• Lifestyle & Relationships

    Covered Mirrors and the Souls of the Dead

    Image courtesy of Steffen Lemmerzah via Unsplash

    What is that one thing you wanted as a child? I bet you eagerly wanted to be an adult. Being an adult meant doing whatever you wanted to do. Why can't you do the things adults do? Why is the answer always "no" whenever you ask for a cool toy, snack, or game? This question I often asked myself, and finally when I was six years old, I was able to come up with an answer.

  • Lifestyle & Relationships

    The 11th Commandment – Don’t Rush Childhood

    (Image courtesy of Cassidy James Blaede via Unsplash)

    What is that one thing you wanted as a child? I bet you eagerly wanted to be an adult. Being an adult meant doing whatever you wanted to do. Why can't you do the things adults do? Why is the answer always "no" whenever you ask for a cool toy, snack, or game? This question I often asked myself, and finally when I was six years old, I was able to come up with an answer.

  • Lifestyle & Relationships

    ‘This Is Us’ — The Drama of Body Shaming, Diversity, and Conflict on My TV

    (Photo courtesy of Aleksandra Sapozhnikova via Unsplash)

    Being a voracious reader since forever, I have always been a sucker for a good story. Unwittingly, I tend to submerge myself in characters  so completely that for those few moments I belong entirely to them — crying with them, laughing with them — oblivious of the tear rolling down my cheek or the smile plastered on my face, participating in their glee as well as their grief.

  • Mental Health

    Who Am I?

    (Image courtesy of Polina Zimmerman via Pexels)

    If someone asks “Who are you,” how would you answer? Could you even answer honestly? Would you even answer in the first place? “Who are you?” A simple question I’ve been very familiar with growing up.

  • Lifestyle & Relationships

    Toxic Words

    (Unsplash/Hannah Wright)

    Every language has thousands of words, and the ones we choose, I believe, almost always reflect who we are, what we feel, and what we want to communicate. I say “almost always” because I have never been fond of certainties, and I consider doubt an essential element of life, as to not judge people based solely on what they say.

  • Lifestyle & Relationships

    Finding Community in Identity: Discovering My Autism in Adulthood

    (Image courtesy of Brooklyn Riepma)

    I've spent my whole life feeling like I didn't truly fit in with anyone around me. I’ve always felt there was something “off” about me. It was as though everyone except me received a user manual for how to be human. It took me 25 years to realize that the reason I felt different from most people is that I’m autistic. But due to my lack of education on the subject, I went that long without even knowing.

  • Fiction

    Heaven Simple

    (Photo courtesy of Cody Schroeder via Unsplash)

    the wind did not howl but the door frame is loose vibrated and swayed like the unhinged rusting tin roof and her anxious heart

  • Humanity

    The Inside Story of a Renegade — What’s It To Ya?

    It all started in Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, bustling with the aircraft of Cessna, Learjet, and Boeing. Founded in 1861 as a free state, Wichita was Native American land named after the Wichita and Kanza tribes. This land had a rich, deep cultural heritage predating colonization. Filled with dewy, mystic plains and sunflowers that dance in the wind, Wichita is my birthplace.