Jan 10Mental health, vulnerability, and the value of smoothing overMost of the poems I’ve written in the past two years are meditations on death. I want to share them, and then I read them, and I think, this is lovely but too sad. I write about the fears plaguing me and how sometimes when the train shuttles between boroughs…Mental Health4 min read
Jan 3The beauty of the platonic “loves of my life”I have always been a roommates kinda gal. I’ve had a roommate literally since I was 15 and went to boarding school for the first time. …Friendship4 min read
Dec 28, 2021Looking back to look forward: 2021 reflections, 2022 goalsWhat a freaking year 2021 has been. What. A freaking. Year. This year brought hope — vaccinations and domestic (and some international) travel opening up, and a feeling in early summer that maybe we were out of the darkest days of Covid. I also started out the year with a…20215 min read
Dec 21, 2021It’s Christmas and I’m taking stock of my faithWe’re rushing headlong toward Christmas. For a few years in middle and high school, I kept a year-long countdown to Christmas Day. It started on Dec. 26 because I used to wake up the day after Christmas filled with sorrow and devastation over the end of my favorite holiday. I…Christmas3 min read
Dec 7, 2021Taylor Swift’s music gives me a communityI don’t wear makeup much anymore, but for the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), I went all-out. Drank some tea, put on lipstick, wore a red shirt, curled up in bed with Spotify and several free hours stretching ahead of me. Nine years had passed since Taylor Swift released the…Taylor Swift3 min read
Nov 30, 2021An ode to friendship like sisterhood at boarding schoolThe first thing you need to know about my boarding school experience is that I didn’t want to go. At least, not in the months leading up to my 10th grade arrival at the Kandern, Germany-based boarding school for assorted third-culture kids where I would spend the next three years. …Boarding School3 min read
Nov 24, 2021Some thoughts about psych hospitalizationsI’ve had five of them. Five separate instances, lasting on average about five days, where my mental health got so bad I legitimately feared for my life and safety on my own. Four of my five hospitalizations were at NYU Langone branches, three in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. …Mental Health2 min read
Nov 9, 2021The Joy of Discovery Through Story: A Pantser’s TaleI was more than 80 pages into writing my new novel when I had a lightbulb moment and realized — this is a potential duology! There is more to this story, these characters, this world I’m building than the one-book love story I’m currently telling, and I never would have…Writing Tips4 min read
Nov 2, 2021An ode to my favorite musicI’m neither a musician, nor a composer, nor a singer. I’m not someone to whom the creation and propagation of music comes naturally. In fact, when I sing, it’s less music and more squawking. Unpleasant! But when others create music? When my girls Taylor Swift, Adele, Olivia Rodrgio sing? It…Music2 min read
Oct 12, 2021The death anniversary that almost wasContent warning: suicide attempt, mental illness I’ve mourned October 12 for the past nine years. Today, I’m going to celebrate it. I don’t remember the weather well that Friday morning in 2012; I just know it was warm enough to sit outside at the base of a tree without freezing…Mental Health4 min read
