My Written Works

All About Cinnamon
This is an essay I wrote in 2007, while I was a senior in high school. A research essay on the history and uses of cinnamon, it was published in the magazine Countryside shortly after my high school graduation.

   The spice that is called cinnamon comes from the bark of the cinnamon tree. This tree has between 50 to 200 species, the exact count has not been agreed upon by all botanists. The most common varieties are the Cinnamomum zeylanicum1, or Ceylon cinnamon, and Cinnamomum aromaticum2, or Chinese cinnamon. Chinese cinnamon is also called cassia. Cassia is a relative of cinnamon; the differences in the…

Is There Really Hockey in Indiana?
This article was written in the spring semester of 2011 for a writing class. A project looking into the community of hockey fans in my home city of Indianapolis, Indiana, this article uses a USHL game as a backdrop to recount the history and then-prevailing attitude of hockey fans in Indianapolis and Indiana at-large.

The tension mounts as the teams line up at the face-off circle. The two centers line up directly across from each other, the referee skates in. As this happens, the crowd begins to cheer and stand — some at the insistence of the PA Announcer, others because they know hockey etiquette. The referee raises the puck to his chest and thrusts it downward, releasing it. The game has begun.

Can such a scene really happen in Indiana? Why, yes: even in Indiana — “The…

My Date Wears a Dirndl?
This short story was written for a fiction class in 2011. It is a sci-fi inspired story about a guy who goes on a date with girl who is transported from 1800s Switzerland to the modern day while riding a train.

I walked to where Gianni told me I would find her. I felt silly, the most popular kid while in school needing his friend to hook him up with a girl. “I hope this turns out well, or Gianni is going to get it,” I thought, as I stepped toward the front door of the Arlette Hotel. She would be waiting in the hotel lobby, Gianni told me.
   As he told me I would, I found a girl wearing a traditional Swiss Dirndl. She looked like a Beer Maid at Oktoberfest! Figuring that…

My Name is Kyle, and I am a Racing Junkie…
Written for a spring 2011 writing class, this article describes my mania for racing. Using my relationship with racing to frame the entire piece, this article details how my experiences at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway intertwine with the more-than-a-century-long history of the speedway.

Standing in the stands on the front straight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I am with my family. We are all excited as the cars are leaving the pits to be lined up on the grid. We know that we are less than fifteen minutes away from the start of the race. The atmosphere is buzzing (or perhaps it is just the air horns).
   The long weekend was coming to end, but what an exciting end it would be. In what seemed no time, the cars were released for their formation lap. The…

Sure it’s Only Six Cars, But…
An essay written in 2009, for a college writing class, that gives my personal recounting of having attended the 2005 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

   I don’t remember when it was, but I still can remember my reaction when Dad asked if my younger brother, Corey, and I would be interested in seeing a Formula 1 race live at the track. I don’t think it took more than a few seconds for us to respond with a resounding “Yes” when he got the question out. Seeing the beautiful, sexily shaped cars going around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and seeing in person the drivers like whom I wanted to be would be the…

The Night the Wall Came Down
Inspired by the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 2009, I prepared this short story for a college writing class. It is the inspiration for a novel on which I have been working since 2012.

Jürgen stood in the crowd that had gathered at the wall. Finally, on November 9, 1989, after many months and years of trying, the East German people had made a giant leap forward in the battle to achieve freedom. Jürgen, though having been born and raised in East Germany, by East German parents, had joined in the “peaceful protests”.
   Of course, he had an ulterior motive for joining in the protests: he and his girlfriend, Marta, had been separated by…

The Untitled Story Told from a Squirrel’s Perspective
This is a cute short-short story that I wrote for a college fiction class in 2009. Written from the perspective of a squirrel, it tells the story of a squirrel crossing a road and nearly getting hit. I was inspired to write the story after dodging a squirrel while driving home from school that semester.

I poked my head up from out of the grass, looking for nuts. Being the middle of autumn, I needed to collect nuts for winter food. Across the big, black, hard, hot grass with yellow lines, I found the biggest walnut I had ever seen! I knew I needed to get that nut.

“What harm could it do?” I asked myself before crossing the black patch of grass. So, I stepped onto the gravel separating the green grass from the black grass. Then I stepped onto the hot black grass. The…