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Dreamland Ch. 2: Surefire tricks to get your relatives to stop asking you about school

Wednesday, June 18th, 2025

Money. It makes the world go round, or something like that. I may have decided my passion from a young age, but I hadn’t decided on a job, not in any practical way. The hard lesson everyone learns between ages 17 and 21 is that choosing your dream is different from choosing your major, which is yet again different from choosing your career. I learned this lesson the moment I fostered my love for creative writing, and I keep learning it every day.

It’s not so bad, really. I’m studying English, which is very transferrable to a number of different fields, no matter what people will tell you. You only have to engage in a quick cursory scroll through any social media platform to understand that people lack writing skills, communication skills, and critical thinking skills. People lack empathy and can’t formulate nuanced opinions. I’m not suggesting that everyone become an English major, but I do encourage a reworked perception of what the field can offer. 

So I don’t regret what I’ve chosen; I only regret not pushing myself out of my comfort zone far sooner, all the way back in high school, in order to learn the skills I’d need to shape my career in English. In freshman year of college, I unfortunately hesitated to join extracurriculars and attend general meetings that would allow me to meet new people and find things I might be interested in. I’ve since overcome that hesitation, thankfully, and now I know that I enjoy journalistic writing, marketing, communications, and more generally, learning new things.

That doesn’t mean the insecurity doesn’t creep in every once in a while. Every month, I spend at least one evening freaking out about what I will do after I graduate, and I panic-apply to a million jobs that I ultimately don’t hear back from. My parents are incredibly supportive and love to hear about school, but I’ve noticed that my family friends, the aunties and uncles, aren’t quite sure what to ask or if there is anything to even discuss. I get it, truly, but I can’t help but compare myself to my sister and others in our family who’ve chosen something more recognizable.

If you’re in the humanities, you probably understand this feeling—the tugging sensation that suspends you between your wildest dreams and the real world below. The Icarian knowledge that either side will damn you. Most of the time, it doesn’t feel quite this theatrical, but I don’t think anyone is immune to the chilling realization, even if inaccurate, that the things you do as a teenager determine the rest of your life. Such is the condition of being a teenager in the first place. Why can’t we all just do what we love, right?

NYU’s Silver Center for Arts and Sciences, home to English majors and others. Image Credit: https://meet.nyu.edu/locations/silver-center/

The divide between your passion and your career prospects might feel chasmic now, but there are ways you can reconcile even the most distant of pipe dreams and the most mundane 9-to-5 jobs. 

I used to work for NYU’s outreach and fundraising organization, which was often the bane of my existence, but I took every shift as an opportunity to learn about other people and their backgrounds. I learned about their fields of interest and the ways they used their schooling to propel them into careers that suited their niche interests. I once spoke to someone that illustrated tarot cards. I still quit that job after a semester, but I have plenty of stories to tell. which makes the semester of asking strangers for money sort of worth it. I don’t intend on continuing that sort of work full-time, but I know that if I keep collecting stories and experiences like that one, I’ll find joy in any job.

My ultimate goal is to have a job that sustains me financially and doesn’t make me dread it every night and morning, but I think eventually I’ll come to accept that your job won’t and probably shouldn’t be your life. If I completely turn creativity and writing into my source of income, will I still covet them as I do now? 

If you siphon all your passion into the thing that you have to do or you lose your stability, is it still passion? 

My hope is that I can look down that cavernous gap and feel security in traveling between both sides of it. My hope is to make just enough money that I feel content waking up each morning—though I certainly wouldn’t be mad if I made a little more. Money might sustain you, but your passions will keep you alive.

Students receive a 10% discount at Dim Sum Palace at three locations in NYC. Redeem now for authentic Chinese dim sum.

By Oshmi Ghosh

Oshmi Ghosh is a rising junior at NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English with minors in Creative Writing, History, and Entertainment Business. You can usually find her appreciating the simple things in life: tea with milk and sugar, a good book, and/or intensely competitive board games.

