It was just a kiss.
When I was nineteen, I went on my first date. I was a late bloomer in some ways and even then, romance felt foreign and weird, something I didn’t want to be doing. I had dinner twice with the guy and then called it off. I barely wanted to hug him. We walked two feet apart from each other and I was deeply uncomfortable. Though we had been good friends, dating felt wrong and we never kissed.
Six months later, one of my closest friends texted me I was really important to him, we walked back from a cat cafe…
Answers to your burning questions.
June is Pride Month. It’s also my first Pride Month since coming out online. I’ve always been out to friends and family, but for some reason I never felt confident enough to talk about it to millions of strangers. Now, not only am I out and proud, but I was just recognized as an Out Leader in National Security.
In honor of that honor and just the general honor it is to represent the LGBTQ+ community, here are your burning questions about being asexual answered.
Do asexual people have sex?
Many asexual people do. Many don’t. (This is true of straight people too by the…
African Americans deserve it. White Americans don’t.
Today, white people receive a heavy amount of affirmative action in college admissions. Not only are they playing the system and gaining from unfair practices, but they have successfully pitted Asians and other minorities against each other. It needs to stop.
Before I dive into a thousand words about the whole college admissions debate, I want to be clear about one thing: African Americans deserve affirmative action. This whole fiasco should never have had anything to do with Black people. …
People help. The system doesn’t.
When I was twelve years old, my family and I traveled to Ecuador, a beautiful country teeming with life, color, and happiness. We spent fourteen days on the Galápagos islands, feeding iguanas flowers, and swimming with sea lions and turtles that hadn’t learned to be afraid of humans yet.
The sun was soft and bright in the equatorial sky for our whole stay. The stars at night were the most beautiful I’d ever seen, reflecting into a calm ocean. The crystal water was teeming with fish. The birds chattered in the air. …
Women are allowed to have opinions.
Four years ago, my then-boyfriend got down on one knee on a dark beach in New Zealand and asked me to marry him. I knew he would propose; we’d already talked about getting married. I even suspected the day because I woke up that morning and threw on sweatpants, only to have my sister insist I wear a dress and look nice. (Protective sisters for the win!)
I said yes and we celebrated. Well, my sister, Nathan, and I did, anyway. Most of our friends who were in New Zealand with us — all seven of them — said nothing…
And ten things to stop telling us.
The other day one of my author friends moaned to me about how much people hate on her for being a writer. “It’s basically like being a minority,” she said. (She’s also a minority.) “Everyone hates on you. No one understands. Everyone is so freaking unsupportive. You’re required to be embarrassed of your profession.”
“I don’t mind that much,” I said. “I’m kind of used to it.” Throughout my whole life, writing wasn’t considered a “real” career, by my family, my friends, or anyone else. …
Sleeping well has boosted my productivity, health, and mental health.
As a busy President of an international org — read: no life and weird sleep times — the single question I get asked most often is about how I do it. How do I find time to write on Medium? How do I stay healthy? How am I not a complete utter mess? (I am. It just doesn’t look like it.)
Every time I’m asked for time management or life advice, the single best tip I have for people is this: Sleep well and sleep quickly. Learn to sleep in five minutes or less. Learn to sleep soundly. …
And I’m not a fan
I don’t like astrology. There, I said it. You can accuse me of being intolerant or ignorant, but you’d be wrong. Unlike most Americans, I actually grew up immersed in the culture. And I’m a woman, a strong feminist, and a frequent writer on gender politics. So don’t say I’m sexist.
But what I am is Hindu. And if I see one more question on if hating astrology is anti-women, I’m going to punch something. To me, that argument is simply the latest fad of rich white feminism — of people who are so privileged that they don’t realize claiming…
The worst thing we can do is stay silent.
This article is not about Israel and Palestine or the objectively horrible things that have been happening in the region this week. (We can all agree it’s bad, right?) This article is about articles about it. And the astonishing lack of them.
Is the Israeli military justified? Is evicting people from their homes justified? Is it the fault of settlers? How much should we blame the British? How about the Holocaust? What about Hamas firing over a thousand rockets?
I know the answers to these questions. Or at least, I think I do. …
For starters, we get the world.
I am a pagan. An unbeliever. A heathen. An infidel. While my beliefs about the existence of God and souls have changed considerably over the course of my life, to the majority of the world, I’ve never been someone worthy of blessings, never been someone who would make it to heaven.
I was born and culturally am still a Hindu. Despite how terrible many elements of religion were for me — I am a woman and I am queer — I still respect the role that belief in a higher power plays in many people’s lives. My closest friends are…
