Creative Nonfiction – E. A. Young Writes

Rollercoasters

I have two favorite kinds of rollercoasters—the Freak Out and the Gravity Wheel (I’m not sure what the actual names are, but that’s what we’ll call them.).

My First Pride After Five Years

I first went to Pride in the fall of 2019, my sophomore year of college; the town my university was in always had their Prides in October, so that the college kids who went home for the summer could participate.

I was still new in my identity, and even though I was going to meet a few friends there, I was nervous. I hid the pride flag I bought at a school event as I walked to where I was meeting them.

When I got there, however, I felt better, freer. It felt right, being there with my friends and in this community. The parade was filled with so much light and joy, and I even found myself tearing up at the beauty of it all. Next to us sat a mother and her child, and when the parade finished the mother turned to her kid and said, “Do you know why we have this party? This party is a celebration of love, and loving who we want.” It was hard not to sob at that.

I looked forward to the next Pride parade in 2020, but, unfortunately…you know.

Late last year, I visited Oregon again. Of the many things I planned to do, Pride was one of them. It had been five years since I first went. Now, I was…still new and unsure in my identity, for I had changed labels to ones that felt more “me” in the moment. I’ve still grown–with my chosen family, with my community, and within myself.

In 2019 I sat near the back of the parade. In 2023, I sat directly in the front, seeing everything first. No matter where I sat, the experience was wonderful. I got to see friends, even some that I hadn’t seen since college, and it was great to see so many communities come together to show their pride.

I’ve grown a lot in the last five years–six now, since it’s currently Pride month. It’s impossible to truly know oneself, since we are constantly changing and evolving. I am not the same person I was five years ago, one year ago, even one week ago. And I think that’s one of the main principles of Pride: loving yourself, no matter how many changes you go through.

That, and remembering the roots of Pride, and fighting to make sure we all can live a safe, peaceful life.

How “Frances Ha” Saved My Life, Or at Least My Summer of 2020

This is a piece I wrote for my “Writing for Publication” class I took in senior year. This was at a point in my college career where I very lost in terms of my future and career plans (still am frankly), and that hesitancy and fear (along with having to re-train myself to be social again after many, many months of Zoom classes) reflected in my writing. This assignment was called “The Long Form Essay.” After weeks of writer’s block, I came up with my topic–an analysis of one of my favorite films, Frances Ha.

What Grief Has Taught Me

It’s been a few months since I posted on here, huh? During that time I had a lot of events take place that really blocked my creativity. I am currently in the process of trying to unblock that creativity. While doing a free write exercise yesterday, this idea, which has been floating around in my head for a while, bubbled up.

The Red Heart Emoji

This idea has been in my head for quite a while, and I wanted to post it last week to keep in theme with Valentines day, but because of work another projects going on I wasn’t able to finish it. However, instead of being trapped in my own head about making this piece “perfect,” I instead decided to reformat it to a less structured piece (like a poem) instead of the original structure I wanted (like an essay). I figured this could be a way to show a bit of my writing process! Hopefully I can come back to this piece and expand upon it. Let me know what you think!

From The Siskiyou: Saying Goodbye to Ashland Street Cinemas, an Ashland Favorite

Photo by Emily Perry

After the movie theater I worked at closed down, my mind went to Ashland Street Cinemas, another movie theater that had a close connection to a community. It sadly closed down in the beginning of 2021. In my first article for that year when writing for the Siskiyou, I wrote about how much the theater had impacted the community, especially the college students who frequented it. Original article can be found here.

Why I Collect Books but Never Read Them

In my senior year of college I took a class called Writing for Publication. It was such a fun class and I learned a lot about writing. This was one of the first pieces we wrote for the class, for the prompt “Why I.”