Blog
The Best Books I Read in 2023
Well, the time has come yet again, to rank the top books I read in the past year. This is the third installment of my best books series (fourth if you include the LGBTQ+ ranking I did for Pride 2022), and with each subsequent year, I feel as though my love of literature only grows stronger. I’m no longer tracking my reading on Goodreads (that got a bit competitive so I deleted the app with the rest of my socials eight months ago), so I don’t know the exact number of books I read, but between two hours of fiction reading in the evening and an hour of nonfiction every
A Few Big Changes This Winter
It’s that time of the year again. The days are getting shorter and colder, Christmas music is playing everywhere, and the cacophonous leaf blowing that dominated the last two months has finally fallen silent. This winter feels very different than winters past. For starters, this is the first year my family isn’t doing anything special for the holidays. Growing up, holidays were a huge deal in my house, and I always eagerly anticipated the traditions and piled-high presents that defined Christmases in my youth. Especially when I was struggling with my mental health, Christmas was placed on a pedestal, the one time of the year when I might find some reprieve
Frack No: Inside My First Environmental Protest
I arrived early and made my way over to the small group of people who had gathered behind the Hartford Capitol. Although the day had been unseasonably warm, the sun had begun to set, and the temperature had plummeted to the low forties. My mom had come with me, and we were each given a sign. PIPELINES ARE OUT; CLEAN OIL IS IN, mine read. My mom’s simply said: #ENDENBRIDGE Enbridge is a large Canadian energy company with fossil fuel infrastructure throughout the United States. Recently, the company proposed substantial upgrades to its Algonquin Gas Transmission line, a fracked gas pipeline that runs from New Jersey, through New York, Connecticut,
The Best Books I Read in 2022
Well, the official tally is in, and according to my Goodreads bookshelf, I read 70 books this year! Considering I only just got back into reading regularly in 2021, I’m pretty pleased with that number—and I’m even more pleased with the fact that I’ve rekindled my love of reading after straying from it in high school. Check out my previous top reads list for why that happened. While the majority of the reading I did in 2022 was for pleasure, a smaller percentage of it served as research for a climate change-themed young adult novel that is currently out on submission. I’ve become very interested in environmentalism and sustainable living
Overcoming Seasonal Depression and Rediscovering My Love of Fall
For many of us, fall symbolizes a time of change and letting go. For me, however, fall has historically conjured up intense feelings of sadness and stuckness. Every year for the last decade, when the days began to get shorter and the first hint of color appeared on the leaves, I’d feel a drastic dip in my mood and energy level. Getting out of bed in the morning would become increasingly difficult, and I’d have to rely on my lightbox and antidepressants simply to muddle through each monotonous day. I also experienced quite a few unsettling memories from past falls, whether I was in eighth grade, spiraling into the unforgiving
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, and a Giant Leap Out of My Comfort Zone
Over the past several years, but especially in recent months, my life has been one, in the words of my therapist, AFGO (another f-ing growth opportunity) after another. While this constant change has felt utterly exhausting at times, it has taught me a lot about myself, what matters to me, and what I want to make of my impermanent time on Earth. Since the early days of my recovery, I’ve always felt that I had a good sense of who I was. Amid the various experiences I’ve had and the transformations I’ve undergone this year, I feel like I’ve refined that “sense” into the most authentic version of me to