Getting paid to do what you love is one of the world?s greatest things, but this column has been so much more than a side job for me these past seven years. This column is the space where I have refined my worldview, processed the shift from high school to college, spoken out about rape and patriarchy, complained about Internet […]

While my fellow college seniors are frantically preparing portfolios and working on research presentations, I?m successfully ignoring everything school-related and, instead, frantically learning to carry out the tasks 826Chicago?s new commu?ni?cations coordinator might be doing. Yes! It?s true! Maybe you?ve heard?826CHI, the location of my internship (and subject of much gushing on my part) has hired me as an actual […]

On Oct. 7, I got to be part of the 2012 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. By ?part of the marathon? I mean that in less of a ?I ran 26.2 miles? sort of way and more like, ?While my marathoning boy?friend and 44,999 others ran 26.2 miles, I chased them all over Chicago in 40-degree weather and it was […]

Two weeks into this school year feels a little too soon to have a firm grasp on how things are going to pan out. I?m still getting settled into my new apartment with my new roommates, still trying to fall into a rhythm with my classes, and still a little antsy about starting at 826CHI. I sure as heck can […]

I?m feeling fairly panicked as I write this because the digital clock on my computer reading 11:59 has just clicked over to midnight. It is now Monday, Aug 27. It?s officially time to bite my fingernails, grind my teeth, and fight the urge to procrastinate every task, ever. I will soon be hurtling at light speed toward The Great Unknown: […]

?The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.? I came across this quote by Friedrich Nietzsche last semester when I was browsing the Internet, probably procrastinating on […]

I try not to be a troll. I mean, I bathe regularly and keep my toenails short, and my nose isn?t that hideous. I also don?t spend my free time guarding bridges. Additionally, I try really, really hard not to be an Internet troll. Even if the term is unfamiliar, the concept probably isn?t: trolls are people who feel the […]

Once summer ends, I will begin my final year of college. This makes me feel kind of old. At different stages of my life, always from a non-senior-in-college?s viewpoint, the seniors-in-college have seemed so put together and so, so very much older than I feel right now. This makes me think the world must be totally changing so that each […]

As some of you may know from reading my column, I was raped in Febru?ary 2010. In case you didn?t know that, I?m sincerely sorry for dropping such heavy news out of nowhere. For the Creative Writing Non-Fiction class in which I?m currently enrolled, I wrote a short memoir?that is, a personal essay focusing on a specific memory. Without hesitation, […]

It was my first ?big girl? apartment, my first summer in Chicago, and my first night at home without my roommates. I was sitting on my bed watching ?Weeds? on Netflix when, out of the corner of my eye, I detected a small movement. I managed to turn my attention from Nancy Botwin?s dramatic, suburban-drug-dealer life and fixed my eyes […]