Point of View

For the first time in my life, I am in a world without the routine and rigidity of academia. And I'm terrified.

For the first time in my life, I am in a world without the routine and rigidity of academia. And I’m terrified.

I believed after college was when my life would truly begin. That’s when I’d get a well paid job in a big city. That’s when I’d transition from barely functioning human into fully fledged adult. That’s when I’d become the kind of person who enjoys exercise, eating vegetables, and doing…

"If there's one lesson I've learned I know I can tell you all, it's this: self loathing gets old after a while. There are better people to hate. And after a while, it gets dull being the only person standing in your way. Right now I'm learning to get out of my own."

Hello everyone! I’m baaaack!

After a few months of haunting, soul-baring posts, I took a hiatus. Because frankly, I too was emotionally exhausted by reading me.

I felt like I said everything I needed to say with that format. And to go on would be equal to public self flagellation.

Recently, my brain’s got the itch again. But I wanted things to be different this time.

So here’s my promise of a…

Here we are again: the dead time. Biting cold, steel grey skies, and skeletal trees. The whole world seems to have gone quiet and still.

Yet we trudge on. Through the darkness, though our bodies beg for rest. You’re not broken if this season leaves you complacent.

Perhaps you don’t recognize where you are now, or you’re unsure of where you’re supposed to be. Perhaps you feel stuck, lost,…

From the time I was 14 years old, I’ve dreaded the holidays. Divorce turns a time of joy into political war: whomever spends Christmas with the kids wins, and the loser spends it alone. Although the toxic dynamic has dimmed with time, my distaste remains: as chimeras of Christmas past appear in my mind with cyclical glee.

But I’m not supposed to be sad on Christmas, right? Every holiday song I…

I am much more than you think I am.

More than the brown of my body, and the scorches of my skin.

More than the moving curves of my thighs, and the shape of my breasts, belly, and hind.

More than the hair on my head, curls of charcoal that leave my elbows tingling.

More than the flicker in my eyes, and the crackle in my smile,

the snap in my throat or the sputter in my back,

the spark in my kiss or…

Dear Jo: Feelings for a Friend

Dear Jo,

I have feelings for a guy who has been in a relationship with someone else for a long time. However, I hangout with him a lot and sometimes think deep down he may feel the same way about me. We would consider each other pretty close friends. Whenever I see this guy and his girlfriend together, their relationship doesn’t make sense. It’s almost like it’s stagnant. Should I tell this guy…

"Rick & Morty is popular because it demonstrates a cultural mythology that is all too real. That there is a thing such as a multiverse, that we all have access to with portal guns of our very own. "

Rick & Morty, the premiere goofily nihilistic adult cartoon has invaded popular culture like a plague. The show follows Rick, a mad scientist type and self-proclaimed smartest man in the universe, and his adventures with his stupid grandson, Morty. Rick’s claim to genius is typified in the teleportation gun he invented, that enables him to travel through space and time at will to multiple…

Dear Jo: Doing it all

Dear Jo,

How do you balance everything—work, school, social life, etc.?

Sincerely,

Doing-it-all

  Dear Doing-it-all,

The short answer is…you don’t; but, there’s more to it than that.

All your life before college, you might’ve had someone telling you where to go, what to do and maybe even what to wear. With little agency, you only dreamt of your future in the abstract.

Now, you’re on your own.…

Dear Jo: Depth Over Distance

Dear Jo,

I am in a long distance relationship. My boyfriend and I have been dating for a long time (starting back in high school), and we are very happy. However, we go to colleges several hours away from each other. In fact, we are even in different time zones. We are not able to visit each other almost ever during the school year, and I know not seeing each other is a huge stress on our…

Dear Jo: ASK ME QUESTIONS

ATTENTION former, current, and upcoming UT students: I am starting an advice column, and I want YOU to ask ME QUESTIONS! It’s my fifth and final year at UT, and I have become old and wisened as an owl; thus, I promise to share my knowledge with both humor and grace! Share to spread the word!

To submit your questions: https://goo.gl/…

Hello again; this month for my blog I got a little zany but mostly true. Check it out!

(Reimagining of a sunset from a family weekend: 03/17/18) There is a place that I have found myself in time and time again, that I am just now becoming comfortable inhabiting. It is a space you cannot locate on a map, nor give anyone directions to find it; it is one of those locations that you only know when you’re there. It is the beat between steps, events, thoughts, and breaths. It is ever…

Musings on dating in the digital world

(above) Her: Spike Jonze, 2013 The Lovers (IV): Rene Magritte, 1928 Dating: a term that strikes dread in the heart of any millennial. Although we live in a time when we are more connected than ever, it also ironically often leaves us disconnected and alone, watching the world pass us by behind our glass screens. Walk on any college campus, and you’ll see thousands of youth walking in herds, with…

The Therapeutist: Rene Magritte, 1937 Hello friend! I want to create an internet environment that feels more like a conversation than a monologue. So, this is a link to a form is an opportunity for you to anonymously ask me about anything you may desire; stressful situations, interesting topics, comments on life in general, I am here for it all. Send me whatever is on your heart, and I will write…

Girl Before A mirror: Pablo Picasso, 1903 I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever you see I swallow immediately just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful– the eye of a little god, four-cornered. Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long. I think it is a part of my heart. But it…

That our 1st kiss was 3 months after the 1st time I tried to take my life was no coincidence.

But though you set me on fire;

afterwards you left me for dead, alone in the snow.

That winter I wrote for hours about you daily, hands rubbing raw, desperate to understand the scribbles of my heart.

I thought this was a sign of my sick mind; that I wrote about you until the pages bled.

But every birth begins in blood.

And coming to terms with our end was how I was able to begin again.