For over 25 years, the Campus Clipper has helped college students in New York City—and later in Boston and Philadelphia—save money and succeed in city life. We offer a digital coupon booklet with discounts on food, clothing, and services, plus an Official Student Guidebook with real advice on how to navigate college life in a big city. Our internship program lets students build skills, earn money, and publish their own e-books. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @CampusClipper, and sign up for our newsletter to get deals straight to your inbox. To access the digital coupons, scan the QR code on our printed card—available in dorms, student centers, and around campus.

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Dreamland Ch. 1: A thousand empty notebooks

Wednesday, June 11th, 2025

Every year, without fail, someone will gift me a notebook. It’s not exactly a secret that I love to write, though I tend not to advertise it all the time, and I can’t blame that first instinct to give the writer a place to journal her thoughts and ideas before they vanish. Unfortunately, I was born in 2005, which means I started using laptops in fourth grade and haven’t stopped since. Kids these days, right?

But my first ever story was written in a red notebook.

I was five years old, and I didn’t know how to spell all that well, but I’d learned the word spectrum fairly recently and wanted to do something with it. So I pieced together something about rainbows and other worlds. An adopted little girl who plants flowers in an apocalyptic wasteland. I illustrated the cover and everything. With little fanfare, I realized I wanted to be an author.

Since then, that was my Thing. Once I got a handle of Google Docs, it was over for everyone. I wrote silly stories throughout my childhood, once with a friend in sixth grade just because we finished our English quiz early. I centered my personality around the fact that I enjoyed reading and writing, because these were the formative years nobody knew who they were so they picked an archetype for themselves. I could’ve done a lot worse than The Writer, I think, but that stack of notebooks is still growing.

It was a natural next step for me to conceive a full-length novel when I was eleven. That is, I thought vaguely of this story in idle moments and the liminal space between sleep and consciousness, but I didn’t suck it up and start drafting until I was twelve. It was pretty terrible, because I was twelve and all, but I owe everything to that decision. It’s that same story that I rewrote in high school and self-published when I was sixteen, and whose sequels I’m working on right now.

My first book. Do you get the blog title now? Image Credit: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Reflections-Land-Dreams-Book-ebook/dp/B09KKXPK39

The thing is, it’s exceptionally rare to decide your lifelong passion before you’ve graduated high school, let alone before you’ve learned your times tables. But it’s not as though I’ve approached the rest of my life with absolute certainty or that I now have telescopic vision of the next twenty years. I may have chosen what I like, but I didn’t know who I was, not really. Often, I don’t have the faintest clue of the next five years, or even the next two. I still oscillate wildly between that wonderful surety and a debilitating fear of the future. Especially since that aforementioned lifelong passion happens to be creative writing and not, you know, hedge fund management. You’ll learn soon enough about my less-than-fully formed productivity habits and my monthly crashouts about jobs and internships.

Indeed, I happened to form the nucleus of my interests and aspirations from a very, very young age, but that passion has evolved with me in the same way someone might start out wanting to pursue acting and then realize they’re better suited for behind-the-scenes work. I still feel a certain catharsis from writing fantasy fiction like in the pages of that red notebook, but I see myself switching genres someday, and I also see myself doing a lot more than creative writing as an adult. Over the years, I’ve looked into work in fields like publishing, PR, academia, journalism, social media marketing, and so on, and I don’t want to box myself in even if I will always be writing no matter what. 

For instance, I write articles on movies and music for NYU’s newspaper. I’ve picked up minor marketing internships and taken business classes to learn about the professional world. Some things I like more than others, and I’m sure one thing or another will fall to the wayside once I graduate. For every notebook I fill, another remains unfinished. The easy part is figuring out how I can use my ability to write wherever I work, but the scary part is that it’ll never look the same way as it did as a child, when I could just tell myself I would be an author and leave it at that.

That’s the thing they don’t tell you about choosing what you want to do at five years old. You’ll have to keep choosing—and wisely this time.

