Too Young to Kiss

Before I walked in, I quickly made way towards the girl’s room and wiped off the sticky red lipstick my mother insisted I wear. With two paper towels and one rinse under the sink, my innocent youthful lips were back.

The DJ booth separates the room, boys on one side and girls on the other like usual. It made sense though, how else should eleven year old kids act? The boys were to the left, some on their new camera phones, exploring the new world of photos through their mobile device; some bobbing their bodies to the beat of The Black Eyed Peas newest hit, “Roses.”  The girls are to the right, some whispering in one another’s ear with their hands over their mouths, telling secrets and starting drama with the group of girls next to them. The rest of the girls dancing, showing off their dance routine they are working on for their recital coming up in May. Meanwhile, I am thinking about all of the excuses I could use to leave this shindig.

I tried avoiding my friends for most of the night, but sooner or later they found me.

“Kristen! Dan is looking all over for you, stop being a baby and go dance with your boyfriend!”

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach and I began to taste my pasta and meatballs Mom had made for dinner. Trying to snap out of my prude funk, my “friends” dragged poor Dan over to me.

“Uhm DJ can you please put on a slow song?!”

Bitches. Dan approached me, our feet met, and eyes locked. Awkwardly, we assumed the position (the slow dancing position). I stared through the dark tunnel in his mouth between his two front teeth. I knew if I starred for too long I would be trapped in his dark tunnel, trapped somewhere I did not belong.

The last verse to Christina Aguilera’s “Come on over,” song was on, and my palms began to sweat. Dan closed his eyes, and counted to three quietly to himself (little did he know I had extremely sensitive hearing). He came at me like my orthodontist would moments before tightening my braces.  Before I knew it, his punch stained, wet, emotionless lips were latched onto mine, and adolescence had begun too soon.

Britney Spears began to echo the room and Dan jolted from me before I could blink. I began to feel the way I did when I rode my two wheeler bike before I was grown enough; inexperienced and out of line. Meanwhile, my petty friends are proudly hanging on to their training wheels.

The night ended before I could say sorry to Dan. I don’t know why I wanted to say sorry though, I was just, sorry.

Wanting to blame the red lipstick for my lips bold actions, I shamefully stepped into my mother’s Toyota that waited for me outside. I prayed she wouldn't ask me about my night, but as any mother would have, she did. I wanted to tell her I wish I had not gone, but revealing my wild woman like actions would only disappoint her.  

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF PUBLICATION VENUES

SWITCHBACK
http://www.swback.com/

When you think of the word Switchback, you are left with questions, what does Switchback mean? However, Switchback addresses relatable issues and memories that an audience of young adults to adults of all ages could be engaged in. The founders of Switchback want their readers to “feel,” with the contributor as they read and to be left “thinking,” at the end of each piece. Each genre focuses on/ discusses realistic issues and memoirs that we as adults could easily find some sense of relation to. I found myself reading piece after piece in the CNF category. The pieces are provided under the category, “Issues,” http://www.swback.com/issues/, and are broken down into sections such as: Rising, Broken, Current, Rosita, Global vs. Global, Intuition vs. Logic, Minority vs. Majority, Process vs. Product, Figurative vs. Literal, Horizontal vs. Vertical, Still vs. Frenzy, Accident vs. Design, and so on.  The purpose of Switchback is to share deep, heartfelt personal stories/struggles/memories/thoughts that individuals everywhere could relate to.

CNF essays published in Switchback forms vary from traditional to segmented form, these include: essays, meditations, lists, letters, manuals, artful digressions. Switchback wants their prose to be quiet and thoughtful, urgent and explosive. They want their essays in the form of personal stories that are more than just personal stories. The stories need to have a further meaning, a message, an overall heartfelt purpose.  Switchback does not want their CNF pieces to be informative or upright; they want to be able to think when they are reading each piece. 

The CNF essays published in Switchback are the types of work you can feel as you read it, and are left thinking after you read. The contributors to Switchback use a reflective tone. All of the topics were relatable and passionate. In the “Issues,” section of Switchback, there is a category labeled “Broken,” which leads readers to seven personal non-fiction stories shared by Individuals who went through difficult times in their lives and shared them through their writing. http://www.swback.com/issues/017/.  A piece I really liked in this section called, “Be Gay,” http://www.swback.com/issues/017/be-gay/1.html a story of a lesbian couple trying to get pregnant; during this read, I could feel the emotion behind the writer but still left me thinking at the end, “Did you ever end up having kids?” I thought to myself. All CNF essays are listed and available to read; they are divided up into the different categories of the “issues,” section of the website.  The CNF pieces go from dramatic pieces, such as a man writing about his thoughts towards the shooting at Sandy Hook http://www.swback.com/issues/018/december-notes/2.html to memories, such as a man writing about his attic and  relating his surroundings to family memories http://www.swback.com/issues/007/attics.html. Switchback’s CNF pieces are a variety of dramatic, passionate, humorous, and relatable stories. The personal narratives vary in length, some are longer pieces, slightly short of 3,000 words some are shorter, just reaching 1,000 words and other pieces that just reach 500 words. A list form piece, “10 Rules to Remember Before Stepping on a Scale,” is as long as some of the shorter personal narratives, reaching 1,500 words. http://www.swback.com/issues/016/Before-Stepping-on-the-Scale.html.

Switchback is a good venue for writers that express and enjoy writing about personal issues that individuals face regularly. Also, if you enjoy writing about memories and flashbacks, this is a good place to start. Switchback does not accept work with your name on it; they like to read the pieces submitted without knowing who the writer actually is. I would say that this is an effective venue for emerging writers, but many of the contributors to Switchback are writers with their MFA, many have other pieces of work already published. There are some contributors who are not writers, so I guess it just depends on the quality of the writing! If you have a personal story or memory that you think could be felt from other readers and leave them “thinking,” Switchback could be your venue.

Interested in submitting:

Switchback is a biannual journal, open for submissions four months at a time. Switchback is a venue that accepts fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and literally reviews. Their next issue will be published on May 1, 2014. If you would like to be considered for their fall issue, submissions are due no later than February 28, 2014. Switchback does not pay their contributors, but for the next issue, an Editor's Prize will be awarded in the amount of $200.00 to the submission they find the “most inspiring, jarring, outstanding, or just downright brilliant.”Additional prizes in the amounts of $75.00 and $50.00 will be awarded to the first two runners up.  There is no fee to submit your work. Switchback accepts simultaneous submissions, but they ask you to notify them if your work is accepted anywhere else. Switchback only considers unpublished works, and they only accept submissions through "Submittable." https://switchback.submittable.com/submit. Switchback also asks for all submissions to be sent in anonymously. http://www.swback.com/call/