Suburbia Is Where My Creativity Goes to Die

And my beloved dog, apparently

Kendra Sparkles
4 min readAug 25, 2023
Photo by Avi Waxman on Unsplash

I took my daughters to the zoo yesterday— something I would have never done if my husband wasn’t across the country for work. He can’t step foot in a zoo. He thinks they are cruel. I tend to agree, but I am alone with two kids for three months and I thought seeing elephants might make them stop their toddler sass for a hot second.

I was wrong. They remained sassy throughout.

As I elbowed all the eager children out of the way and pressed my face to the glass to observe a lethargic caged tiger, I found myself emphasizing with him. We shared a vacant stare and heavy sigh as I picked Joey up off the ground after temper tantrum #25 of the day. The bouncy ball she got at the gift shop didn’t open, which was obviously appalling.

Not too long ago, I took a Medium break during a move across the state. I haven’t had any time to myself to formulate a thought since then. I’ve written very little, despite having dozens of story-inspiring things occur these past couple of months.

It isn’t just my lack of time or the nasty migraines that have kept me away (although, those are most of the problem right now) — I seem to have lost my words.

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