TL;DR: If you picked a lifelong passion as a child like I did, you still have endless opportunities to figure out who you are. If you didn’t, don’t worry. You’re probably better off anyway.

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By Oshmi Ghosh

Oshmi Ghosh is a rising junior at NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English with minors in Creative Writing, History, and Entertainment Business. You can usually find her appreciating the simple things in life: tea with milk and sugar, a good book, and/or intensely competitive board games.

For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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Chapter 1: Two Dreams, One Me

Tuesday, June 10th, 2025
A picture of myself at my favorite restaurant

Hey, welcome to my first-ever blog! I am Marzia—part engineer and part writer, but a full-time yapper. Stick around—it might get messy, but it’ll be fun!! 

My childhood was filled with countless ferry rides from my city to my grandma’s house. As the ferry cut through the gloomy water, I would always stare at the buildings along the shore. They didn’t seem just like structures—they seemed like interesting designs. I would spend the entire time staring at them, the windows, the colors, the shapes, the balconies, and the way they stood next to the water. Sometimes, I would even take wild guesses about the materials used or the money spent on building them, and at other times, I would be too busy wondering how the design could have been better.

It wasn’t long before I started experimenting on my own. On my eighth birthday, my parents gifted me a Lego set. It was more than a toy to me; it was a door to my imagination. I was building hundreds of buildings in a day, experimenting with each one. Each structure was a new challenge—could it be taller, stronger in the base, and more color-oriented? Every time I finished one, I would run around the house to show off my masterpiece. When I was done being showered with compliments, I would take it apart and start over, hoping to come up with a design even more intriguing. 

The more I built, the more I began to believe that I could be an engineer. And the more I believed, the stronger my desire to be one became. So I did everything I could to be an even better engineer. The math geek that I was, I tried to skip every basic arithmetic lesson and dive into the math involved in making real buildings.

As a full-on math nerd, I used to hate writing. But when COVID-19 hit and I was stuck at home with the same three people every day, I started to go a little crazy. That’s when I was struck with a shocking desire to journal. I wanted to write down everything I was doing in the day as if I was going to suffer from memory loss the next day. I still don’t know why.

The more I wrote about my days, I more I discovered that damn I can write?!?! I would try to be poetic and use insanely long formal words to describe simple things. Instead of writing “I took a sip from my cup of coffee,” I would try to write some ridiculous, thing as “I delicately sipped from my cup of coffee, allowing the warmth and bitter aroma to settle before continuing with my thoughts.” Before I knew it, I was writing stories, editing them, and proofreading them. 

As the days of the lockdown extended, my writing habit turned into a ritual I couldn’t live without. The engineer in me couldn’t believe it: I was falling in love with writing. When my works finally got published in physical books, I knew I couldn’t turn my back on writing anymore. 

Just like that, my dream of being an engineer expanded—I wanted to be a writer too.

Funny how the worst times can bring out parts of you that might’ve stayed hidden. Without COVID, I don’t know if I would’ve ever met the writer in me. I was so set on being an engineer, I never even thought about writing. But when everything shut down and the world got quiet, I had nothing but time and thoughts. Writing became my way of making sense of it all. What started as something to pass the time turned into something I loved. Now, I am someone with two dreams, two passions, and two identities.

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By Marzia Seemat

Marzia Seemat is a sophomore at NYU studying civil engineering and creative writing. She loves being close to nature, especially at the beach. Her favorite things include good food, morning tea, hour-long movies, and spending time with the people she loves.

For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC, from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services. At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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Work-Life Balance Actually is Your Problem to Figure Out

Thursday, May 15th, 2025
Emma Grede on Diary of a CEO

“The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.” – Marx and Engels, Strategy and Tactics of the Class Struggle (1879)

Here me out. 

The uproar around SKIMS Co-Founder Emma Grede’s comments regarding employees’ work-life balance responsibilities has brought on a lot of thoughts and feelings I want to discuss.

