“Inhale deeply through your nose. This time, seal your lips for the exhale. Constrict the back of your throat, like you’re fogging up a mirror. Keep your lips sealed for the remainder of the practice. Activate your ujjayi breath.” The edges of my cork yoga mat blur ever so slightly as I drop into the breathing pattern called ujjayi breathing. The first time I heard the term was in this room two years prior. That instructor used Sanskrit names instead of our Westernized yoga lingo, something I...

I have finished the first draft of my memoir. I can’t believe I’m typing those words. Like… I wrote the first draft of a whole ass book.   Pinch me?! If you told me this a year ago, I don’t know that I would’ve believed you. At that point in time, I had barely 10,000 words written and a whole bunch of pages and memories that I had no clue how to string together. I have never written this much. My longest essay has been maybe 20 pages long, double-spaced. Even my graduate school thesis was a...

I dissolved into a puddle of tears when Mike shut his basement door on the Stranger Things finale. This reaction was unexpected considering I had made it through all the dramatic, time-stopping heart-to-hearts that occurred throughout the two-hour episode—even Dustin’s valedictorian speech didn’t quite get me. Stranger Things is one of those shows that I enjoyed, but wasn’t super swept up in. Generally, I’m not great at getting sucked into shows and have a hard time recalling details about...