For The Monthly’s annual summer essay issue, we invited you to send us essays about “a hard choice.” Here, five thought-provoking writers share pivotal moments in their lives.

The Gift | by Wendy Lichtman
It’s one thing to leave your cheating husband. But walking away from a dazzling piece of jewelry that he once gave you? That’s a different kettle of fish.

Doing Time | by Stacy Appel
Appel takes her obligations as a juror very, very seriously—and you might, too, after reading this thought-provoking piece.

Odds and God | by Chaya Malika
Which is worse: death by cancer, or the chemotherapy that threatens to destroy your chief pleasure in life?

Rebound | by Wichita Sims
One of our favorite Monthly essayists explores the vagaries of fate that bound her to parents with whom she was tragically mismatched.

Pocketful of Guilt | by Karen Rosenbaum
To give or to withhold? There’s no easy answer, it seems, to this age-old dilemma pondered by sages, Miss Manners, and pretty much everyone who braves the streets of downtown Berkeley.