Category: Emotional Health

Seeing Myself Through My Own Eyes

Carly Zee

Fatty, fatty two by four, can’t fit through the kitchen door. Their names and faces are lost in history, but their words remain my constant truth. School yard chant buried deep under my skin, wrapped around my heart, that creeps through my brain, popping up like a boogey monster whenever Read more

My Insane Relationship with a Rapist

S. P. Owen

Ashamed to admit it, yet it is the truth, I slept with my rapist several times after he raped me on two separate occasions. The first rape happened in NYC during a photo test shoot soon after I arrived to begin my modeling career. I was 20-years-young, full of hope Read more

I Have Three Children

Kimberly Brown

The question I dread the most as a grieving mother is; “How many children do you have?” It’s not that I don’t know how to answer, it is all the questions that follow. I’m immediately forced to decide whether or not I want to reveal more intimate information than the Read more

Arsonist

Paakhi Bhatnagar

I see a corridor and I see it with all its edges. I throw a burning ember on the wooden floor and the mustard wallpaper suddenly shudders; the shroud that left my room uncovered now melts and slithers into my mouth. It soaks into my throat and curls into my Read more

Laughing with the Sinners: My Life as a Jehovah’s Witness

Dave Pasquel

By the world’s standards, I was a good kid: I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, I didn’t do drugs, and I didn’t get into trouble with the law. In fact, I was so squeaky-clean I was still a virgin. Without delay, however, I was counseled by church elders and advised I wasn’t a good kid by Jehovah’s Witnesses standards: I had shoulder-length hair, I attended rock concerts, I had worldly girlfriends, and I possessed a questionable record collection that included music by Stevie Nicks and Led Zeppelin.