like where I was in life every year I would contribute to the house in one way or another, I'd paid for the solar panels so it would cut the cost of our power bill just so I wouldn't have to listen to him whinning about how much the power cost, I paid for the patio so it would take the sun off the back walls & so it would finish our house off, I'm always using my money for quite a lot if I wanted a social life if we needed extra shopping for all bits and bobs here & their, I often wondered how much longer I was going to put up with this person that I use to love & whom I held in high regard? What was the triggering point for me truthfully honestly! See these are the things I've been over thinking about for way to long, I really don't want to think about them any more, I just want to enjoy what life I have left not having to over think Issues's, never having to worry about anyone other than myself! Selfish I know but when you look into yourself like I have you realise that life is to short and when you look at how you've spent your life you automatically realise how much you've wasted it on a person who doesn't value you or your thoughts at all, when reality hits that's when you start looking into yourself as to what your going to do how are you going to change things for you to have a better life, or are you going to continue on this roundabout ride leading to know where except for where you've just come from.
By Roberta Russell5 years ago in Confessions
