Humanity
A Rare, Inherited Condition Was Causing Me to Go Deaf
Television had sounded muffled for about a month, and I began to wonder why everybody was mumbling. Like an elderly person without a hearing aid, I urged people to speak up. But I was only 38. I didn't attribute these problems to hearing loss.
By Bebe King Nicholson4 years ago in Confessions
The Journey to Write
As a young child who could not put a book down, I knew then that words were my friends. They literally transformed a shy, extremely backward child into faraway lands, or crazy places such as Roald Dahl's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, or in later years, Are You there God It's Me Margaret. Letters, words, reading simply calmed my soul, and enlightened my spirit. To this day-give me a book to read that I can hold, smell, and flip through the pages to divert attention from a weary day, a snowy day, or pretty much any day.
By Valerie Gerke4 years ago in Confessions
I Have a Dream
As a 90’s baby, I have always never understood why people could hate someone just because they are different than them. That’s what is beautiful about people is the differences. After all this time since Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, you would think that discrimination and exclusivity would be nonexistent. Unfortunately, recent elections and events even last year have proven that naive thought false. This is why I have prioritized in 2022 to use my time, my voice, & my funds when able.
By Dee Dove4 years ago in Confessions
To our truckers : THANK YOU
We thought we knew what your work was like, we thought we knew the non-difficulties involved with driving – you just sit there and press on a pedal. We forgot the lack of sleep, the intense and unwavering attention needed to get things where they need to be, and the help you bring to motorists on all roads, in all weather conditions. Not to mention being far from your families.
By Whimsical Wanderer 4 years ago in Confessions
How To Get The Love You Deserve
Love is an effective emotion; it is able to nourish, invigorate, inspire, validate and heal. Love is the essence of who we're and the middle of our life. Where there is love, there may be no worry, anger, or hatred. We yearn for love as it's miles our birthright and whether or not or now not we obtained it unconditionally as an infant, our heart aches for it.
By Arun Chaudhary4 years ago in Confessions
Tue Feb 8
This morning I had $150 in my one and only checkings account. No credit card, no cash. A couple of prepaid Visa debit cards from the airport. I learned, you can't pay for your luggage allowance with cash and I had $12 on my card 3 days ago so I had to go to a vending machine that puts a cash deposit onto a prepaid card that is dispensed to you. I had a $50 bill. The machine charges $6 per deposit. United Airlines second checked bag costs $45. Now I have a card that has $9 on it from the previous bag I checked and a card with $44 on it. I went to the counter to see if they could combine the cards...they could not. After talking to multiple people they eventually did comp my scuba bag and I was able to get on with my flight having lost my cash to unnessasary prepaid debit cards. That I ended up using to pay for the taxi that took me to the current Brooklyn apartment.
By LameNessNameLess4 years ago in Confessions
Seduced by the moment
It was the dead hour, between Three and four am - yet the casino at Bellagio’s foyer was still alive. Alfred strolled between the slot machines – smoking, sipping bourbon, and watching folks playing and having fun. Seeing the reels spinning was interesting even though it turned rapidly to create excitement and not more. He knew that the actual result of what would appear on the pay lines had already been chosen by a random number generator determining which combination of symbols should appear in the reels. He watched gamblers winning or losing money, having a big smile or long face, but gambling was the last of Alfred’s concerns that night. His married life was at risk of having divorced, and he wanted a vacation in a vital city like Vegas to take a fateful resolution that would change his life once and forever.
