On any given day, I experience widespread, chronic pain that ranges from mild to debilitating. I have fibromyalgia: a medical condition characterized by chronic widespread muscle pain, heightened pain response to pressure, extreme fatigue, altered sleep, poor memory and impaired concentration
I can remember hating my body as far back as eight years old. I remember reading my mom’s diet books late at night in middle school. By age thirteen, I had tried South Beach, Atkins and Weight Watchers.
For a student, nothing is more frustrating than thinking you’re done with homework, or a project only to figure out you messed up and need to start over. After about a semester of reporting, this is exactly what happened with my article, “Isolated: International Students not Integrated.”
Whenever I told my peers that my mom is Dominican and that my dad is Nigerian, I received a mix of responses.
Melania Trump is featured on the cover of February’s Vanity Fair Mexico in diamonds – a must see. The First Lady is wearing diamond rings and bracelets and posed as if she is “eating” a bowl of stringed jewels like spaghetti. Inside the issue, there is another photo of Melania drinking a jewel-laced cocktail through a straw. Her cover photo is being criticized as insensitive and out of touch, coming at a tense time between Mexico and the United States.
On Sunday, I was one of roughly 100 people who gathered in Niagara Square to rally for transgender rights and protest President Donald Trump’s administration’s recent legislation on trans bathroom rights.
After the initial excitement of the election and the inauguration, it’s easy to let politics fade into the background of student life. At this point, Donald Trump is president. We can continue to protest or accept the election results.
It started with a cough – nothing out of the ordinary for someone with allergies and asthma. I brushed it off; I was not about to let a tickle in my throat foil my Saturday night plans.
“Do you know why I pulled you over?” This is the exact moment that I thought my life was over.
I see white people downplaying black people’s experiences of oppression. I see white people ignoring blatant racism. I see white people having conversations about what is best for black people without a single black person at the table.
Every holiday has its critics. There are the Christmas scrooges who need to watch Elf and be kept under close surveillance.
It is a scary time for women in America. This alone speaks volumes, considering we still have the right to vote, to speak publicly, to work and to our own personhood.
Lately, I’ve been having trouble shaving. When I was a kid I used to watch a show called Family Matters (better known as the Steve Urkel show) every morning when I got ready for school.
I understand. We live in a time of fear. Anonymity is safe. And no one trusts the media. It’s discouraging for someone like me, who wants to be a journalist and who believes in the value of a free press. If we can’t tell your stories, how will people know them?
By not informing us of this assault, the University places its students in even more vulnerable positions. We have the right to know about sexual violence occurring in our student body. University police inform us of robberies that take place near campus even when those perpetrators do not pose a current threat.
Instead of setting out to lose weight this year, my fitness goal is to accept my body the way it is. This isn’t me giving up on being healthier or in better shape. This is me learning to love myself along the way; everything from the tummy pudge to the thigh jiggle that nearly every girl privately shames herself for, no matter the size.
We are young, but we are not invincible. We are impulsive and daring because we can never imagine that right now is our last moment. We tend to forget that tomorrow is only promised for some.
Technique is coming after and coming through reading, thinking, and observing. It is aimed at weeding through all of those false intentions and hurried rushed reactive false starts, we're starting from noticing, considering the dynamics of our surroundings, before jumping to record what we don't yet understand.
Around this time of year, everyone gets excited about going back home and doing festive “Christmasy” activities: decorating their Christmas tree, getting together with their family, going to church (whether they like it or not) and making cookies. But, if you’re Jewish like me, you’ve probably never gotten a chance to do some of these things.
When I finally gathered enough emotional strength to watch Hillary Clinton’s concession speech, I sobbed the whole way through. One line in particular resonated with me: “Please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.” I wrote that sentence in my journal over and over again and hung the page above my desk. Even though the unimaginable had happened, I refused to accept defeat.
Solutions by The State News
