First Person – Experience Magazine

What is Experience?

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That’s our motto, our credo, our exhortation. Experience is a digital magazine that examines the power of experience to spark ideas, solve problems, transform industries, and drive personal growth. Our stories will invite readers to understand the experiences of others, challenge assumptions, and break through the bubbles that too often persist in culture and civic life. They’ll promote a spirit of doing, growing, taking leaps, embracing the new. Experience is published by Northeastern University.

Have an idea for an Experience story? Check out our submission guidelines.

About Northeastern

For more than a century, Northeastern University has placed experience at the heart of its mission, in teaching, research, and global engagement. That’s because experience is the push that gives learning and discovery connection, insight, and impact. Experience is how people learn over their lifetimes, staying nimble and relevant. Experience is education. Learn more about Northeastern.

Staff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Joanna Weiss @JoannaWeiss

DESIGN DIRECTOR
Michael Workman @MichaelWorkman

SENIOR EDITOR
Schuyler Velasco @Schuyler_V

EDITOR, PARTNERSHIPS AND ENGAGEMENT
Ceci Menchetti @CeciMenchetti

Vicarious experiences

Stories in First Person

Performing my first opera — al fresco

By Maryann De Leo

The Experience Questionnaire: Mike O’Malley

I Tried It: Ghost hunting

By Alison Stevenson

A night on a hunt for the homeless

By Ezra Haber Glenn

The Experience Questionnaire: Desi Lydic

The Experience Questionnaire: Remi Adeleke

Stories in First Person

I Tried It: Group piano class

By Evan Judd

Alone on the mountain — where I belonged

By Andy Pepper

The Experience Questionnaire: Tara Westover

I Tried It: Sensory deprivation tank

By Allen Strickland Williams

The Experience Questionnaire: Cecile Richards

That’s not my name

By Schuyler Velasco

Stories in First Person

‘I’ll die before all these kids die.’

The Experience Questionnaire: Frankie Quinones

I Tried It: Self-defense class

By Erin Kennedy

I Tried It: Swimming with whale sharks

By Amy Sutherland

Sterilization was my choice. It felt like everyone else’s.

By Megan Koester

The grownup who vapes

By Glenn McDonald

Stories in First Person

The Experience Questionnaire: Arlo Guthrie

The most dangerous part of scuba diving

By Christina Wood

I Tried It: ‘Tinder for friendship’

By Margaret Eby

This is why I carry a gun

The Experience Questionnaire: Karen Kilgariff

‘Creative trespassing’ sets me free

By Ethan Gilsdorf

Stories in First Person

The ghost in my Netflix account

By Jen Deaderick

The Experience Questionnaire: Min Jin Lee

My life as a polyamorist

Teaching English in the shadow of the border wall

By Kellye Hooks

What you do after your house burns down

By Jessica Palombo Gustafson

The Experience Questionnaire: Dana Gordon

Stories in First Person

I Tried It: Ax throwing

By Megan Johnson

I passed out in a Cold War fallout shelter

By Glenn McDonald

When your real-life friend is your Facebook troll

By Jim Sullivan

The Experience Questionnaire: Andre Dubus III

I thought I was Mary Poppins. Then I got in front of a classroom.

By Anna Sims

The Experience Questionnaire: Deepak Chopra