I hate the word “grief.” What is it supposed to mean? Am I meant to be crying every single day, an uncontrollable emotional mess, angry at the world? Grief carries a pressure to mourn in a “correct” way. Immediately after my Dad’s death, I felt absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. No intense sadness or anger. […]
“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” These words are spoken by John Keating, an unorthodox English teacher, in the 1989 film “Dead Poets Society.” At my dad’s recommendation, I watched it for the first time in the fall of my junior year of high school. It was the best and worst […]
I grew up as a fan of the Miami Dolphins. It was a hard team to cheer for. We haven’t won a playoff game in my entire life and have rarely come close to making them at all. The thing about cheering for a team that’s undergoing a perpetual “rebuild” is that all eyes and […]
1. INT. ADAMS HOUSE LAUNDRY ROOM – NIGHT The newly renovated Adams House laundry room. It sits empty in all its fluorescent, cluttered beauty. We are well into the witching hour. SEXY FUTURE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER enters the laundry room and begins to switch her laundry from the washer to the dryer. Shortly after, MALE […]
When the news first broke out, women all over the world stopped in disbelief. For the very first time, Willy Wank-a was opening the gates to his world-famous Rose Toy factory. 30 years after the creation of the life-changing sex toy, Rose Toy fanatics would now be able to see the production process and meet […]
I received my absentee ballot back in early October. I filled out most of it without hesitation. The School Board race was a no-brainer—“Jeff” was my mom’s friend. For the U.S. House, I picked the incumbent who had served my community for 15 years—“Mike.” But not all of my choices were this simple. I left […]
So. I’ve been feeling a little bit off-kilter lately, and with the perfectly-timed Weed Issue of the Independent, I have decided that this is the perfect excuse to engage in my favorite form of catharsis: writing while high off my ass. This week, I plan to get high and write every single night. (Okay, so […]
Editors’ note: this narrative contains graphic depictions of suicide and self-harm that could be triggering for some individuals. If you are having thoughts of suicide, or are concerned that someone you know may be, please reach out to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, or text HOME to 741741 for support. […]
Trigger warning: mentions of suicide. We remember hospitals to be quieter than they truly are. Their hallways form “private rooms:” large spaces partitioned by sheets of blue instead of walls, so that while a patient might not see anything around them, they hear everything. Footsteps reverberate off the tiled floor while noise grows and fades […]
By the time Valentine’s Day rolled around, there were no anonymous notes slipped under my door and no bouquet of roses from a secret admirer. It seemed there was only one plausible solution to save my first Valentine’s Day at Harvard: Datamatch. Datamatch is a Harvard-invented matchmaking service. It started as a solution to Harvard […]
