Ideas, once inked in permanence, are now buried beneath an ever-growing, pixelated timeline. (Is it so much different than having them closed between bound pages and set up on rarely visited bookshelf, the stacks in the library surrounded by thin carpet tread upon no longer?) They are suffering silent agony in the bottom of a… Continue reading Penned Out
Category: Essay
Radical Writing Mantra
Plunge beyond the blue yonder. Sail high. Shoot visible tingles out of your fingernails. Explain an event. Order disorder. Keep the details to a minimum. Do not provide a frozen description or a still life. Provide action. Zoom in while walking backward. Invent the compression shot on paper. Purger thyself.
Askers and Tellers
A thought on verbal conversation. It is a noticeable aspect in conversation that when one party offers a piece of information the other party will either respond with an inquisition about said tidbit of personal data or reply with tangential information from their own experience. Reflection on exchanges where one type of response outweighs the… Continue reading Askers and Tellers
Depressive Tempests
“The madness of depression is, generally speaking, the antithesis of violence. It is a storm indeed, but a storm of murk.” - William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness It is never so simple to say, “listen here, this is an exact depiction of mental illness,” as is it not simply the case in… Continue reading Depressive Tempests
Sixth Floor Paradise
After ascending a slew of concrete stairs, you reach this door. Throw your shoulder into it or else you won’t get it open. Once you do, though, you step through this threshold that separates the desolation of the staircase column from a plateau of peacefulness. You could turn to the right and trot into the… Continue reading Sixth Floor Paradise
You Better Run
When you go for long runs, moments become monumental. After a while, you finally hit that temperature when the pores on the crown of your head open like infants’ eyes, oozing the byproduct of your stamping feet’s toil. Their opening is the moment you desire from the time you take your first stride. Hammering the… Continue reading You Better Run
Stigmas, Silence, and Schooling
After almost nine years, I still cannot get a clear sense of what happened during the months that followed my high school graduation. The diagnosis that has become a descriptor of my identity fogs up the lenses of self-retrospection. Concepts like failure, accomplishment, becoming well-adjusted, figuring out the next steps in life, getting knocked down… Continue reading Stigmas, Silence, and Schooling
The Pebble Drop
I am bipolar. Not like in the slang sense of the word. Not like just on bad days. Not like how people describe random eruptions of anger. Not like what you hear in that Katy Perry song. I have credentials. After I got my diagnosis, my father used to explain having a mental illness as… Continue reading The Pebble Drop
Icy Wind
Reader, I wrote this a little over 10 years ago. I was in my junior year of high school. Reading it now makes me smile, cringe, laugh, and wonder - simultaneously. I know it was only ever shared with one other person, who was also from "this little town in this little state," so now,… Continue reading Icy Wind
Romantically-Inclined Commuters
Public transportation, while physically wall-less and barrier-free, will agonize one’s sense of stability within their social world. To experience this sensation to the fullest extent, it is recommended for one to use public transportation at least twice a day and a minimum of five days a week. Travel alone for maximum observation time and tend… Continue reading Romantically-Inclined Commuters
A Quick Introduction
It was recently suggested that I begin blogging. Two of my closest friends used to josh by saying that they had me pegged as one who would have a blog, which had not been the case until now. So here I am, typing for whomever to see. I used to be an avid writer of… Continue reading A Quick Introduction
Sophisticating the Rudimentary 