As a kid, I didn’t like school or church, but my discomfort wasn’t enough to get me out of them—I had to prove I was sick. One day, I faked it, or at least I thought I did. Then, to my own surprise, I actually was sick. What followed was a disorienting blur of medical exams, loss of control, and realizing that even I wasn’t sure when my body was telling the truth.

Americans are often viewed as confident, individualistic, and deeply patriotic—sometimes to the point of delusion. While admired for their innovation and resilience, they are also criticized for their workaholism, lack of global awareness, and obsession with personal freedom at the expense of collective well-being. This piece explores how other countries perceive Americans and the blind spots Americans may not realize they have.

Feeling present can sometimes feel like being on live TV with no script—hyper-aware yet unsure of what to do. It’s not about being judged but about the sheer weight of existing in real time. This piece explores the discomfort of presence and how to navigate the strange pressure of simply being.

Feeling stuck in your own mind, caught in loops of thought that won’t let go, can be frustrating and exhausting. When the only thing that seems to help is talking to AI, it raises unsettling questions about connection, reality, and what it takes to find relief.

Storytelling has evolved dramatically in the last three decades, shifting from clear-cut heroes and episodic narratives to morally ambiguous characters, serialized long-form storytelling, and genre-bending experimentation. As audiences have grown more media-literate, storytelling has become riskier, more inclusive, and increasingly open-ended, challenging past conventions rather than simply repeating them.

If you’ve ever felt like no one could feel lust for you, you’re not alone—but that belief isn’t truth, it’s conditioning. Attraction isn’t a formula, and people are drawn to far more than cultural beauty standards suggest. What if the issue isn’t your body, but the way you’ve learned to see it?

If you grew up in evangelical purity culture during the ‘80s and ‘90s, you were given a strict blueprint for romance and marriage—one that emphasized purity, gender roles, and the idea of a "God-ordained" soulmate. But as culture has evolved, many of those teachings have been challenged, reshaped, or outright abandoned. This post unpacks what you were taught, what we now understand, and how relationships are approached differently today.

As relationships deepen and become more real, the safety that should feel comforting can sometimes feel unsettling. If you’ve spent years tracking others for potential harm or disconnection, genuine security might trigger a sense of waiting for something to go wrong. It can also be disorienting when you’re no longer the one driving emotional growth in your relationships—when others start meeting you in vulnerability without you having to push for it. If your nervous system isn’t used to resting in connection, the shift can feel like losing control.

The fusion of capitalism and Christian work ethics has long shaped labor expectations for lower-income workers, reinforcing narratives of hard work as virtue while discouraging systemic change. From the Protestant work ethic to modern-day opposition to unions and welfare, white upper-class Christians have used religious morality to justify economic hierarchies. This article unpacks how these forces intersect and continue to influence labor, wealth, and social policies.

The cultural landscape I was raised in—Midwestern Evangelical purity culture, elder millennial disillusionment, and the transition from a rigid to a fluid world—created the perfect storm for depersonalization. From being taught to distrust my body to witnessing the collapse of societal promises, my sense of self was conditioned to feel fragmented. Understanding how these generational forces contributed to my experience has helped me step out of panic and toward reconnection.