Friends like to tell me that I act somewhere between ages

twenty-six and fifty-three, before marital desires and on the cusp

of a mid-life crisis, skipping childhood altogether. I figure it must be
the disdain for youthful flirtations, or a tendency to reason my way
out of everything, or my general enjoyment of foods high in fiber.
To be fair, I think my appreciation for the make-
believe increases exponentially with each coming year. I
often spend hours at work spinning elaborate scenarios
in my head, ranging anywhere from make-believe tax
evasion to imagined relaxation. Rather pathetically, as
I grow older I delve deeper into my own head, where
emotion collides with caffeine and an overactive imagi-
nation, all in some desperate attempt to escape reality.
Among the daily angst rituals
of adolescence, I find writing to be the
most sensible thing a girl can do. Dur-
ing a developmental stage dictated by
cyclic spurts of estrogen and biological
purpose, words are certainly a stabiliz-
ing force, spinning together the nonsen-
sical thoughts romping about my head
like schoolchildren with the deeper emo-
tions that remain squirreled safely away.
This issue of Gluestick contains
elements of our swing-set days to pimpled
confusion to the sort of ageless anxiet-
ies that will nag us into organic matter
again. Readers be warned, many pieces
address issues like rape, sexuality, love
and death. But good writing is always
quite near to strong emotion, and these
students are unafraid of confronting it.
Thy Vo, Editor-in-Chief
CONTRIBUTORS
“The Birds and the Bees” by Julie Nguyen
“Tick-Tock” by Katya Sutil
“I’ll be your Friend” and “Silence” by Thucdan Ton
“Do you like to eat Tangerines?” by Shawn Chen
“Another Frustrated Love Story” by Elizabeth Koh
“Unobtainable” by Elizabeth Fitz
“Both” by Medha Raj
“Lost my Way” by Jonathan Berry Smith
“From Beneath You it Devours” by Gabe Bergado
“The Eye” by Yvonne Ng
“Little Rabbit Heart” by Mai-Anh Ha
“Last Night” by Erato
“If Only” by Anaoshak Khavarian
“I Less-Than-Three Katamari” by Christopher Nguyen
“The Prince’s Inquisition” by Edwin Ng
“Different...Just Like Everyone Else” by Christine Parker
“Sneezes and Sorrows” by Lauren Bermudez
“Spelling” by Jenny Park
“There Would Be” by Mai-Anh Ha

GLUESTICK 2008-2009
ADVISER: TAYLOR
another frustrated love story
by Elizabeth Koh
[‘i don’t want to wake up if you’re not here’ + heart + cities]
last night
by erato