Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, or boast, or follow the exact schedule you planned. Love is messy, love is...

Lying in a steaming bath-tub, water lapped against my naked body. The pressure of the clear liquid surrounding me made the bruises on my...

Quirky and awkward. That’s how most people saw me in middle school and high school. I was the big kid with clumsiness in his DNA...

Every morning, I had to draw from what motivational reserves I had left to get through the day because I felt that just breathing was...

I, on the other hand, was stubborn and lacked religious devotion, putting a gulf between me and my parents where I never felt as close...

While many women in their 20s were enjoying college life, my mom was trying to keep up with her classes and work two jobs all while she...

My grandma remembers coming over and noticing how pale and sickly I looked as a baby. She would ask my mom, “Aren’t you going to feed her...

When people look at me, they see a happy woman, slow to take and quick to give. What they don’t know is the harsh truth under this smile...

I pried my eyes away from the TV screen to look out the window, to the trees, to the sunlight…to that strange world out there that gave...

Growing up I was as happy as a child should be. We lived in this huge empty neighborhood with only a few houses, so we had a lot of room...

Though the city was tinged with gang violence, I roamed the neighborhoods without fear; a free-spirited soul I was. After playing outside...

As a child, it seemed like the world around me inspired the power of creativity flowing into my hungry, curious mind. Filled with...

When I was born, I was assigned male. I grew up in a conservative, Christian suburb of Chicago, Illinois in the 1970s. In those Triassic...

I had a very cheerful childhood—at least until I turned four. That was when my parents got divorced. Studies say that people often don’t...

I was a “surprise” to my parents because they were already in their mid-40s when I came along. My two brothers were much older than me...

They were highly skilled musicians, but unfortunately, our family was very poor because neither of my parents made much at their teaching...

For the first 16 years of my life, I never had the courage to stand up for myself. I let people walk all over me. I was meek and lived...

I’ve lived a life of self-reliance and I believe that there are times in which this is our only choice. But if you have the chance...

In my early 20s, I lost a big part of myself. The person who I used to be was being smothered by grief and guilt. The things I once...

But thoughts of death don’t just go away. They linger like the plague. They interject themselves at every turn and persuade you that life...