Is it safe to go outside? — New York City greeted me like a mob boss greets the puny underling who lost him money on a bad deal: with indifferent disdain and an unnerving ability to remind me just where the power in our relationship rested without ever saying a word. After being soaked by rain, left…

Imprisoned by the babble — Placing his nearly empty wine glass on the table next to the couch we were carefully perched on opposite ends of, my date excitedly pulled out his phone to show me a Tik Tok video he recorded. “I’ll show you the one without sound first,” he said, glancing expectantly at…

Why loving Emily in Paris feels like an act of resistance — Netflix’s newest hit show, Emily in Paris, is a frivolous tale about a gorgeous American woman who doesn’t speak French and who clumsily romps around Paris after getting sent there to work for the French branch of her marketing agency, Savoir. The titular character, Emily, has very little tact, an…

A forgotten poem written from inside the closet — It’s not often you come upon a portrait of the person you used to be, but that’s what happened as I was sifting through memorabilia from my high school days this weekend. My parents are having work done on their house, which required us to move a stack of boxes…

Ruminating on the awe of nature’s beautiful violence — Last night, I bore witness to a reckoning. As I was finishing a novel called The Overstory — which reminds humans that we are quickly draining the earth of resources and, due to our own pitiful hubris, we will soon eradicate ourselves — a thunderstorm rolled in on a wave…

Musings on the concept of a soulmate — Isn’t it just so pretty to think that all along there was some invisible string tying you to me? This is the line Taylor Swift delivers with a soft, lilting voice on “invisible string,” a romantic folk ballad from her latest album, folklore. As someone who is perpetually single, the…

Why losing a friend can be harder than it seems — It took me eight years to break up with my best friend. I met Sean (not his real name) during our freshman year of high school. …

Shifting priorities helped me find a better balance — Before the pandemic shoved us all indoors with merciless efficiency, I was a full-time employee working 40-hour weeks in a bland, gray honeycomb of an office, trudging across town to spend my time in the physical presence of my coworkers five days a week. The weekdays crawled by like drugged-up…

The answer to everyone’s favorite question — If you’re queer, you’ve been here. You’ve made a new straight friend. The two of you are starting to get closer — you’re not as thick as thieves, but you enjoy your time together. Over a drink one evening after work, your new friend sits up straight, leans toward you…