Last week, Grede stated in an interview with “Diary of a CEO” podcast host Steven Bartlett that a healthy work-life balance is a problem for employees “to figure out.”

Concerning employee attendance and micromanagement, Grede validated her statement by saying her company has changed with the times to accommodate personal life events. “You come in, you have set hours, but there’s flexibility within your working life. It’s not like ‘Oh my goodness, such and such is not at their desk.’” she said. “The way we run organizations now is that no one misses dentist appointments or a doctor’s appointment or a haircut or their kid’s parent-teacher conference.”

While Grede received a lot of pushback for her comments and lack of sensitivity as an employer, I have to agree with her… to a certain extent. The optimist in me wants to say it was giving unintentional Marxist queen.

It’s no shocker that Americans struggle with work-life balance. Our capitalist society literally thrives off of our clocked-on hours and has trained us to believe that we are important if we are good at our job, that we are valuable, even better than others, if we sacrifice ourselves to do more for our job. It’s one thing to be a small business owner living the dream of running a bookstore cafe. It’s another to be working for a company where you’re at the hands of a manager, who is at the hands of their manager, who is at the hands of their manager, and so on. 

I don’t know why anyone would expect a large corporation or sector of the workforce to ever take into consideration their employees’ work-life balance. In a utopia, surely. But it doesn’t look like we’re headed towards Marx’s wet dream any time soon, no matter how much I, too, fantasize about it. 

Marx Memes via Pinterest

Like so many aspects of our lives, it is our responsibility to do what’s best for ourselves, especially when it’s hard. Classload too exhausting this spring semester? It’s up to you to change that for the fall. Feel like you’re spending too much time on social media? You should probably put a lock on the TikTok app. Worried about not exercising enough? I mean, honestly, who isn’t, but who is going to fix that besides you? Not your boss, that’s for sure. It’s HARD to set these kinds of boundaries, especially because it means working towards bettering ourselves for us (how selfish!), rather than bettering a company for profit. 

It reminds me of a quote by John Green: “I took some pride in ‘not fulfilling my potential,’ in part because I was terrified that if I tried my hardest, the world would learn I didn’t actually have that much potential.” I’ve seen a lot of people fall into this rabbit hole at one point or another, myself included, because there is a comfort in settling. “I guess I could get used to just being a teacher,” I used to say to myself before I applied to grad school. And the truth is, I probably could’ve just slumped into that routine of having a steady pay and set schedule despite being irritable all the time. But I knew I was stunted as a person when I was teaching, following a path that would leave me feeling limited. That doesn’t mean, however, that there wasn’t still fear in stepping outside that box and pursuing myself first.

Because of this, I do agree with Grede that, when it comes to work, no one is going to look out for you except for you. And this sentiment goes against everything a generalized American workplace wants you to think. It’s hard to stand your ground and set boundaries with work because we’ve truly been programmed not to, and doing so is frowned upon by everyone who is too far in, especially those who profit the most from your labor. If more working people start to be more strict with their work-life balance, institutions will eventually be forced to reckon with a new norm. I firmly believe this is true, as even Grede alluded to such changes in her interview. “That’s just not how we work anymore,” she said regarding an outdated lack of flexibility in work hours. 

TBT When I used to go to work sick only for balding women to talk about me behind my back.

This is one thing I love about Gen Z. If any generation has learned to stick it to the man in terms of work-life balance, it’s ours. For most of Gen Z, you literally could not pay us enough to go into work unless we really have to. I enjoy my new job right now, which is actually a rather huge thing for me to say, but at the end of the day, I will always prefer to not work. I know my value doesn’t come from a job. I know my happiness won’t increase if I overwork myself for the sake of an institution. I know any notion of “making the world a better place” can be done without a monetary profit involved. At the end of the day, I work to have money to pay for the things I need and hopefully a little extra. If I didn’t need to be an employee, I wouldn’t be! I would do pilates, volunteer, buy expensive coffee from a small business owner who runs a bookstore cafe, and run my own magazine, AKA become my own boss. I mean, that’s kind of the dream, isn’t it?

