cw: suicide The short version is that my villain origin story is missing the bus. Now let me explain. I am the type to always arrive at the bus stop at exactly the wrong time. Seemingly every time I walk up to the stop, I’m just in time to see…

So today is my 25th birthday. I knew I wanted to write something, but it was unbelievably difficult to get started. Sometimes you have so much to say that it’s easier to say nothing at all. But you don’t get very far by doing what’s easy, so I’m going to…

Truthfully, I’ve wanted to write something, a reflection, an essay, a stream-of-consciousness, anything really, to release some of the pressure that must have been building within me for the past year. But that was the crux of the issue: where was the pressure exactly? The stress? The deep aching despair…

The cultural zeitgeist in the wake of continued police murders of Black Americans is one of justified ardor. A shift in how actively we demonstrate our values, and the way that we as a culture allocate veneration, long overdue, is no longer being requested politely. All over the United States…

When I was tall enough to reach the kitchen counter but small enough to still believe the universe had my best interest at heart, I held a very large and very sharp knife to my throat. I had no serious ill intent, I merely wanted to give my mother a…

Today is my 8449th day on this planet. I had my 23rd birthday a couple months ago, which ordinarily wouldn’t be a particularly special one. I realized, however, that according to the laws of the United States of America, 23 years of age marks five years of legal adulthood. Five…

…makes you sort of kind of but not really wish it did! Wait…no. That’s not it. Well sometimes that’s precisely it. I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about this notion that adversity is supposed to strengthen you without exception. After nearly 23 years of life with a substantial…

Graduation was supposed to be a tearful and reluctant parting complete with a promise to visit whenever the opportunity arose. That’s how I always imagined the finale of the “best four years” of my life. Instead, once I graduated I wanted nothing more than to insert maximum distance between myself…

It is summer in Texas. This means that it’s hot. The fact is, nothing quenches thirst quite like a glass of Kool-Aid poured from a gallon-size pitcher. The iconic beverage, ubiquitous in the black community despite functionally being halfway to hummingbird nectar, ostensibly has the unnatural ability to feel somehow…