Katherine J. Zumpano

Dear America,

Jen didn’t believe in The Starlight’s ghost. It didn’t make sense, she thought, for an unassuming, small-town diner to have a resident spirit. In the week she had worked there, she hadn’t witnessed any of the activity her coworkers claimed to experience regularly—doors slamming shut, lights flickering, disembodied voices. She thought the staff was playing games, that it was some hazing ritual to trick new servers into thinking the diner was haunted. Or maybe, she thought, the reason she hadn’t witnessed any paranormal phenomena was because she, unlike her coworkers, didn’t believe in ghosts. She never had.

1. Sit down on the couch with your notebook and just sit. Call it brainstorming, if you want—a few moments of silent, mind-wandering brainstorming.

1. Don’t be ashamed—admit it, say, “I am a brunch girl.” You read some article that painted brunch in a harsh, sunny-side up light, one that made it sound shameful to be a millennial woman who enjoys brunch, and now you feel a tinge of self-consciousness each time you walk into the cozy café. Push those thoughts aside and repeat: “I am a brunch girl.”

I open my eyes to rainbow fields already

My recent winter break was quiet.