What I Published in June 2022
Photo courtesy of Kelly Dawson
June happened in a flash. I still wait for it to appear, reminded of when I used to eagerly count down the days until the end of school, and then it’s here and gone faster than a hydrangea in bloom. “Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it?,” Daisy Buchanan asks during a tense June dinner in The Great Gatsby. “I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it.” I always loved that line for how accurate it is about summer.
I went on an impromptu road trip with my friend Katlyn at the start of the month, which shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did, since we usually end up agreeing to do much more than we planned whenever we’re together. We stayed at The June Motel, a renovated slice of California-meets-Canada in a small town called Sauble Beach, and did all the things you’re supposed to do over a season in quick succession: We went to the beach, made s’mores over a campfire, hopped on a boat, had most of our meals outside, and drank plenty of rosé. (I had made friends with the motel’s co-owners after writing this story for Architectural Digest, and one invited us out to join her and some friends. It was so fun to meet new people after two years of mostly familiar faces!)
Afterwards, Katlyn and I spent a few days in Toronto at the way-too-cool Drake Hotel, which I will now be recommending to anyone who happens to be passing through this city. It was so comfortable, stylish, and fun — if only I could’ve moved in. Toward the end of our trip, since we were close by and already in the midst of a vacation full of first-time visits, we figured that we might as well see Niagara Falls. How could we not, it’s right there, just daring us to resemble a pair of giant bananas. It felt like an adrenaline rush and a dream as our shaking boat approached the white walls of water, as did the amusement park of gaudy tourist traps just up the street. Before we knew it, Katlyn and I covered about 500 miles in five days.
In the midst of all this, I actually did have something to count down to: My first New York Times story. I stared at my byline for a while when I first saw it, making sure the memory of something I’d wanted for so long stuck. Shortly after, an essay I wrote for AFAR Magazine about returning to Prague, where I happened to have met Katlyn back in 2008, was published. In many ways, this June was probably the biggest month of my career so far, but I like that it was balanced by car snacks, hours of singing along to well-worn songs, and lots of giggling with a friend that’s always down for an adventure.
Here’s what else I had published in June:
Dwell’s Before & After: A Storied Midcentury Home Begins a New Chapter on Its 70th Anniversary
Dwell’s Before & After: A SoCal Surfer’s Choppy Kitchen Catches a New Wave
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