The sad reality is that no matter how much I try to stay afloat and happy, there are times when circumstances align and create really sucky days. But sometimes, it just takes one or two wrong comments at the wrong time, and I’m locked in a dungeon in gloomsville for a week. For me, the…
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Reading and My Mother
If there is a reader in my life who taught me to relish the written word and my time immersed inside a book, that person is my mother. An avid reader herself, my mother spent a large part of my childhood reading books that she would then set in front of me so that I…
My Longest Flight and Longest Night
When my family was living in India and I was attending university in Alaska, I usually had to take a minimum of five flights to get from the start of the trip to the end. After my first semester, when we booked my flights around the semester and then had to pay booking change fees…
Exercise: Breaking Out of a Lifelong Rut
Ever since childhood, I haven’t been very athletic. I always preferred to curl up with a book or a puzzle over any outdoor activities. Even when sports were required at school, I was always among the slowest runners in my class, or even my grade. I was on a swim team for awhile as a…
Storytelling and My Father
If there is a storyteller in my life who taught me to love every part of creating stories, that person is my father. My father would make up stories for me all the time, and would frequently pull me in to help him create the story (though I would have been perfectly happy listening to…
No One Needs to Know Who I Am
When I was in university, I went through a phase that lasted about half a decade where I was extremely cynical of strangers wanting to know who I was or about my life. This was in the late 2000s; I had finally acquired a Facebook account and learned that anyone could Google me and acquire…
Veganism: Pancakes
Sometimes, I have down days and just want to not have to think about anything. Pancakes are a great way to start days that are already taking an effort. Vegan pancakes are insanely easy to make. If you’re feeling particularly low-energy, just mix together 1 part flour and 1 part non-dairy milk and fry it…
Language Acquisition, or the Endless Lie
One fateful day in second grade, I was at my rambunctious friend Snowy’s house with two other girls. We sat around a table and a question was asked of me in a teasing voice. I was mostly fluent in Japanese; I drew blanks much less frequently than I had even a year before. Still, I…
Congratulations, You’re a Mother! Wait, What?
When I was sixteen going on seventeen, my family made one long, extensive trip to see many of our family and friends in Japan and the US. Because my parents had work and therefore less flexible schedules, they returned home to India first. But my sisters and I wanted more time on the trip, and…
Depression as a Friend, Not an Enemy
I find that I benefit from conceptualizing depression as a friend that is a part of me. We are usually at odds in some ways, but it is a part of me that I can’t ignore or belittle. It needs to breathe just as much as the rest of me. I don’t always succeed at…