I often see people overextending themselves for jobs that don’t even align with their passions and/or come at the cost of their well-being. Even if you love your job, you shouldn’t be risking your physical or mental health, your relationships, or your interests for the sake of work. What is the benefit? So other work-obsessed people will identify you as “good at your job”? So you’ll be known around the office as “dedicated and dependable”? That’s just sad. If you have PTO time, please take it. If you have sick time, PLEASE take it, even if you just have a cold. And if you have neither of these things, but you feel burnt out and can spare a day of work without getting fired, just take a day off. “I won’t be able to make it in today. I apologize for the inconvenience.” End of discussion.

On the flip side, I know many people do not have a choice in terms of improving their work-life balance. They have to work a 40-hour work week to pay all their bills. Especially for those who live in a big city like Boston or New York, most of the time, they’re just working to pay rent and utilities. Add being a student on top of that, and it’s truly like someone materializing in front of you every two weeks with a vacuum, sucking up your entire check. If you can’t take the city out of the girl, you also definitely can’t take the girl out of the city. It’s something I’ve learned to accept. While there are ways to balance work and life, no one can say it isn’t difficult, and self-care during this time looks different for everyone. Take it easy, take a break whenever you can, and just remember, even if you are working long hours day after day, labor laws exist, and rest is eventually required!

“Disappear, babes,” Adele whispers when you clock out.

I can’t believe I used to spend so much time complaining to friends and family about how burnt out I was as a teacher when I was actually the only person who had control over changing that part of my life. Once I did, I became so much happier. Not only that, but I opened up space in my life to actually lean into my passions, such as becoming an editor and writing these blog posts (with no worry or remorse, I might add).

Until the world is ready to stop dehumanizing working people for profit, you have to watch out for yourself. I can assure you, your job will always ask more of you, and it’s on you to learn how to say no. Sometimes, saying no comes with what may look like a consequence. You may have to set boundaries and say no. You may piss people off. You may even have to give up your job and search for something better. Others may not understand your decisions. But if you’re putting yourself first, you will almost always come out on top, and the right people will stand by you. Secure the bag, and then leave! What are you waiting around for?

“A schoolmaster is a productive labourer when, in addition to belabouring the heads of his scholars, he works like a horse to enrich the school proprietor. That the latter has laid out his capital in a teaching factory, instead of in a sausage factory, does not alter the relation.” – Marx, Capital, Volume I, Chapter 16 (1867)

Boston Students! Grab a nice book and head over to Caffé Bene for 10% off with this coupon and a student ID!

Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.

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Where Are Women Allowed to Be Hot?

Thursday, April 10th, 2025

Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking about Bad Bunny’s Calvin Klein promotion for about three weeks. I am all for men in their tiny little undies looking all scrumptious for clothing brands, and it’s not just because the sight is easy on the eyes. Campaigns like Bad Bunny’s and Jeremy Allen White’s do more than just give the people what they want. When men take up sexualized spaces that have been historically imposed upon women, they highlight the gender discrepancy within partial-nudity reception. That’s what I’m also for.

Calvin Klein’s Instagram page has an audience of nearly 26 million. Bad Bunny appears in the most recent Calvin Klein campaign wearing just his Calvins, partially nude—something that’s been normalized for men in media but is often critiqued and policed when women do the same. 

Bad Bunny received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the internet for posing in his Calvins, with many comments thanking Calvin Klein for giving them such a godsend of photos (I don’t disagree here). Audiences reacted the same with Jeremy Allen White and many of the other men who have posed in their tighty whities, such as Jacob Elordi, Michael B. Jordan, and more.

Bad Bunny’s Calvin Klein ad, cropped to your displeasure.

