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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

© 2019 Northeastern University
First Person

Vicarious experiences

Stories in First Person

The Experience Questionnaire: Joel Murray

The Experience Questionnaire: John Cameron Mitchell

The Experience Questionnaire: The Allman Betts Band

The Experience Questionnaire: Keb’ Mo’

The Experience Questionnaire: Pati Jinich

The Experience Questionnaire: Irvine Welsh

Stories in First Person

I Tried It: Food cooked by robots

By Heather Kapplow

To get across Hanoi, you have to go with the flow

By John Fox

The Experience Questionnaire: Solomon Georgio

The Experience Questionnaire: James Holzhauer

The Experience Questionnaire: Mike O’Malley

I Tried It: Ghost hunting

By Alison Stevenson

Stories in First Person

The Experience Questionnaire: Desi Lydic

The Experience Questionnaire: Remi Adeleke

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

Stories in First Person

The Experience Questionnaire: Cecile Richards

That’s not my name

By Schuyler Velasco

‘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

Stories in First Person

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

By Megan Koester

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

Stories in First Person

The ghost in my Netflix account

By Jen Deaderick

The Experience Questionnaire: Min Jin Lee

My life as a polyamorist

What you do after your house burns down

By Jessica Palombo Gustafson

The Experience Questionnaire: Dana Gordon

I Tried It: Ax throwing

By Megan Johnson

Stories in First Person

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

The Experience Questionnaire: Deepak Chopra

I Tried It: Silent retreat

By Glenn McDonald

My search for the best fried chicken in New York

By Schuyler Velasco

Stories in First Person

The Experience Questionnaire: Lisa Genova

I don’t want to stop singing ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside.’

By Debbie Gravitte

The Experience Questionnaire: Amanda Palmer

The Experience Questionnaire: DeAnne Smith

At hospice, we wrote the final chapter of our friendship

By Jim Sullivan

I Tried It: Climbing Kilimanjaro

By Duduetsang Chappelle-Molloy

Stories in First Person

The Experience Questionnaire: Richard Thompson

I Tried It: Aura photo

By Schuyler Velasco

How I realized I was ‘they’

By Jama Shelton

The Experience Questionnaire: Justine Bateman

Pulling the trigger

By Tracy Hahn-Burkett

How to make a difference after a school shooting

By Julia Beck

Stories in First Person

The Experience Questionnaire: Heidi Zak

The Experience Questionnaire: Charles Thompson

The Pop-Tart whisperer

By David Filipov

‘A mirror made out of sound’

By Thea Breite, Nicholas Pfosi, and Sofia Adams

Eyeing the hurricane

By Glenn McDonald

Red, white, blue, and black

By Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez

Stories in First Person

Storm chaser

By Jessica Palombo Gustafson

How it really feels to be a Congressional witness

By Glenn McDonald

The Experience Questionnaire: Guy Branum

The Experience Questionnaire: Neil Gaiman

I was dying up there

By Allen Strickland Williams

Geeks gone wild

By Alexandra Samuel­

Stories in First Person

When the rain didn’t come in Cape Town

By Neo Maditla