Everyone’s first car holds sentimental value for the driver, even if it’s a gas guzzler with provocative leather interior. Caitlin Boersma reminisces about her mammoth-sized sedan and all of its idiosyncrasies.

What motivates people to participate in volunteer work–genuine altruism or mere self-interest? Humanitarian Caitlin Boersma commits to a local food bank and finds that our perceptions of volunteering hardly matches the reality of it.

For many, computers make our lives more efficient, but at the same time, less productive by offering us distractions. With her laptop out of commission, Caitlin Boersma goes cold turkey and survives a week without compulsive email-checking.

With Washington under heavy campaigning pressure after an indecisive Super Tuesday, conscientious objector Caitlin Boersma gets wrapped up in the presidential race and finds that, in spite of all the enthusiasm, it still comes down to slogans rather than issues.

It’s hard being motivated enough to exercise. That is unless you’re Caitlin Boersma, whose new swimming workout has her racing elderly women.

College inevitably breeds pseudo-intellectualism, and almost as inevitably is that single annoying student in your English class. Caitlin Boersma endures five of these ignoramuses in one class.

Holiday shopping can be a frenzy, motivating people to extreme ends just to buy presents at a discount. Caitlin Boersma discovers that people’s behaviors are at their most Darwinistic come Christmas season.

Caffeine and people watching are an exceptional combination. Wallflower Caitlin Boersma admires the idiosyncratic patrons of a 24-hour café in Tacoma.