When I was growing up, my mom often quoted her favorite movie. “When the Lord closes a door,” she said, channeling Maria Von Trapp, “somewhere he opens a window.” Though I’m not one to live my life based on corny lines from The Sound of Music, I do think that there’s something wise about this particular platitude.
Read MoreMy heart lives in Minnesota.
My soul lives in Nashville.
My mind lives in New York.
It's hard being split in three.
Read MoreDespite the fact that I am oddly aware of all of this, I love making plans. The idea of a full social calendar has always been appealing. I'm the quintessential "extroverted-introvert" who lives for the opportunity to be a party girl, yet craves serious alone time. By Monday, I have plans for a mid -week dinner and by then, Friday night plans are brewing. Meanwhile, all the while, I’m thinking, “Shit, I just want to do nothing in peace, yet have an ongoing conversation via text with my best friend.” All of this mental anguish is because I said “yes.”
Read MoreNow, at nearly 24 years of age, I go to bed every night with the latest version iPhone in front of my face and happily let it greet me every morning. This tiny computer is my companion; I couldn’t imagine life without it. It serves as an escape when I need it to, and a distraction when I don’t. It has the power to remove me from reality and cut down drastically on actual physical connection. I, more often than not, chose to be in that simulated world at my fingertips instead of in the present moment.
Read MoreI didn’t make a New Year’s resolution for 2017. I was over setting myself up for failure, so in the spirit of self-love, I decided to challenge myself in more productive ways. I set short term goals, like not getting too drunk to remember the ball drop (failed) and not crying at midnight (allegedly failed).
I did, however, develop a theme and set of rules for the new year. My mantra? “2017 is the year of the GIRL.”
Read MoreLike many people my age, I have divorced parents.
They split up when I was in the sixth grade, and to be completely honest, when I was put on the spot the other day, I couldn’t really recall much of their relationship before that. The whole process was treacherous and heartbreaking and something I had chosen to forget.
Read MoreWe listed a few names, talked about the few who we never spoke to anymore. The ones who were falling off the list from distance, from change. The rare loved ones whom we rarely get the chance to talk to, but when we see each other all is exactly the same.
“It’s weird how some people just leave, and you hardly even notice it.”
Read MoreI rub her back and take a deep breath in and out, motioning her to do the same--slow breath in, slow breath out. She sits, eyes closed, and I sit too, silent. We don’t share the same language, so what can I say to ease her anxiety? But I know her feelings of panic, the way you mind spins and everything seems out of control and it’s all you can do to just sit still and be. And all I can do, all I can offer her in this moment is to sit and just be there with her.
Read MoreI looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize my own face. It looked somber, angry, incapable of ever smiling again.
Since the time college had ended and my had life become a whirlwind of whatever luck would bring me, I had been a little depressed and angry at God. It seemed like every door I knocked on didn’t want to open, and I had been knocking for quite a while now with still no open doors for me.
Read MoreLetting go means that when the pain becomes so unbearable and obsessive that you don’t remember what life was like without it, you finally understand that you gave him more of you than you have of yourself. Letting go means realizing that you’ve been standing in the fire for so long without seeing that you were being consumed by the flames.
Read MoreMy grandma was dying, and I knew that if I didn’t make it to her that Wednesday, I would regret it. That time I would spend with her I knew I would keep with me forever. I just didn’t know how to make it special.
Read MoreI'm currently working 10-hour days. Factor in travel and sleep time, and I have approximately five hours to myself during the week. All of which is spent getting ready for work, getting ready for bed… or watching Netflix (a girl has got to decompress, okay?). But the way I’ve been living leaves no room to focus on things in my own life.
Read MoreWhen I told people I was moving to Belize to volunteer at a Catholic high school, the responses were unique. Some people panicked at the thought of me getting Zika. My parents were shocked, but supported me. Friends were excited for me but also sad, and most of my friends’ parents asked me if it was safe where I would be staying. A select few still don't know where Belize is, or they still think I said Brazil.
Read More2016 was an election year that changed everything, for myself and for so many others around me. People became divided by their presidential candidates in a heated political climate everyone on every side could call agonizing. Friendships, relationships, and families fell apart. Opinions were turned into angry memes, and after the long-held tradition of keeping your views off social media, finally everybody seemed to know where everybody stood.
Read MoreI had always thought the “fear of missing out” was that juvenile feeling I got when I was 3 years old and forced to take a nap while my brother, four years my senior, got to play all afternoon. I thought of it as a silly bout of envy that I soon grew out of... until college. My sophomore year, I got my first smart phone. And with it, I excitedly downloaded Instagram.
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