What happens when we compare the reception to JENNIE’s Calvin Klein campaign, which featured comments from viewers such as “She has a nice body, but is it sexy?” What about Disha Patani’s? A follower wrote, “Nowadays, showing partial body is the next way to get popular and attention.”  Maya Jardon’s more conservative shapewear post didn’t miss getting hit either: “Why are you naked?” And then, for Lily Collins’ full-clothing campaign, a backhanded comment that almost had me hopeful, “This woman is sexy without showing anything,” plus a “this is not on brand.”

We can’t forget what happened to FKA twigs, either. In April 2023, Calvin Klein released an advertisement featuring FKA twigs wearing an unbuttoned denim shirt draped over her body, exposing parts of her butt and her breasts. It wasn’t too long after that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received two complaints alleging that the ad objectified women. Consequently, the ASA banned the ad, stating that it “used nudity and centered on FKA twigs’ physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object.” ​

FKA twigs publicly contested this ruling, expressing disappointment and highlighting double standards in advertising. She noted that similar campaigns featuring male celebrities, such as Jeremy Allen White, did not face the same scrutiny. In her statement, she emphasized her pride in her body and the empowerment she felt during the shoot, questioning why hers was deemed inappropriate:

“I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me. I see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine,” she wrote a day after the ban. “In light of reviewing other campaigns, past and current, of this nature, I can’t help but feel there are some double standards.” It’s still lost on the committee, which eventually responded that although they were concerned their “rationale for banning the ad was substantially flawed,” the photos were still overtly sexual, and thus the ban remained.

One of the FKA twigs Calvin Klein ad photos that wasn’t removed

As Summer approaches and Amiee Lou Wood’s White Lotus Bikinis sell out online, I’ve come to wonder, where are women allowed to be hot? 

Campaigns like Bad Bunny’s indirectly highlight how algorithms and moderation policies on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and others unevenly censor content based on gender and sexualization. Because of this, it seems women are not allowed to be hot in the Calvin Klein campaigns, which are quite literally designated spaces for partial nudity to be accepted. Online platforms as a whole tend to sexualize and censor women’s bodies far more than men’s, especially in similar attire. If we take modeling underwear out of the picture, there must be other spaces where women can be confident and attractive while not being policed for it, right?

Certainly not at the gym, where sports bras and biker shorts have become demonized by men who don’t know how to confront their own wandering eyes. “It’s practically narcissistic, if someone has a great six-pack and young girls have amazingly shaped bodies that they are showing off basically, they should cover up a little bit, you know,” said a gym owner on Irish radio whose comments have since gone viral and irritated plenty. Men can work out shirtless and semi-shirtless—for when those muscle tanks are cut up so much they show both the nips—but women can’t have a matching fit that highlights their physique? Are they just upset because men’s clothes aren’t as thematic and interesting as women’s? Do the guys just want cute matching sets, too? I’m trying to find an attainable solution. 

Clapbacks to the Irish man on TikTok

What about at work or school? Hilarious question. We’ve all seen Legally Blonde. Next.

Women also can’t be hot on the beach, where they’ll be reprimanded for wearing bikinis no matter what age they are. A council in Greater Sydney announced recently it would be banning G-string bikinis at its public pools without providing further details about how the rule will be policed. Last summer, actress Sydney Sweeney received criticism for posting photos in a long-sleeve one-piece wetsuit because it had a bikini bottom: “Didn’t she say she didn’t want to be sexualized anymore?” and “Who on earth made this mid famous?” In her op-ed, “Women – don’t get larger, don’t get older, don’t have fun, don’t dare to wear a bikini” for The Guardian, Barbara Ellen described the array of ridicule women get for showing skin: “Is she wearing a bikini? At her age? At that weight? Shouldn’t she be in a one-piece? Isn’t it all a bit undignified? On and on it goes.” 

