Wrapped Up In My Mind
Directed by Jennie Greco Photographed by Sebastian Olivo Styled by Julia Magdziak Makeup by Jennie Greco Modeled by Kaiyang Zhang
Directed by Jennie Greco Photographed by Sebastian Olivo Styled by Julia Magdziak Makeup by Jennie Greco Modeled by Kaiyang Zhang
Directed and photographed by Lily Brown Styled by Anna Bacal Peterson Modeled by Jordan Rochna and Aisha Akorede
Pulling into the lot, the shadow of the massive warehouse towered over Clara’s pickup truck. Near their car, a mother and her young daughter were rolling up their sleeves and putting on plastic gloves. At another car, a group of 20-somethings had the trunk down and laid out their finds.
Surrounded by the picturesque slopes of Brokeback Mountain and dressed in traditional western cowboy attire, this clipped confession is equal parts romantic and heartbreaking, and the accompanying scene perfectly encapsulates the tragedy that is Ang Lee’s 2005 cinematic masterpiece Brokeback Mountain.
Three years ago I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, disgusted by what I saw looking back at me: a girl who still had to deal with the pain of braces four years after their first installation. Someone with cuts in her cheeks, caused by the wires attaching the brackets to my teeth for “just another month,” as my orthodontist would say, to provoke false relief.
I know. You are reading the title and thinking, “Well, that’s dramatic.” It is, but it would be a lie to say that there is absolutely no societal pressure to find your person in college. Unlike high school sweethearts, which are considered special and rare, couples who met in college are pretty easy to find.
Call it circumstance, call it fate, call it what you want to, but the universe always finds a way to humble us. Often, it’s in the form of a special kind of hell–running into the very person you want to, depending on the moment, punch or kiss in the face. The ex.
I recently had an experience hooking up with someone where the connection was unreal. Two bodies and two hearts intertwined with all the passion and buildup that one could ever hope for. My summer had been arguably dry, so I was thrilled to return to campus life in Boston to be around my contemporaries and to better my mind and spirit.
Nobody is upset about turning 20. At least, that’s what my parents told me this past June. But I was, I was the first of my friends to complete the second decade of my life, so there were few people to give me advice aside from my 60-year-old parents. According to them, these are going to be the “best years of my life.”