I'm free. Free from MLM group invites from my cousin's best friend who just won't take a hint, free from an algorithm that imposes a biased-looped-echo chamber on its users, free from doomscrolling, and free from engaging in a platform that encourages the worst in humanity, free from my part in all of this.

I am free, free, free, and free at last after nearly fourteen years of being a member.

Overkill much? Not quite. I am overjoyed with the fact that I don't have to see what my first crush from elementary school is up to or the QAnon…

Last year was the year I reached a boiling point. I finally became fed up. Fed up with my job in marketing, my capricious-micromanaging-boss, the tasks and high-pressure nature of the job, and the toxic environment in which I was expected to perform in, never mind succeed in.

I spent most days in tears. I wasn't doing what I wanted to do. My talents felt wasted as I neared burnout for the second time in a year. The pressure amounted to a near-impossible situation that was suffocating my mental health.

I needed a change, and I needed one fast. Marketing…

Most people right now are contemplating their resolutions for 2021. Losing that quarantine weight, hitting the gyms (once they reopen), drinking less alcohol, meditating every day, reaching zen, running a four-minute mile, etc. While that's all nice and dandy, let's face it, resolutions are made in an inspired moment while anticipating that shiny blank slate the new year brings with it. With over 80% of resolutions failing each year, why choose a practice that doesn't stick?

You know what does stick with you all 365 days of the year, little to no effort required? Your past and your lessons learned…

And we thought nothing could top the hot mess that's been 2020. If we are to listen to French philosopher Nostradamus' predictions from almost five hundred years ago, then we are in for quite the ride.

Nostradamus was and remains a man of mystique. After training to be a physician and even partaking in fighting off the black plague in the 1500s, he turned to the stars as a way to prophesize the future. In 1555 Nostradamus published the legendary “Les Prophèties,” or in plain English “The Prophets,” a book containing over 942 poetic quatrains telling of disasters of yet…

As a young Texan who moved to Norway, I faced a lot of challenges; learning a new language, acclimating to a new culture and four-season climate, trying to fit in with my new blonde-haired blue-eyed peers, and also trying not to roll my eyes every time someone asked if I used to ride my horse to school back home in the wild west. To which I would reply “Do you ski to school?” and was disappointed when sometimes the answer was yes.

But, the thing that took the most getting used to was witnessing my beloved homeland become synonymous with…

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

My pulse drowned out the busy Saturday afternoon street around me. All I could hear were the sounds of my own chest: shallow breaths and thunderous heartbeats.

I dabbed my forehead and took a quick look around at the people bustling around me to see if anyone had noticed the sweat streaming down my face or the tears welling up in my eyes. With a sense of relief that my panic had gone seemingly unnoticed, I edged to the side of the sidewalk and leaned against a building two blocks away from my apartment.

Anxiety stormed…

I realized something was amiss after returning home from a drive one day five years ago. Still shaking and with my heart pounding in my chest as I walked through my front door, I couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened.

Although I'm usually a careful driver, I was lost in my own mind, and I took a wrong turn at a stoplight into oncoming traffic. I didn't even realize what had happened until I heard the swarm of honks from angry drivers around me.

It scared me. I had managed to escape unscathed from the situation, but the…

My best friend dumped me without warning and without explanation, a month after a heartbreaking split with my ex-boyfriend. Two of the most important people in my life were gone in the span of a few weeks.

To say I was crushed is an understatement.

Just days before she dropped off the face of the Earth, we met for a walk through a nearby park and grabbed brunch at a corner café on what was probably the grayest and rainiest June days in recent memory.

Things were like they always were. We gabbed. We gossiped. …