We'reOkay

It is SO hard "adulting".  Life pops up in numerous, challenging ways. And then there are also distractions. For whatever reason, recently I have been plagued with distractions. I have been having so much fun with my girlfriends every week, WITH. OUT. FAIL. From Wednesday through Sunday, it seems like life is just one big party. Maybe I have been going out so much recently because for the past two years, I did not really enjoy myself like I wanted to. Regardless, what is becoming increasingly apparent now is that I need balance.  In the quiet moments of my life, when I analyze all of the dates I have gone on, or when I process all of the parties I go to, all of the questionable choices I make-- I ask myself: "What is my destination"? When I deviate from focusing on school or from even going to the gym for long enough, the answer to that question becomes blurry. I can often become filled with doubt or anxiety as I find myself anywhere but grounded. Additionall

There is always one person in your life that just might walk right out of it. This person may be your significant other or maybe even your best friend. Maybe you'll see it coming, maybe you won't. Someone once told me that "you will never experience pain than when you lose a best friend." This is something I can relate to because one of my closest friends left my life a few months ago without any explanation. But I also saw it coming in certain ways. I'm not going to name names but I will definitely explain the experience. It all happened in August right before school started. For a couple of months, I had been feeling that we had been growing apart and we were talking to each other less. From what I can remember I was slowly realizing that I was not getting invited to things and I would feel left out when I was around her. I had known this girl my WHOLE life and we talked about EVERYTHING together, which is why when things started to change it felt like a cult

Hate.  I have struggled often with the word in the last decade or so of my life: I remember being 11 years old and encountering hate in my heart for the first time. Even then, I did not like it. I saw it as a consuming, angry passion that drove you to say and do things that you might mean, but ultimately probably should not have acted upon. I still see hate that way. As an Urban Studies major in college, I recognized hate as the impetus or underlying foundation for many of the upsetting social issues I studied and would never, ever like to understand. I adamantly stand against any forms of hate and bigotry which seek to hurt people as a means of attempting to lessen another's position in the world. Hate is divisive and destructive in more ways than one. There are many forms of hate, as there are love. I think about people who have been hurt by others in the vilest of ways -- mothers and fathers whose children were taken by negligent individuals, women and men who were taken