humanity
For better or for worse, relationships reveal the core of the human condition.
A Hate Letter to Personal Statements. Top Story - November 2025.
I find myself once again writing personal statements for grad school applications. Why I would do such a thing to myself again after so many years of not doing that, I have no clue. Perhaps I have a sadistic streak, an echo of my Catholic upbringing which manifests the typical emotional self-flagellation into a desire to apply to and inevitably get rejected from grad school. I could put applications in all day, don’t get me wrong. I love going over checklists and reaching out to old professors asking them sweetly if they would be so kind as to say nice things about me on the official record for Miscellaneous University and their Obscure College of the Performing Arts. But good God, dude, why do I have to write a damn personal statement for each and every one of these programs?
By Steven Christopher McKnight3 months ago in Humans
Missing Bags and Missing Compassion: My Walmart Experience.
I got my groceries. But I lost a little faith. Yesterday started like any other errand day. I went to Walmart to pick up groceries—nothing fancy, just the usual essentials. I don’t drive anymore, so I took an Uber there and back. The trip home was uneventful. My Uber driver was kind, even helped carry the bags into the house. But when I started putting things away, I realized something was off. Two bags were missing.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior3 months ago in Humans
A Chorography to Ashes
There is a map I carry, though it is still being drawn. It lives beneath my skin, outlined in the soft tissue of being. It charts no cities, no rivers, no borders ~ but it knows the terrain of loss, the coordinates of silence and the fault lines of a dissonant reaching for fulfillment in this thing we have named 'life'. It yearns desperately towards the happy and sublime.
By Novel Allen3 months ago in Humans
The TV Dinner Date: A Memory That Grew With Me
I was twelve years old when I went on my first date. Not that I knew it at the time. In fact, I didn’t realize it was a date until decades later, when memory softened into understanding and the small details bloomed into something tender. At twelve, I was just a girl in a dress, sitting across from a boy I barely knew, eating Salisbury steak off fine china under candlelight. It was strange. It was sweet. And it stayed with me.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior3 months ago in Humans
The Art of Solitude: Why Being Alone Can Improve Your Life
In an era where constant connectivity is the norm, loneliness has become a novel and even uncomfortable phenomenon. Notifications bleep incessantly, social media feeds flow endlessly, and the compulsion to remain "connected" 24/7 may feel like a noose too tight on the neck. For most, isolation brings on an aura of discomfort—what shall we do if we are left alone with ourselves? Society has always linked loneliness or failure with solitude, along with the stigma that it would take a disconnected, or even worse, weak individual to seek solitude.
By The Chaos Cabinet3 months ago in Humans
“The Heart That Connects Us All”
In a world filled with constant movement—cars rushing, screens glowing, people hurrying from one place to another—it becomes easy to forget the most powerful force we carry within us: our ability to connect. This truth revealed itself to Adeel on an ordinary morning that began like any other.
By Muhammad Saad 3 months ago in Humans
Spending for Feelings
You don’t buy things for the things. You buy them for the feelings. And once you admit that, you stop being controlled by impulses you never chose. That’s why I’m speaking to you directly — one mind, one mirror, one moment of ruthless clarity — because spending for feelings is the silent addiction that drains more power, purpose, and self-respect than debt ever will.
By Randolphe Tanoguem3 months ago in Humans
The Third Option
For a long time, I believed my marriage ended because we failed. That if we had talked more, loved better, tried harder, or stayed longer in therapy, maybe we could have saved it. Marriage teaches you to internalize the blame — that if it cracks, it’s because you weren’t strong enough.
By Dhatbrowngirl 3 months ago in Humans
