In my first semester of university, I made friends with a girl who loved books as much as I did. Both of us loved the fantasy genre, and both of us aspired to write books of our own. At the time, I voiced the view that I could never write a popular story, because there…
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The Hostel in Paris (Final)
On my last night in Paris, I woke up shivering uncontrollably, my head splitting from a headache, my stomach full of nails, my eyesight blurry and my muscles weak. I had a fever. Immediately I panicked. I had to check out the next day. I had a flight to catch, and a 17-hour layover in…
7 Ways to Maximize Misery, by CGP Grey
Some of you may already know that I’m extremely fond of CGP Grey and his informational YouTube videos. Well, last week, he posted a video that essentially summarizes what I’ve been trying to do with this blog series. I want to emphasize that I don’t view this as a don’t-do-this-ever list. For those of us…
The Hostel in Paris (Pt. 6)
The hotel where I spent my last night in Paris was simple, but nice. Though I had left the hostel suspecting bedbugs without confirmation, I was determined not to spread any possible infestation if I could avoid it. I left my luggage close to the door and separated my clothes into two categories: probably safe…
The Hostel in Paris (Pt. 5)
After 2 nights in the hostel, I started to notice itchy patches of bug bites on my skin. I ascribed it to mosquitos: I was spending a fair amount of time walking around outside, and a fair amount of that walking had been through the vegetation of Pere Lachaise. It wasn’t until my 4th night,…
There is Always a Solution
One of the traps of depression is the way it can at times obfuscate what should be obvious. This is why I sometimes need to remind myself that no matter how drained I’ve been for however long, no matter how difficult it is to get through life from day to day, there is always a…
Queen of Our World
I led a charmed life with my parents. My mother was a bell-ringer working in IT and my father was in academia. They traveled often. When I was an infant, my parents took this as their chance to take me around the world before I started school and my world became more narrow. They took…
The Hostel in Paris (Pt. 4)
When, on the 4th evening, I returned to the hostel to find that not only was bed 13 still occupied, but bed 7 now had a new occupant as well, I was not remotely surprised. Fortunately, it was in the evening during regular hours before anyone was asleep. There were only 3 other girls already…
Finding an Easy Fallback Exercise
For days when I don’t necessarily have all the energy to throw myself into some exercise, I need a fallback. Ever since I began exercising regularly, my formerly erratic living habits have become more predictable. In a depressive episode, I find it harder to exercise, and I grow hungrier as though my body is trying…
Queen of Our Kingdom
As much as I felt, as a child, that my life began with my sisters’ birth, that was not at all the case. The first five years of my life were eventful (though not as dramatically as the year of my sister’s birth), and shaped my life in ways I did not comprehend as a…