The Night the Lights Went out in Erseke

Late one evening in the fall of 2021, I lay doubled over with stomach pain in the back of a nice black car belonging to a Nigerian-British solicitor (the UK’s equivalent of a US attorney), on the way to Queen’s hospital in Rainham, Essex. In that moment I thought to myself “In the movie version

The Covid Connections

Getting to video chat one-on-one with people from all over the world was an experience I’ll not soon forget. I moved out of China in March 2020, one month after Covid struck there, and until early 2022 my only source of income was part time freelance English teaching online. This unique period of time allowed

Eunuchs, the Bible, and Transgender People

In state legislatures across the country, anti-trans bills are at an all-time high. This is thanks to an unprecedented high in anti-trans rhetoric, hysteria, and misinformation being spread intentionally by far right-wing media. This is very personal for me, since people I know and love are painfully affected by this wave of anti-trans sentiment and

Confessions of a Former Homeschooler

K-12. All the way. The only in-person class I ever took was drivers’ ed. That was fun. I got to sit at a desk. This was not an easy article to write. It’s why I haven’t published any other content on this blog for months. I’ve been on a full writing hiatus/freeze, emotionally trying to

How Horrible are the Elsie Dinsmore Books?

They need to be taken out of print immediately. The behavior of these adults is not portrayed as villainish, and that’s a huge problem. This stuff is normalized, not presented as a tragic backstory or obstacle to overcome. Children’s stories, from Harry Potter to Cinderella to A Series of Unfortunate Events, but especially Victorian literature,

No “They”, Only “We”

There is no default kind of human being! There is so much freedom in not seeing yourself or people like you as the standard norm for society. This “one of the bunch” mentality unlocks something more refreshing and rewarding even than superiority. You are not interesting or worthy because you’re the right kind of person,

Being Alone

Being alone is hard, worth it, draining, empowering, and lethal to overdose on. Do it, learn to enjoy it, do it often, and know when to quit. It’s more than just taking yourself out to eat or on a solo vacation. It’s watching major life moments – the happy ones – happen in front of

When to Step Away

Not every close relationship needs to – or can – stay close forever.. Some relationships reach a place where they should no longer be at all, at least for the foreseeable future. And some just need to hit the snooze button for a while. There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every

Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe is mesmerizing. It’s a lush, occasionally brutal, attention-grabbing, and deeply personal, masterpiece. We see a woman who for the most of her life has lived in the absence of love and therefore wants the next best thing: to be left alone. Her magic is chiefly used to this end. She despises power games and

Abel’s Abuse: Reading the Roadmap of Violence

“Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It’s a strange feeling. You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either hate them or love them, but that’s not how