Category: Uncategorized
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Dear Sophie
Dr. Nikki has been upgraded!! It’s AUNT Nikki now! After what felt like 9 long months, my sister K just delivered a beautiful baby girl, and we are all so smitten. Even though we were all CONVINCED “Squish” was a boy. I worked a night shift before the delivery, and before I randomly woke up…
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Seven Minutes with Evelyn Hugo
OH. MY. GOD, I thought to myself as I sat on a train headed back to New Jersey. That was SO. GOOD. I closed the book and tried to pick my jaw up off the floor. I flipped to the cover page, and immediately started googling “Taylor Jenkins Reid” to find what I could devour…
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Love, your big sis
I don’t really remember August 1st 1997, but it was one of the best days of my life. There is a home video, taken by my aunt, of just-turned-2 year old Nikki in pjs, twirling my hair and sucking my thumb, as usual. I must have been asking for my mom, because from behind the…
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I promise
Everybody knows that “pinky swear” is the most serious promise that one can make at 9 years old. Like, “come hell or high water” and “til death do us part” kind of serious. Well, at the time. I’m sure we can all think of a time when we have broken a promise, EVEN one that…
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Love is love
“I’m happy for you, it’s just surprising,” my sister says as we float in the backyard pool of our Airbnb in California. “I feel like you did a 180.” I shrug, holding back a goofy smile. “She’s in looooove,” my other sister chimes in, with a sappy smile of her own. “I don’t know, I…
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Thighs
I stepped up to the microphone and took a deep breath. I had never performed spoken word before, much less in front of strangers. I concentrated on lowering my heart rate, and loosened my grip on the mic stand. There was no turning back. I took a leap of faith and opened my mouth: “Sitting…
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“Patient needs interpreter”
Have you ever been to a foreign country, or even an area of your home country that speaks a different language, and been completely unable to understand what is being said around you? It’s frustrating at best, and honestly a bit unsettling. We depend so heavily on spoken and written communication that it can feel…
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’22 in Review
It’s New Year’s Eve, and I can’t help but reflect on my year and everything that has happened in that time. It’s amazing to think about where I was last January 1st, and how different my perspective is now that I have lived through another trip around the sun. I don’t mean to brag, but…
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One fish, two fish
“So, do you have a boyfriend?” The medical assistant asked me one day when we were sitting in the lunch room. “HA,” I snorted, much louder than I meant to. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I was in a relationship, I wouldn’t be taking out student loans. I…
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WNB: Where it all began
I’m pretty sure the notebook is still in my parents’ basement, collecting dust in a corner somewhere. It is a plain composition notebook, the cover painted maroon with a smattering of stickers. I can’t remember exactly, but somewhere there must be written ‘Nicole’s Writers Notebook,’ or ‘WNB.’ Creating this notebook and writing in it every…
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