The Pearl 2020

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The last supperEllora BultemaLive everyday like it is your last.What an impractical way tolive. In this mountainof a worldwe live in that we’re forced toswallowone dayat a time, everydaycan’t be the last one.If today were lastthen I’d have pancakes for dinnertonight, and iftomorrow were last, after my pancake dinner, maybeI would try that candy spaghettilike in the movie Elf. And if the day aftertomorrow were last I don’t think I’d be hungryenough for dinner. But what ifthe day after after were last?What would I eat then?And eventually it would belast because I’d indulge myselfbeyond the brink of reason andI’d die… at last.38
There is Nothing to Fearbut Fear ItselfEllora BultemaWhat are you afraid of?This is the first thing I saw written on the board as I sat down for classMonday morning. I had just spent the weekend writing a paper about howone can survive in the face of total adversity. This was in relation to a readingI was doing for class about a Filipino American’s experience immigrating toAmerica and the professor had the bright idea of putting the question in amuch more topical context for us.“Think about it guys, you guys should know this answer, I mean,you’re essentially living through the same situation.” I tried to recall how mylife up to this point reflected the horrors of Allos, the main character of ourbook.He’d gotten beat up by some white men and they left him with a broken leg.I thought about that one time I broke my tail bone because I fell on my asswhile using Heeleys.He slept in the streets because no one would allow him to take a room in their boardinghouses.I slept on the street once, in South Korea…. After I’d been out drinking…And had missed my curfew to get back into my dorm. The stakes of theevent didn’t seem to evoke the same empathy as my characters.He watched his younger sister die of some mysterious ailment that left her oozing bloodfrom every orifice.Well there was that time that my pet goldfish accidentally killed itself byswimming too close to a sharp rock and cutting its own stomach open. Andthen remembered how I had been the one to proceed to pick its lifeless bodyup and squeeze it just to see what had happened. Somehow it didn’t feel allthat similar to Allos’s story.“I mean, think about it. With climate change we know that the world isdying.” The professor avidly drew a poorly drawn sketch of Earth on fire,39
Page 1: The Pearl2020
Page 4 and 5: The Pearl is an annual non-fiction
Page 7 and 8: Table of ContentsFirst placeAsleep
Page 9: There is Nothing to Fear but Fear I
Page 12 and 13: 2munities allow school lunch debt r
Page 14 and 15: Astral ProjectionKristjan NixonI wa
Page 16 and 17: winter on a wednesdayPaige Waskowch
Page 18 and 19: 8Whispers of the SeaMeghan Brune
Page 20 and 21: goals—people who do not want weal
Page 22 and 23: ~~~The last vacation my family went
Page 24 and 25: bottle, a bin of trail mix, a blank
Page 26 and 27: looking place in the country, you w
Page 28 and 29: 18the umpteenth time. We all wanted
Page 30 and 31: before walking into the hospital.Na
Page 32 and 33: 22Little House by the SeaMeghan Bru
Page 34 and 35: I think I understand the mistake.He
Page 36 and 37: Waldo CanyonBrenna KerwinThe sound
Page 38 and 39: A Collection ofObservationsBrenna K
Page 40 and 41: Body PoliticRose BirgyLooking at ol
Page 42 and 43: Radio SilenceArabella ChamberlainIt
Page 44 and 45: 34A lone juvenile cariboucrosses th
Page 46 and 47: 36the street after a storm a decade
Page 50 and 51: with a little too much vigor in my
Page 52 and 53: 42Spread LoveKaleb Fillenworth
Page 54 and 55: 44moment after I put on my gold glo
Page 56 and 57: 46Wood. You’re my student, but sh
Page 58 and 59: 48street crossing, right?I line mys
Page 60 and 61: untitled epistolary poemKailey Ann
Page 62 and 63: to love HimKailey Ann BlunkHe sits
Page 64 and 65: 54but He watches television for an
Page 66 and 67: 56Ripples & LinesDominic Slouka
Page 68 and 69: 58I looked up at my mom and nodded.
Page 70 and 71: My mom spent the majority of her ti
Page 72 and 73: as each person kissed him on the fo
Page 74: left.My dad was in his 20’s when
Page 78 and 79: friends for their continued support

The Pearl 2020

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