These days, I don’t know if I can still call myself a poet. The truth is, I don’t live life as I encourage others to live. I wrote about being kind to oneself, to the world, yet this is the biggest challenge I have had in my entire life. Some romanticize their pain and call it poetry. Some wonder and ponder around the ideas, only to chase the feeling of being loved. Some grind days and nights to reach “success.” We were all told to study hard, work hard, go to school, get a j

A writer's personal diary processing pain and grief while balancing expectations from work and daily life.

A journey following a diagnosis with PTSD.