I always loved school. I loved the neatness of it—desks of all the same size, classroom decorations that mirrored the seasons. I loved my teachers, how sure they seemed in their patterned skirts. Now, every September, I feel like I’m forgetting something. I wonder if I learned anything at all.

Maddy Yardumian is a fiction writer and poet living in Boston, currently at work on their first novel. When she’s not writing (or procrastinating writing), you’ll likely find her frequenting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, drinking matcha, or listening to Chappell Roan.