Floating in a Tin Can: flash memoir by Jessica Garrison

"Floating in a Tin Can" is our newest visual column, shared every Wednesday on Instagram. a preface from the author about this flash memoir series:

"I started writing these journal entries for a marketing experiment. It was for a company that sold toilet paper. It had nothing to do with toilet paper. They just wanted to get to know their consumer more intimately. They called me one day (I don't know how they got my number) and asked if I ever buy toilet paper. I said yes. They said I was qualified, and offered me money to journal three times a day for ten days. I said yes again. I had just ended an almost seven-year relationship, I had just signed a one-year lease on a new one-bedroom apartment, just a few blocks from my ex, and I was walking around life like that meme of a Victorian lady with a sword through her neck and the text below that said "I'm fine." So it seemed a perfect time to crawl inside my own mind and question what I was feeling, what I was doing with my life, who I was outside of a relationship. I kept writing after the marketing experiment, and came up with these. A series of journal entries, so to speak, documenting about a six month period following my breakup."



Jessica Garrison is the author of a short story collection called “One Dollar Stories.” The collection emerged from a popular zine series which she sold at LA house parties and bars with the tagline, “Do you want to buy a story for a dollar?” Her work has appeared in The Rattling Wall, Flaunt Magazine, Dark Sky Magazine, Penny-Ante Three, Love is the Law, and various places online. Follow her on Instagram, and see more of her column on our Instagram every week.