Chelsea Cristene

Thank you, Isolde, for making me pause, for encouraging me to ditch the pocket computer for conversation with someone new.

Knowing a few compulsive liars over the course of my life has taught me some things. Living during Trump’s presidency has reinforced them.

Anyone who has been a victim of abuse will tell you that the burden of emotional labor is enormous, and that it’s amplified by the pressure to keep quiet.

The first rule: Unrequited love sucks. The second rule took regrettably longer for me to get a handle on: My unilateral crush was not this guy’s problem.

I realized that allergies, much like mental health, are largely misunderstood and often dismissed as trivial or exaggerated.

Illness is intensely personal, but it never affects the person diagnosed alone.

When men’s dating preferences were observed, the age of women they expressed interest in never (never!) deviated from the early 20s.

Wanting a child and wanting to experience childbirth are two very different things.

This article first appeared on Role Reboot and has been republished with permission. 

I was a band geek in high school. In exchange for the Saturdays we spent at various competitions all over the state, we would get an occasional “down” day to watch a movie or just hang out in the band room. These were lazy days filled with giggles and gossip, and on one day in particular, kisses with my friend Jessica.

Jessica was cute and kind and one year younger than me. “I don’t see anything wrong when girls kiss girls,” she said as we sat cross-legged on the tile floor: something that you’re never supposed to think let alone say out loud in a small conservative town. “Neither do I!” I agreed. And there it was – a smooch!