Amelia Giese

My favorite reaction I get when I tell someone my mom is deaf is “What’s that like?” and the answer is that I don’t know. I don’t have anything to compare it to; I’ve never known any different. Imagine I went up to you and asked you what it was like to be alive. It’s hard to explain because you don’t know what it’s like to be dead.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, my aunt has taken my mom, my sister, and I to the American Girl store in Chicago to go shopping and get lunch for mine and my sisters birthdays, and this year was no exception. You may be wondering, aren’t you a little old for dolls? And yes, I am, I don’t enjoy them like I used to anymore. But, I have a little sister who is nine years old, so I get to keep going until she decides she’s done.

This may come as a shock, seeing as I do writing and photography for a magazine, but I absolutely love math. Math is my favorite subject. The way that numbers cancel out and simplify, and how everything tends to click in the end, scratches an itch in my brain. I love math so much that I look forward to it everyday, and I always have. Not once have I been bad at math. In fact, I’d consider myself good at every kind of math: Algebra (one and two), Trigonometry, Pre-Calc, and, so far, Calculus. 

They say the fastest way to someone’s heart is through the ribs. And while this is technically true for everyone, the best way to my heart is through the most wonderful band to ever grace this planet, 5 Seconds of Summer.

The most classic definition of home is “where one lives,” but I disagree. Sure, I live in my home, but that’s not my only refuge.