“My classmates would walk around with thousand-dollar winter coats, wear designer bags, and avoid Leo’s at their every convenience. Meanwhile, I added three jobs to my plate and was juggling more than I could handle. Going from classes in Walsh to shifts in Reynolds (a hike), I often found it near impossible to ever leave the Bubble or even to discover any clubs I was passionate about.”
“Georgetown and its students say survivors are not alone. We write it on the walls of our buildings and host rallies and shout together, but what will you do when the perpetrator is your friend or partner? What will you do when rejecting them means a major change in your life? What will you do when empowering a survivor is inconvenient for you? What will you do when your student organization is enabling abusers? What action will you actually, truly take to make sure a survivor is not alone?”
No matter the answer, my previous “cure” for my hair was one of many small things I took for granted, and one of the many small habits that I, like many others, didn’t realize I valued until they were gone.
“So it’s been dormant for 5000 years? If that thing erupts, I’m gonna be furious.” I laughed at this witty exchange, having stopped flipping channels to check out an episode of the Discovery Channel show Destination Truth and the following show with the same host, Expedition Unknown. After Destination Truth caught me with that funny…
I’m tired of Black lives not mattering. I’m tired of seeing people who look like me die. I’m tired of having to educate our “allies” on how to show up for our community. I’m tired of knowing my children will have to modify every aspect of their behavior and mannerisms to ensure they aren’t misconstrued as threatening. They’ll have to grow up too fast and give up pieces of their childhood for their own safety. I’m tired of your complacency. I’m tired of wondering if I’m next.
I’ve rarely studied meditation in a formal sense, but the basis of mindfulness critical to its practice have always been an important part of my personal philosophy. For someone who has often struggled to feel in control in uncontrollable environments, mindfulness is an essential tool.
That night, I became one of the one-in-three women who has experienced sexual assault or coercion—without even realizing it. Yet despite our prevalence and the gravity of our circumstances, policymakers—like Betsy DeVos’ new Title IX policies—continue to neither recognize nor support survivors of sexual assault.
“In February, I accepted the Tombs’ annual challenge for seniors. On every one of the last 99 days of senior year, I planned to descend into the Tombs and hand the bartender my ID as proof of my attendance. I found the cheapest items on the menu and set aside enough money for all the checks. If you make it, they’ll put your name on a plaque, and how can you put a dollar value on that?”
There are moments when your life depends on a single foot. As I traverse the snowy upper slopes of Colorado’s Mount Harvard at 14,400 feet in elevation, the stakes are high. One misstep here and I could conceivably fall hundreds of feet down an icy cliff. There are no ropes and no second chances. My…
I have short hair. Not shoulder length, not a bob, short. I cut it the day of sixth grade graduation, modeling it after Emma Watson’s then new, now infamous pixie cut. Life is subtly different with short hair. You get mistaken for a man more. You spend less on shampoo. You don’t have hair ties…
