I have, as of the date I am writing this piece, 30 days left of this year before summer break. If you ignore the two weeks in May that are reserved for state testing, there are four actual weeks left, and the last week where everyone does their best to not bolt for the doors as the minutes towards freedom creep by slower and slower. As I am not a contracted teacher, and instead work as a Title I liaison at my school, I don’t collect a paycheck over the summer. Usually, I work every bit of summer school I […]
Guess Who’s Back
The perils of trusting TikTok I would love to say that the extended hiatus from the echo chamber that is my own voice being published semi-monthly has left me tamer. Or, that since exiting the whale of an industry that is hospitality back in the fall, I have found myself speaking with more optimism. A little over a month ago, I was promoted into a more behind-the-scenes role at the elementary school I work at. Fancy new title in hand, I spent my winter break decorating my new office and silently panicking that this was all a horrible joke at […]
In Memory and Reflection
A friend died this past week. She was a handful of years younger than me, and I’ve been struggling this past week with a lot of thoughts, emotions, and periods of emptiness related to her passing. The husband, daughter, family, and friends that she still has here have before them a long summer mourning her loss, and beginning to piece together their lives around the holes left behind. Her husband is the person I’ve known longer, and the cliché of a “kitchen family” is very apparent in the wake. Many of the people with whom I sweated and grinded in […]
Back to School
I took a month off from writing because honestly, my head has been in such a state of chaotic energy, that every time I would sit with my thoughts and try to compose anything resembling a coherent article, I would make it about five minutes before erasing my rambling with a fury. I am currently trying to resist said urge as I type this sentence. It has been an interesting month, both in terms of living in our continuing slow-motion collapse of our society, and in that I recently obtained a new position, in a specialty that is the opposite […]
Remembering Sunday
The worst part about adulthood is losing people you love, people of your own generation that are supposed to make it senility with you. While these deaths leave massive holes in our lives and our families, they are in the bluntest phrasing possible, part of the natural human lifecycle. I am talking about the sudden deaths of friends from childhood. Friends lost in the blink of an eye from events that we could not rationalize the how and the why they occurred. I am thirty-three years old and I have three tattoos on my body for friends that have left […]
Dancing Through Quarantine
I am overdue for a joyous article remarks just about everyone in my circle. I mean considering the fact that the last six months have been nothing but either candid thoughts on where we have erred in our handling of [insert national crisis of choice] or imploring us all to remember our empathy, I can see where they are coming from. If you do not know me personally, I am assuming that you think I am nothing more than a frustrated and beleaguered trans person simply trying to navigate having to work with the public and everything that comes with […]
Are You Surprised?
The first thought that rolled into my brain when I learned that Ted Cruz had fled a Texas that had become Arendelle after Elsa let it go, was “of course he did.” Because, to skip all of the introductory banter, of course he did. Of course, he left his state and his constituents to soak up the Mexican paradise, without the family dog. The dog and the security guard could keep each other warm as they watched the Cruz family drive away towards the airport, without a single empathetic thought amongst them. As the reports continued to air, and were […]
Not an Advocate, Just a Devil
Watching the snow peacefully falling outside of my window this morning was a peaceful respite from the angry and exhausting debating I have been doing via social media for much of the later part of this week. You see, if you have been residing in a communication-free bubble, you might be unaware, but President Biden (love being able to type that name after that title) officially rescinded the very discriminatory practices precluding trans Americans being able to serve both their country and live as their valid and authentic gender. As it is when any minority/marginalized group is thrust into the […]
After the Dust Has Settled
When I was seventeen, I had an experience while white-water rafting. A brush with drowning that left me showering facing away from the stream of water for a solid decade, and an uneasy reality that comes from learning that contrary to what you convince yourself, the horrible things that happen to strangers across the globe, can happen to you in an instant. An eventful fourteen years later, I find myself feeling very similar to how I did when I was plucked from the water, and able to take the first deep breath of just air, after gulping down more river […]
When We Meet Again
I hope that the next time you click on or pick up the publication that the air around all of us has changed. I hope that there is a definitive countdown on the end of our current dystopia, and a hopeful horizon inching towards us as we lean into the winter and January 2021. I hope that the pandemic that continues to inundate every facet of our society has suddenly shifted in trajectory to something we know we will triumph over, because we will soon have leadership that trusts science and rationale, and not literally a single person, thought or […]