We are not supposed to regress.

Our country has gone mad, or maybe it always was, and it just wasn’t as obvious before. I don’t mean mad as in “Mad Hatter” mad either; I mean mad as in Norman Bates in “Psycho” mad.

I keep searching for the right words to describe how utterly disappointed I am in so many of my fellow Americans, my race, and even my gender.

It feels like everything I believed about us was a lie. There were always thousands of hidden antagonists hiding amongst the kind and generous people of our country.

People are attacking each other because of who they “think” the other person is voting for. They are physically, verbally, and mentally assaulting people that they claim to love as well as random strangers in passing. …

Sexual Assault, Self, Mental Health

Here’s the truth.

The crickets outside that bedroom window knew. I imagined them trying to warn me with their harmonious stridulating. The deafening sound of silence in that small room made them seem like they were the only living beings awake in the world other than me.

I slept on my belly when I spent the night at her house; something I learned to do during my first sleepover with her when I was 11 years old. I knew it was the only chance I had at being able to hide my face when he would inevitably enter the room. …

Nothing but myself.

Lately, I‘ve spent more time focused on putting as many words on the page as I can. An iPad has been glued to my hand like an extra appendage during every waking moment. I only allow myself to release it once I have completed my writing goal for the day. My goal is to turn my writing into an actual daily habit; to push past my ineffective standard of only writing when convenient.

I understand now that no one is going to raise the bar for me, so I have to do it myself if I ever want to become successful. …

And how to do it.

In just a little over a week from now, hundreds of thousands of writers worldwide will be taking part in one of the most significant writing events of the year; National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo).

The goal is for each writer to write at least 50,000 words by the end of the month. …

And I’m Not Sorry

I’m ANGRY

I’m DISGUSTED

I’m HEARTBROKEN

I’m ENLIGHTENED

And I’m SINCERELY APOLOGETIC

No excuse can make up for what’s transpired since 2016, but I feel that you deserve an explanation from at least one of us.

So, here goes nothing…

Short version; red state since birth, southern baptist raised, public school history lessons, police officer family, and raised in a small town.

I grew up in a very southern, very controversial, and very red state. The history I knew came directly from my worn-out public school textbooks and, of course, whatever I heard from the adults around me.

I had (and have) many police officers in my family, including my Grandfather, whom I never got the chance to know, and my Father. My Mom was an ER Nurse. My parents were good people who worked hard and dedicated their lives to helping others. …

The mental weight on my shoulders was lifted for just one day

Like thousands of other people globally, I am quite literally addicted to social media, Facebook, especially. I spend far more of my time scrolling through feeds and debating politics with people during the day than I do anything else. It is my Achilles’ heel.

Did you know that psychologists believe that an estimated 5 to 10% of Americans suffer from social media addiction? Social media's dopamine effect triggers the brain’s reward system reaction just as chemical drugs, such as cocaine, do. Need a quick fix? Just grab your phone!

I am definitely included in that 5 to 10%.

My phone is practically glued to my hand for at least 16 hours each day. I will get very defensive if anyone attempts to tell me I’ve been on it too much or ask me to put it away, and no, I am not proud of this. I am just being honest. This is just one of the many signs of an addiction. It is a problem that I have been working to remedy on my own for quite some time now with very little progress. …

It’s representative of your subconscious desire to control other people.

I am not typically one to get political in my writing as I know how controversial it can be, but as a mother of a daughter and a survivor of sexual assault, I can not just stand by anymore.

Trump vs Biden on Abortion Stance

First of all, let’s just go ahead and take a look at where the candidates stand on this topic.

Trump: It is well documented that Trump has always been pro-choice until he decided to run as Republican in 2016. I think it goes without saying that the only reason for this sudden change of opinion in this area was for votes. He has also bounced back and forth between believing an exemption for abortion is appropriate for females who are the victims of rape or incest and his radical statements of punishing females who have abortions. …

When you feel like the world is constantly screaming at you to go.

I have four paper planners, a digital planner, one notebook for nothing other than my list of things to do, and approximately six different planning or note-taking apps that I randomly jump back and forth between throughout the day. Even with all of this, I often feel overwhelmed by the constant random thoughts in my head.

The majority of the time I feel like I’m forgetting something very important, but I also have this unrelenting desire to just get lost in social media to drown it all out. I tell myself it will calm me down and help me slow down and breathe if I just take a few minutes to check in on some friends. …