From the Vault: Rust

Moving on from playing the victim to getting greasy and dirty.

Thank you to my paid subscribers. This one is a 2025 edit of a “flash nonfiction” essay I wrote in 2020 or 2021 during a personal essay class. It was during these years that I was able to look at divorce and loss more objectively. I could control how I chose to grow from it rather than be “triggered” by it forever. I was catching myself bringing my previous relationship into my current (and much healthier) one. I came across this essay while I was backing up my old laptop recently. I’m not sure it’s one I want to share with the masses, so I’ll leave it with you for now.

RUST

By Melanie Lentz

Sometimes I stared at the rusted hood, wondering if you would ever look at me and realize I was still waiting for you, like the chrome trim pieces you intended to polish someday.

I never understood what you saw in that old truck.

"You have to see the potential in the project," you said. "The beauty is in the process and seeing the progress."

The never-ending, forever unfinished project.