On impulse buying and situational epiphanies — “Your car is huge,” they’d say. I grimace when they point it out. I’m a single person with a car for a family of seven. “Yeah, um, I got it for skiing.” I uncomfortably retort, making up the easiest excuse. …

When the world slowed down, I discovered who I really was — I remember exactly where I was when I saw the news that the Bay Area was going into the nation’s shelter-in-place order: sitting on my old antique couch in Los Angeles. As I watched the headlines scroll over my TV, I started to cry. I’m not exactly sure why the…

Our collective numbness is starting to thaw. Here’s how we can better cope. — We’ve spent nearly a year waiting for the pandemic to end. Waiting for transmission rates to go down, to be less anxious, to see family, to travel, to eat in a restaurant, to stop sanitizing every five minutes, to get back to our normal lives. …

He had my back when few others did — I grew up in a small suburb outside of Seattle, Washington. A painfully white place. My neighbors had the metaphorical white picket fence. The dad next door always wore his penny loafers when he mowed the lawn. There wasn’t a lot of Blackness where I come from. From a young…

Of course there was a risk, but for me it was worth it — The Pandemic Dating Diaries is a series from The Bold Italic featuring moments in love, dating, and sex during the Covid-19 pandemic. Have a story you’d like to submit? Email us or DM us on Twitter or Instagram. I remember the first night I held Anthony in my arms, the…

The unsung heroes of 2020 need a major raise — I’m met with a series of incredulous looks every time I tell someone, “I teach wilderness and outdoor education… on Zoom.” It can be done, dear readers, but it’s hard to pull off. Just yesterday I sent my students away from their screens on a 45-minute bird-watching expedition — just…

You probably don’t want to find out firsthand — On the sunny side of the bay, flocking to Lake Merritt to bask on its grassy shores is a weekend ritual that Oaklanders live for. Even on the hottest days we’ve recently endured, though, you won’t see anyone dare to dip into the water itself. …

This is what’s at stake for my communities this Election Day. — Dear voters, I’m sitting in my bed, propped up by an angular wedge-shaped pillow. My eyes are tired and my left pectoral muscle is sore and bruised to a light green shade that’s turning somewhat black. I had a double mastectomy last week. “Did I have cancer?” you may wonder…

Coming out is constant, fluid, beautiful, and tiresome — Coming up on one year ago, I came out of the closet publicly here on Medium as bisexual. I thought, in that moment, the hardest part was over. …