Catherine Gigante-Brown

The overinflated American work ethic is slowly killing us. It’s constantly pushing us to do more — put in longer hours, check business emails on personal time, take calls from our bosses when we’re chilling in Cancun.

Content Notice: Death

Why do we venerate individuality in adults but condemn it in children?

We’ve pieced ourselves back together in a patchwork quilt of ragged emotions. The aftermath of 9/11 wasn’t easy for us, yet it was much easier than for some. People standing 50 feet away from Peter didn’t come home that night; he did.

It sounded too good to be true: comfortable, attractive bra inserts for breast cancer survivors like me. I got on the computer, checked out their website, and immediately put in for one.

herbalist. shiatsu practitioner. healer.

To the tattoo artist, I was a flesh canvas that she could transform into something beautiful.

I’m a firm believer that Tiny Kindnesses can change the world, one sweet, loving gesture at a time.

Alas, I am the lone female in a house full of men. Only two men, but they take up a lot of space.

I was 21 –– a Catholic, heterosexual college student, living at home in Brooklyn and still trying to discover who I was. At the crossroads of her life, Lorde knew exactly who she was. She was waging a war against cancer and sharing an old house in Staten Island with her kids and partner. But maybe we weren’t so different after all.