By Ayman Baroudi4 years ago in Confessions
The Power of Control
So its been a while since my last article. For a while, I was feeling safe and happy with how my life was going. I had a good job and a way to pay my bills and care for my children. In January, I lost my job and sought out another one. It took the entire month of January before I was finally hired at a new job, regaining some small semblance of control in my life. With that I was getting back on top, feeling happy and creating a sense of normal back in my life. Tonight, I had a trigger from my past. Now in my experience, you never know when it may show up or how or even how deep it will slice through the old pain. Tonight when I burst into tears over my kids dropping my dinner on the floor, it became a sudden realization of something I have not conquered yet about my past. With my ex-husband we never had enough food in the house, and though I always found a way to make sure my children were fed, quite often there were nights and even entire days when feeding them meant skipping the meal myself. I never even felt safe to eat in my own home, like I would be punished for even trying to eat. If it wasn't him bestowing it upon me like a grand gesture of approval, danger lurked around the corner and consequences all too apparent if I dared to eat without permission. Its been nearly 3 years since I left him and became free, yet even the smallest occurences can trigger the darkest memories and wounds. Tonight I need to write. I need to let it all out, because it is the ONLY thing that I control myself. I cannot control how angry I feel at him or how upset it makes me at times that I do not feel like I will ever have the strength to forgive him for everything he's done to us. I don't feel that he even deserves it. Most days now I am actually finding more happiness and light than having to suffer through those dark days. The reason for that is because I control my life and my days. I control who I let in and what I can do in that day. I make as many choices as I can because that is something I can do. Even being aware that choosing to take the kids to school and go to the office for training or classes, I am the one making those decisions and that is something powerful to hold onto. I may not ever forgive him for his actions, but I will hold onto the hope that someday I will find peace and the small things that come to trigger me will no longer have the desired effect they seek out to do: remind us of a broken and painful past. Those triggers are a direct link to things we want to forget, yet they whisper to us, they bring up painful memories in a flash, and in a moment we feel all of it rushing through our bodies, as if its a fresh wound. But we have the power to take it back. In reality, the fact that it upset me and I started to cry well, has nothing to do with my kids. Its that the past came knocking and sucker punched me. I have so many choices on how to respond to that. I can lay there defeated or I can get up and sucker punch it back. Because I DO have the power to control those memories. I have the power to say to my past "no more." I will not let you in to hurt me anymore. So tonight, even though it took me by surprise and was unexpected, I refuse to give up and I will not let it drag me back into its grips. For anyone who is reading this and may know what I mean, I want to say to you, "those moments will come where you will flashback and it may hurt when it does. Grab that sucker and throw it back into the depths of the past where it belongs. Your future is brighter and will be what you choose it to be. I choose to take back control and make my future one that is full of happiness and love. That is who I am tonight and this is me."
By marion scott4 years ago in Confessions
death by spiders
Death by spiders If I told you to predict the end of the Human race, would it ever occur to you to include mutated spider infestation? Would you everything arise that spreadsheet of spiders would emerge to wipe out more than half of the worlds population interest one year? But that’s exactly what happened five years ago. The spiders were first scene in Australia when a group of a killer just discovered the remains of some ancient cat. They thought the cats must have been there along with the dinosaurs but what they didn’t know it was that within the bones of the remains were unknown species of spiders white in colour that has a colony within the bones of the cat. When the bones was taken from the discovery sites to US a for a closer inspection, just still unnoticed colony of spiders were ultimately moved across the continent.
By Nneka Anieze4 years ago in Confessions
Handed A Gun At Twelve: The Haze (Of Ishmael Beah)
He knew his time was ticking so in a panic, he pulled their lifeline instead. He will never be forgiven. He will never be forgotten. He will never be himself again. He’s sorry. Society should be. He did not ask for it. Who is he? A boy. A boy soldier. A twelve year old boy soldier. The boy soldier walked from village to village watching the dead bodies which ran between street apon street like the same drab flag repeated over and over in this never ending war of mindless people. How truly innocent this dear boy had been. Emphasis on “had”. He was used to this now. Even worse, often, he was at the hands of it. Yes, sad but true, the unsuspecting, sweet, cheerful twelve year old boy he had once been was now gone. A leftover bullet on the streets of his old town is a constant reminder to those who once knew the real him of where that stripping of Beah took place. No. Better yet, it’s symbolic of how. The motif of guns reveals the theme of confusion/haze as a result of being so young while being forced into a situation where oneself as a person is no longer clear because of the things they are made to do.
By Emily Clare Burgess4 years ago in Confessions
Show Up and Smile
I have finally made peace with something in the last week. My complicated relationship with my mother has haunted me for as long as I can remember. Isn't every parental relationship a love hate relationship? Why do I have to live in her shadow? Why is her shadow so large? Why is it so hurtful.
By Susan Eileen 4 years ago in Confessions
