Synaptic

By Kelly Spavin ’13 & Kaity Sharp ’14

Welcome to the 32nd edition of The Writing Anthology.

By Danielle Dickinson '12

John Donne’s “The Ecstasy” has been a site of critical disagreements for centuries.

By Anna Leavenworth '13

I was just seven years old when I first noticed the painting above my grandfather’s grand piano. The armchair I sat in swallowed me, my feet dangling above the burnt orange carpeting.

By Lindsay Korn '13

I don’t communicate very often with friends from college when I’m at home for long breaks. So in the middle of last summer, I was pretty surprised when my best friend decided to give me a call.

By Megan Brophy '14, Ali Garwood '15, Sarah Fronseca '15, & Bryce Dahm '15

A loud shriek echoed down the long, white hallway of the lower level of Graham and startled the handful of girls doing their laundry; I one of them

By Taylor Schuelke '12

Quand est-ce que vous étiez en Haïti et pour combien de temps ? J’ai été en Haïti deux fois depuis le tremblement de terre.

By Shane Hallengren '11

For the past six years, my father has worked for the U.S. Foreign Services, providing aid to developing nations. It is a position that has moved him around the globe, from Nicaragua to Bosnia Herzegovina to Thailand.

By Daniel Peacock '14

he United States of America invaded Iraq on March 23rd, 2003 under the assumption that Sadam Hussien possessed weapons of mass destruction.

By Chelsea Grieger '12

Ireland struggled with its freedom from Britain since the beginning of British rule in the country. From the start of 20th century, the makings of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were ready to fight for their lost country.

By Thomas Golson '13

On November 13, 2003 an oil tanker, the Prestige, suffered a cracked stern at the hand of high seas off the Spanish coast.

By Leah Pieper '14

Despite being officially out of a recession for two years, the U.S. economy is not where the government—or the people—want it to be. Jobs are still scarce as many businesses continue to cut back.

By Leland Schipper '12

The Japanese art of origami is not only fun and cool, but it is mathematically powerful too. Using only simple origami axioms and a little bit of creativity and time, we can fold truly amazing shapes.

By Tom Butler '12

One of Augustine’s key arguments against the idea that the political life fulfills our nature and brings us closer to divinity consists in the grim portrait that he paints of the life of a judge in book 19.6 of City of God.

By Megan Strait '12

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC], one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, 450,000 people are infected with HIV/AIDS, leaving 320,000 orphans, age seventeen and younger, behind (Avert, n.d.).