Managing flare-ups due to a chronic illness at home is a challenge. Pain and periodic immobility often leave me sad, hopeless, and in agony. Trying to educate co-workers on helpful accommodations, friction with delivery services unwilling to follow instructions that make it easier to retrieve my orders, navigating medical emergencies…

Standing in front of my tiny closet stuffed with clothing, shoes, and accessories, often jamming its sliding glass doors, I wondered how I could believe I had nothing to wear for my date. At that moment, the endless Instagram reels featuring Kardashian lookalikes in exclusive outfits that contorted what remained…

My parents raised me to ask permission for everything. What I ate, what I wore, what I said, what I did, and who I was were all regulated. This theme of asking permission pervaded my personal and professional lives. …

Before arriving in Bali, I researched local wineries and decided to squeeze two visits into my retreat itinerary. I enjoyed an expansive wine tasting at Hatten Wines with delicious goat cheese, breadsticks, and palm sugar white chocolate pairings. I was excited about what awaited me on my next wine excursion…

Yard work had been part of our chores growing up, and I couldn’t discern which had been worse: stuck in the house washing dishes or toiling away in the dirt under various weather conditions. The less strenuous — still unglamorous — yard work included maintaining the garden. Though we planted…

My habits took on their own life, eventually colliding to annihilate me. I hoped I’d be released from all this pain, shining so bright that the light would dispel my darkness from those things that happened. When I returned to my lodging, I searched the fridge for remaining days-old scraps…

*Trigger warning: references to self-mutilation One summer, my father bought my siblings and me a white cockatoo with yellow feathers that sprouted from its head whenever excitement filled its fluffy body and two orange circles on its cheeks, making this pet irresistibly adorable. Because of the scent and sound of…

Lately, I feel tossed between waking and dream states, desperately clawing my way out before the two realities close in. When did this feeling begin? Am I naturally agitated, rebelling since the moment my parents conjured me from the expansiveness of the universe down to this contained planet? Or was…

Drenched from a sweltering midday walk, I finally reached The Little Wine Bar, a chilled nook tucked away in Placencia with air thickened by the scent of cured meats and aged cheeses. My friends and I checked in for our wine tasting, and while they were seated, I hurried to…