Bea Chang is a writer, feminist, and traveler who was born in Taiwan, raised in California and New Jersey, and has traveled to 69 countries. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, and her short stories and essays have appeared in the Redivider, Bodega, Awesome Sports Project, Broad Street Magazine, Memoir, Toasted Cheese Online Literary Journal, and Colere: A Journal of Cultural Exploration. Her work has won the Beacon Street Nonfiction Contest (2022), been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and was named a Notable Mention in the Best American Essays (2017) and the Best American Sports Writing series (2018). She is also the 2020 recipient of Anne G. Locascio Scholarship at the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference.

ESSAY

Everything We Couldn’t Be

By BEA CHANG

As the sun fell toward the horizon, I lifted my sunglasses over my head. It turned out that the earth wasn’t a volcanic red. It was a dull, pastel color. I lowered my shades again. I much preferred it that way.