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May 30, 2025 • 10 mins

Dear Wonderful Readers,

The following vignette is what we call a “raw write.” I wrote it in 40 minutes in my writing class called UnMute, led by my incredible writing teacher, ANN RANDOLPH. I've been attending Ann's classes for the last three and a half years, and working with her has been a huge part of my creative journey. She'll be starting up UnMute again in the fall for any of you who have a lot of stories bubbling away inside of you but are unsure of where to start. I highly recommend her class.

Today’s prompt was the poem “What The Living Do” by Marie Howe, and I took the question: “Write about something broken in your home—something small and stupid. Let the description grow. What bigger thing does it mirror or hold? What grief or yearning lives inside that broken faucet, that squeaky hinge?”

Also, I’ve got an exciting and quick Misseducated update. Starting this week, I will be experimenting with posting my work on Tuesdays. I've tended to publish too late on Friday evening, and I hope that publishing earlier in the week will give me more opportunities to share my work on social while it's still fresh. Still, I am eternally grateful to all my regular Friday readers, and I will keep you in the loop as to how it goes! You can expect posts from me on Tuesday from now on.

I hope you enjoy this piece and have a great weekend.

Love,

Tash

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What The Jigsaw Puzzle On My Dining Table Says About My Love Life 🧩 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

I have a giant jigsaw puzzle sitting on my dining room table. It takes up all the space I could use for dinners with friends. I planned to have it glued together and framed ages ago at this point. I haven’t broken it apart yet because it took me so long to put it together. My sister gave that jigsaw puzzle to me because my family always said I was good at them, and I do like them, but this one was quite hard, with all the pieces looking the same, so I can’t just destroy it. I’m going to make my time worth it and stick it together so that I never have to redo it again.

A guy (José) I am seeing came round the other day. He offered to have one of his guys come over and frame my puzzle for me. My sense of overwhelm at having the puzzle on my table for months was lifted slightly before the guilt of relying on another person to sort out my life clocked me around the head. He is sweet and generous enough. He has black whiskers on his chin, with a couple of grey ones in there, too, and deep brown eyes. When I am with him, it feels like the most natural thing ever. I don’t have to pretend to be somebody else. We snuggle mere hours into knowing each other. I’m still not convinced, but I kind of like it that way.

What I wanted was a boyfriend, swiping through the apps. Hinge. Bumble. Hinge. Luxxy. Raya. Hinge. Bumble. Feeld. Coffee Meets Bagel. Until I thought about it the other day. How many men and women have I swiped on? Hundreds of thousands of people at this point. I started using the apps over a decade ago, when I was a fresh little spring chicken, not even close to fully adulting, at the University of Pennsylvania. I’ve swiped through so many people my thumbs have begged me to stop from their aching long ago.

Deep in the bowels of these people’s profiles, what was I really looking for? The Prince Charming on a white horse. The Harvard graduate with lots of money. The perfect match that I couldn’t even describe to you because this human person does not even exist. All the fish pictures, dog pictures, graduation pictures, sky diving pictures, waterf

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