Sydney Sweeney’s response to her haters

It definitely takes a toll on the mental wellness of women. What spaces are we left in to just be hot in peace? Where can we go where we won’t get bullied into wearing something we don’t like, only to still receive slander from the opposite end where we’re not hot enough? The scrutiny of women’s clothing and skin exposure is just a breeding ground for shame, fear, and self-consciousness. How often do we feel unsafe or objectified on a daily basis, not even during times of shorts and tanks, but when we’re fully clothed head to toe? How often have we dealt with anxiety and reduced self-worth because some man opened his mouth? This pressure to dress “modestly” or “appropriately” undermines self-expression and contributes to internalized misogyny, ruining our mental health and body confidence. It’s something we’ve experienced for years before and will continue to for years to come. 

It seems women are allowed to be hot anywhere that straight men are not present. If there are to be hetero-men present, there should be just one, and it should be your husband. If you’re single, and there are multiple men in the space, you’re still permitted to be hot, but in consequence, you will also have to be thirsty, immature, narcissistic, dumb, attention-seeking, and, above all, disreputable. And that’s just the way it goes for people with half a brain cell, apparently.  

I do think, however, that getting men some more matching workout sets could be onto something. Maybe a lavender 5-inch inseam short and crop tank? Can we get a Nike collab with Ryan Gosling on this? Asking for a friend.

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Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.

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The Mental Health Benefits of Being a Girl’s Girl

Thursday, March 20th, 2025

A few months ago, I wrote about how women perpetuating the patriarchy was taking a toll on me (as if it were new information). I was frustrated by the way I was being objectified by men and women alike, belittled and dumbed down into something along the lines of a rom-com side character scripted by Richard Curtis. I have lived long enough to know that when that happens, someone is simply projecting their own insecurities, but by god is it still so incredibly annoying. 

The truth is I don’t blame women, or men for that matter, for being insecure. The pressures we face today are unimaginable, and the standard of beauty and overall being is simply unattainable. If you’re not living off brand deals and traveling the world, are you really living? If you don’t have abs like Glen Powell, what kind of girl even wants you? And if you aren’t on the list of Forbes 30 Under 30, have you even found a purpose in life? It’s absurd what we compare ourselves to rather than appreciate all we’ve done. 

Societal pressure has left us all insecure at one moment or another, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. The point is how we handle that insecurity of ours. Maybe you’re insecure about your body type because the world has told you it doesn’t compare to Charlie’s Angels, but does it really make you feel better to comment “Jeez, put on some meat” under an influencer’s bikini pic? I may not blame anyone for feeling like they don’t measure up from time to time, but I will 100% blame women for putting other women down just to feel good about themselves.

According to Her Campus, “A recent social media phenomenon, the term ‘girl’s girl’ is used to describe women who support other women through every aspect of their lives, and not just the women directly in their lives either.” To be a girl’s girl takes active work. It involves dismantling the competitiveness and insecurities society has propelled onto us, which can be incredibly difficult when it comes to things we’ve been taught all our lives. 

My mom: the ultimate girl’s girl

If you’ve been so fortunate as to have primarily healthy female friendships all your life, you may think to yourself, “Well, I know a lot of girl’s girls, and I thought most girls were girl’s girls, so just how many aren’t?” You’ll be interested to find that someone calls a woman a ‘slut’ or ‘whore’ on X (formerly Twitter) almost 10,000 times per day, and half of those comments are from women, a 2016 Washington Post study stated. More interestingly, The Workplace Bullying Institute found women bully other women up to 80% of the time. And if it couldn’t get worse, a 2020 study by the United Nations found that about 90% of men AND women “hold some sort of bias against women, providing new clues to the invisible barriers women face in achieving equality, and a potential path forward to shattering the Glass Ceiling.” The truth is, the world needs a LOT more actual girl’s girls, not just performances.

It’s important for us as women to remember that being a girl’s girl extends far beyond just watching another girl’s drink at the bar. It’s in the way we speak to each other, the way we act with each other, and the way we stand up for one another. It’s in the way we stop ourselves from falling into sexist rhetoric, from using gender as an insult, from objectifying each other more than we applaud one another. Like the scene from Mean Girls, I’m sure we could all raise our hands and admit we’ve said things we regret about another girl. You’d think, though, that once we reach Ms. Norbury’s age at the latest, all the weird ‘girl-on-girl crime’ would just… fizzle out? 

