All Genres: Sound Stories

Sensory Overload

by Hayden Lamson ’24

The Remora

by Taylor Zweil ’25

30 Minutes

by Hamdiya Ahmed ’24

Thirty minutes a day sounded like this.

A fifteen minute one-way walk to the bus stop everyday defined my 2021 summer.

Working at Target is a college student’s dream – a relatively great pay ratio to hours worked; working with other teenagers; a great discount at such a cute, chic, trendy department store.

But it was brutal. Hours worked in the summer were long and suffered through rolling, all-encompassing humid heat waves punctured by flash-flooding thunderstorms. Pissy elderly women dedicated to home decorating projects gone wrong.

But I did get fifteen minutes of reprieve twice a day, walking through the familiar neighborhood full of strangers, where my body both built its mental armor and discarded of it. The metal shield plates formed with every light brush of the low-hanging tree branches, the iron chains unbuckling with every pass of the wind.

The summer represented hope and fertility. It was the dusk of my gap year, and the dawn of my return to Smith. The summer sounded like joy. Cars shot past, the sound of my footfalls only audible in the brief moments of silence. People were free.

I’m nostalgic for that brief moment in time, where hope felt within grasp and the world nearly oriented itself on its axis. But just as I approached the bus stop, so did the world fall short of post-COVID dreams. And boarding the bus, hit with the reality of masking, did my armor solidify. And so did the heavy machinery of sound.

D4C

by Grey Goodermote ’23

Enjoy my play with overlapping storytelling. It’s kinda like a choose your own adventure!

Letter

by Tillie Schneiderman ’22

Disclaimer: I am not a super spreader and I do not encourage super spreading ever.

3/8/22

by Mia Eisenberg ’24

Approximately ten minutes is how much time I have to eat my lunch and log into a zoom call describing what it is like to be a summer analyst at a well-known American bank. I never really thought about whether I even wanted to become a financial analyst or work for a large corporation, but don’t tell my mom because she would be disappointed if I became a sellout. So would my boyfriend, but that’s another story.

Between bites of my vegetarian chipotle bowl, I sip on a tall glass of iced tea and think about everything I need to do. I was released from isolation yesterday after six days and the thought of going back to my everyday routine is daunting. Maybe I’ll just drop out and become the next Elizabeth Holmes but without the criminal fraud conviction.

I finished the call and decided corporate America would probably not make me satisfied. Kanye West blared through my headphones as I packed my workout bag and attempted to reorganize my room as if my executive function isn’t totally shot from my lack of caffeine and inability to remember to take my ADHD medications.

The bliss of blasting Norah Jones helped distract me from the numerous responsibilities I have and the density of time and activity that led up to Spring Break. Though I am overwhelmed, running on maybe four and a half hours of sleep, the cyclical nature of global conflict, phone calls from distant relatives, and the familiarity of Zoom have stayed steady.

Falling into Something

by Amelia Burton ’23

Have a Good One

by Andrea Weston ’24

I love You, Granny

by Mya Wilson ’24

For this piece, I played around with a voice recording that I had from a conversation between me and my granny for the piece on my name. I cut some of my voice out throughout the conversation and added a background sound behind it. Full disclosure: It was two in the morning when I was talking to her so I was very tired. ?