You think cutting out toxic people is enlightenment when the toxicity is in you and your frightened 
by the very temporary physical world and body you live in...

I look to this girl now with all the love in my heart. I understand that she just wanted to be loved and when she latched onto empty words, it was just an attempt to fill the hole in her heart where her own love was supposed to go.

All of the growth I’ve experienced, by way of lessons learned, has transformed me into a woman that will share stories and tales of a time when I was just a shy, angsty girl.

The chance to speak on your platform and outline what you stand for is a right protected by this sacred debate structure. Therefore when these rules and formats are ignored it completely disrespects the spirit of checks and balances.

I spend too much time wondering about the people who actually believe this. Would Hillary have called COVID 19 the China Virus? Would she have declined to denounce white supremacists? Would she, too, have tear-gassed protestors on her way to a photo-op at a church? The list goes on and the longer it gets the angrier I become. 

It fills me to the brim with joy, in my second time voting for President, to have such extraordinary choices. Maybe soon I’ll tell my kids—who I’ll be forced to have—about the last time I ever voted.

Of course I am very proud. I just wish life would move forward for all of us because being comfortable in our own skin is something we all would love. To walk around in any neighborhood like I belong there because it would be normal to belong anywhere. How threatened does a system have to be to fear positive and healthy changes that include us all?

America has already been lost. We are more than our political parties; we are stronger when we celebrate our differences rather than belittle each other for them.

In my mind, girls who took weekend trips to Idaho in March must have looked a certain way. Women who shared stories of the delightful ways water heated by hot springs felt on their skin weren’t supposed to be scared of their bodies.

His confidence is alcohol-fueled and my “ready-to-go” eyes meet the eyes of my friends. He fidgets with his drink coaster using his last seconds with me to ask “So, what’s your Instagram?”

How can change happen if those with the power to make it happen don’t want to change? How can those who are abused by said ‘family’ be proud to be part of it? How can a promise be made to respond to the needs of family, if the person who promised to listen ignores those who express their needs?

2020 is the year of conversation and understanding. It’s the year to sit down and have tough conversations with people that have opposite views, beliefs, and lifestyles than you. We are more than our money, more than our politics, and more than our greatest fear. 2020, you have not won, this fight is just beginning.

I have always felt like the slowest moving person in the room when actually it was the people around me not seeing the bigger picture of living our lives. Moving to the LA area has allowed me to notice what kind of person I am, based on my own driving behaviors, either directly behind the wheel or enjoying the passenger view and being curious of the mindless behavior in other vehicles.

The brilliance of WAP is in its innuendo, where she is of course talking about her heightened state of arousal, but she’s also in a way talking about her power and ambition.

I feel now more galvanized than ever. I am mortified by the failures of our city and state leaders, who have no problem with authoritarian brutality so long as they are the authors of that brutal force.

I give out trust like it's not risky. My friendliness gets misconstrued as frisky, but that doesn't mean shit, it's probably the whiskey. You’ll think I’m lying because you’ll never ask me. You’ll only hear what you want before you frisk me.

I’ve realized that growing up and growing into self-love sometimes means outgrowing particular standards and people. There is no love lost – just the right amount of courage to walk away for the sake of my self-love.

The male lion is still seen as the strongest of the breed; how can we praise the king, but neglect his queen?

So how did Italians make the transition from the bottom of the hierarchy ladder to the haven of white privilege? They, like the Irish before them, internalized White Supremacy as a means of self-preservation. This was the path to “becoming American.”

They will tell you to change your appearance, not realizing that your very appearance is what gives the gesture life and makes the world upset.