When I w as a kid, I had no idea what was normal and what wasn’t. No, that’s not right. I knew that my family was not like others, but I didn’t know why. It’s easy to see in retrospect that it’s cultural, but how was I to know that at the time? When you’re… Continue Reading
A few months before my medical trauma, I was pondering my gender. I haven’t felt like a woman in ages, but I’m pretty sure I am not nonbinary, either. I am definitely not a man–that’s the only thing I can say with confidence. I’ve been told I’m not a woman all my life, so at… Continue Reading
For the first fifty years of my life (everything other than this year, in other words), I was an anxious person. Taiji helped mitigate it somewhat, but it was still always there. I come by it honestly. My mom is a highly-anxious person, and when I try to address it with her, she has a… Continue Reading
I’m a mass of contradictions. I’m a creative person who is mostly emotional, rather than rational. At least when I first think about things. I’m a right-brain person through and through. However, when I actually think about a situation that needs a solution, I can do that as well. I don’t like to think logically,… Continue Reading
I have had a terribly low self-esteem all my life. I come by it honestly as I’m from a culture that eschews saying anything positive about yourself or loved ones. It’s partly to ward off bad spirits, but it’s mostly just being assholes. That’s not true or fair, but it’s how I felt at the… Continue Reading
I know that I’m charismatic and that people are drawn to me. Not everyone. I’m not for people who are pragmatic and non-emotional. Except my brother, and that’s partly because I can explain people to him. But for others who have no need of this, I can probably appear to be pure emotions. That must… Continue Reading
I taught myself to read when I was four. Even before that, though, I was enamored with writing. My mom likes to tell the story of how I would ‘read’ the newspaper when I was two–while holding it upside down. I knew how to read by the time I went to school, and I was… Continue Reading
I hate heat. I hate it so much. I live in Minnesota, which is known for its cold and snow, but our dirty little secret is that we have one or two really hot weeks every summer. Like over 100 degrees hot. Like, I am sitting in front of my fan with my AC going… Continue Reading
Let’s talk about music. Why? Because it’s my blog, and I’ll talk about whatever I want. In this case, it’s music. Why? because why not? I have terrible taste in music, which I will cheerfully admit at the drop of a hat. It flummoxes people, actually. They’ll tell me I have terrible taste in music… Continue Reading
I’m weird. I have known this since I was a young kid, but back then, I thought there was something wrong with me. Why couldn’t I just be like everyone else? It wasn’t just a little bit different or in a few ways–it was in nearly every way. I read all the time, which many… Continue Reading