“I just give myself permission to suck…I find this hugely liberating.”—author John Green I'd like to formally apologize to everyone I know, or interact with these days. Why? Because I feel like I've been operating at about 50-60% capacity for the past two years, and I know I'm not at my best. In fact, some … Continue reading The COVID Diaries: The Adults Aren’t Alright
Tag: mental health
The COVID Diaries: Russian Roulette
Click. My heart thuds in my chest. Click. I start to sweat. Click. My mind twirls around like a tornado. And then I wait for the next click that is surely meant for me. I lie in bed, insomnia gripping me and I can’t help but go down the rabbit hole of news article after … Continue reading The COVID Diaries: Russian Roulette
The COVID Diaries: One Month In
Here I am—one month into quarantine and a global pandemic and social distancing and a whole new reality. Here I am in the raw. My face is pink from three hours in the glorious spring sunshine that my body was not at all prepared for. My eyes look tired from the restless sleeps I’ve had … Continue reading The COVID Diaries: One Month In
The COVID Diaries: Puzzled
The other night I stayed up way past my bedtime looking for the edge piece of a puzzle. I'd decided to pull down our specially reserved brand spanking new Jan van Haasteren puzzle—the only type of puzzle Zeke will do—because desperate times call for desperate measures. We normally only puzzle in the summer on vacation … Continue reading The COVID Diaries: Puzzled
Empathy and the modern world
I'll never forget the day I went to see Saving Private Ryan with a bunch of my high school friends. I walked out of the theatre feeling like I'd been through emotional boot camp. I felt a dark and forbidding cloud hang over me for the next week. I didn't want to look at people, talk … Continue reading Empathy and the modern world
On climbing and anxiety
My heart thuds in my chest so hard that I'm sure I'm having a heart attack. I gasp for air and each breath is short and unsatisfying. Everything closes in around me and every muscle tenses. It's at this point I either freak out completely or I talk myself off the ledge. When it happened … Continue reading On climbing and anxiety