[1] Disappointments start small and grow into us. Janet Malcolm remembers the power of her first disappointment—how it reframed the world and the way in which she consciously related that world to her self hood. She considers the significance of her response to being given peony petals rather than the promised rose petals. Janet uses this to probe the childhood self and the negative emotional space that surprised her. Was it the first time she felt self-consciously set apart from her peers? Or was it an aesthetic that remained constant, one which leads her to the present day when she looks down on “fragile” peonies? Write a brief CNF about the first memory you have of disappointment. 

[2]. Wildebeests follow the rain in annual migratory loops around southeastern Africa. Write a flash CNF that makes us of this fact.

[3] Molly Brodak's harrowing and unredemptive memoir, Bandit, follows the life of her father, a gambler, a bank robber, a survivor, a prisoner. Brodak uses her father's narrative to reveal the child that grew out of it. Use the following line as a prompt to free-write: "The houses I lived in felt more like boats than houses."

[4] Is there anything you wish people could know about you automatically, without explanation? Any part of your past experience that you need to mark down and keep? What tattoo would you use and why? If you’ve already done this, then use your most resonant tat for this exercise. Write a CNF about the tattoo you would choose to tell an integral story in your life—and how that experience has marked you.