When I first decided to become really serious about my training in creative nonfiction, I took a series of online courses through the literary journal Creative Nonfiction. The classes were excellent and offered me exactly the kind of education that I lacked in my fumbling-solitary-efforts-to-figure-out-what-an-essay-was. I loved these online courses for their interesting, imaginative writing prompts, and in one class I wrote an odd essay about marriage, which was inspired by the Pantone Matching System (often referred to, unfortunately, as PMS). Much to my great happiness, The Normal School ended up taking the essay, even though the piece had a challenging element: the inclusion of images of colors along with the “recipes” for blending each hue. You can find the essay here in all its colorful radiance.