Real Talk: The Wonderful Thing About Triggers

Is Triggers are Wonderful things… Just kidding. Triggers fucking suck. What is a trigger, you ask? Good question. I didn’t start hearing the term myself until this past fall, and then it made sense. A trigger is a reminder of a troubling event, thus triggering negative emotions. Pretty obvious. I’m surprised I hadn’t heard that term sooner, […]

If The Plane Goes Down

When I was little, I was so scared of flying that the second I got on the plane, I would curl myself up into a ball in my seat and force myself to fall asleep. My rationalization? It would be better to die sleeping during takeoff than awake. Because, like, if the plane were to […]

Get Down with the Sickness

I returned to the state that bore me, and hoped it would welcome me into it’s mountainous bosom. You know what I got instead? A fucking sinus infection. The first sinus infection I ever had was so painful that I literally could not move my face. I’ll state that again, because it’s ridiculous: I could not […]

Top 5 Things I Learned in Graduate School

Part two of a two-part series. Here we go! 5. Routine is really, really important. I’m still learning this one, and it’s really difficult. But a lot of what I did over the school year was get my homework done the night before or the hours before class, and turn in a story that I […]

Seriously, Brain?

I woke up yesterday drenched in a cold sweat. My fists were clenched into balls and my arms were crossed. I have a lot of nightmares, so I’m used to waking up like that. What I’m not used to is having a really, really dumb nightmare. But, in all honesty, I should probably expect that […]

Conversations With Anxiety: Late Night Worries

I find myself staring at my ceiling a lot at night these days. It’s less insomnia and more me wondering about what it means to be a grown-up and wishing terribly for the days when I was so scared of being on my own that I literally slept on the floor of my parents’ bedroom […]

OkCupid Diaries, Part 3: Gullible is Written on the Ceiling

Apparently, sarcasm and gentle redirection are not things this person understands. Also, we are a 10% match. That means I would literally probably hate him and want to do nothing but give him wedgies until he went away or was in too much pain to walk and instead had to roll away. Are manners too […]

Hold On a Second, My Allergies are Acting Up

Guys, I’m about to lay a sloppy truth kiss all over your faces. There will be tongue involved, and it will be wet: Are you ready? Are you sure you’re ready? Okay, but this is your last chance to get out before things get real. Life can be hard. […]

2014 Is An Asshole

2013 wasn’t a particularly bad year for me. It was filled with the same ups and downs as most people experience plus the heightened awareness of the roller coaster thanks to my anxiety. In 2013, I made one of the best friends I’ve ever had, I celebrated my second year of survival, I was heartbroken […]

On the Second Day of Whitsmas

My true love gave to me: panic attacks on I-80. (Holy shit, that rhymes!) I enjoyed my brief stay in Cleveland. I always do. Cleveland, to me, is a home away from home away from home. I feel so comfortable in Shaker Heights that I almost didn’t want to leave. But then I remembered […]