NON-FICTION
CATEGORY WINNER
"Data Points"
by Maria Larcomb
Researchers say that with knowing four location data points — taken from the database of metadata endlessly collected by your phone — individuals and their behavioral patterns can be uniquely identified with 92% accuracy. It’s even possible to achieve over 50% accuracy using just two data points. It’s no wonder when we spend most of our lives in the same handful of places: home, school, work, a friend’s house, so on.
These are the places we pass the majority of our time. We repeat our specific routines day in and day out, creating undeniable patterns of lines drawn between the places that play the greatest roles in our lives. We play connect the dots with these influential places, feeling their importance in our very being. However, not all places of influence are created equal. Some influential places that we repeatedly visit are simply places of obligation — places of responsibility and duty. We go to school so that one day we can go to work. We go to work so that one day our kids can go to school.
Others we go to because we want to. We go to places that feel like home, even if they are not our own. These places hold special places in our hearts — our homes away from home, safe havens in such a loud, messy world.
"Octopus Arms"
by Maria Larcomb
Cousins can be your greatest confidants — also your greatest competition. And boy did my family know about competition! At reunions, it always was the running joke shared by all
generations. But, I believe that none of the lot truly knew just how deep competitiveness ran in our blood as the Core 4 + 1 cousins did. Even who was dubbed the official “plus one cousin” was a competition of sorts — some argued it was the only boy cousin, some argued it was the only
one who didn’t live local, others argued it was the youngest.
Sometimes, I felt it was me. But that’s beside the point.
The Core 4 + 1 were (and still are) planners, plotters, and fighters. Nothing was just a game. Every Uno round had stakes attached, every meal a competition of who could get their plate cleanest. But nothing compared to ping pong fights — those were war. We would spend hours drafting battle plans on Etch A Sketches, deciding when the battle would take place, who would be positioned where and how much ammo would be stored at each location. Everything was strategic because it had to be; we all knew the consequences if any adults found out we were playing such a violent game, and we all knew we wanted to win more than anything.