In our 20s, it seems to just take on more forms. A random back-handed compliment from a friend here, an insulting up-and-down glance from a stranger there, A humiliation fetish disguised as a joke everywhere! Not to mention, it’s SO second-hand embarrassing for me and for everyone I tell afterward (Yes, I will absolutely gossip about the hurtful thing you said to me. It’s my way of coping). You should see the grimaces and furrowed brows that glide over everyone’s faces, the cringes and widened eyes that follow suit, and the “Um wtf!” texts that fly in like clockwork. If non-girl’s girls knew they came off this way, would they change their ways, like Regina George? Or would they still play victim, siding with misogynists, calling women hormonal b-words? I’d like to think they can still be saved.

Tally: another ultimate girl’s girl

If we support one another, uplift one another, and stand up for one another, it won’t only make us better people, but actually make us feel better, too. A study from the National Institute of Health states, “Friendships among women can provide critical social resources and promote overall wellness, feelings of self-worth, and empowerment. Findings from studies that examine these relationships among women indicate that the quality of friendship support is more important than the mere number. Supportive friendships, which are characterized by intimacy, nurturance, loyalty, and prosocial behaviors, are associated with heightened psychological and physical well-being.” 

Being a supportive girl’s girl is so important, especially in a world that has always been and still is against women. Uplifting other women creates a sense of community, which means we’ll have more people to hear us out and learn from in times of need. Hyping up our friends and strangers also shifts our mindset away from toxic comparison, because life is hard enough without mentally competing in a game no one actually wins. Plus, acts of kindness release feel-good hormones, so we’re not just being nice—we’re chemically hacking our own brains into happiness. At the end of the day, why make enemies out of the very people who could be your biggest allies?

“I love my husband, but it is nothing like a conversation with a woman who understands you. I grow so much from those conversations.” – Beyonce

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Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.

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Ashwagandha and Goji and Rose Hip, Oh, My!

Thursday, March 13th, 2025

I was recently watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta, season 15 (I know, I’m behind). There was a scene where the girls were dishing out some gossip, not over tea or coffee, but instead over Vitamin IV drips. It was a peculiar sight, but not one I hadn’t seen before. The reality stars of Selling Sunset also had a very similar scene. Still, I can’t get past the casualness of it. It reminded me of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives where they all meet up to gossip at the Botox office, inhaling the laughing gas like oxygen. Okay, maybe that one is a little different, but whatever happened to talking crap at the nail salon? Or while grabbing some appetizers? More than likely, I’ve simply become too exposed to reality TV ever since I bought a Peacock subscription. 

Most vitamin IV drips, also known as vitamin therapy, include vitamin C, B vitamins, magnesium, calcium, and electrolytes like Sodium and potassium. The anticipated plus side of using vitamin therapy as opposed to taking vitamins by mouth is that they enter the bloodstream directly, which users have expressed makes them feel better more quickly. Vitamin therapy has also been used specifically for hydration, especially in sports (or, in the reality TV world, hangover cures). 

Cynthia Bailey from RHOA getting a “Fountain of Youth” IV drip

While vitamin IV drips have definitely become a rising trend, especially for the rich and famous, I prefer to steer clear of needles. They make me feel queasy.

The idea of vitamin therapy, though, has me thinking about all of the different kinds of vitamins, supplements, and teas people take for a variety of desired effects. According to a study by Harvard University, approximately 50% of adults take a daily vitamin, and about 33% take a daily multivitamin. On any given day, over fifty percent of the American population drinks tea.

Most of the people I know are heavily into supplements. My mom used to take a handful of gas-station vitamin supplements a day when I was a child, and probably before that, too. Now, she takes more dignified vitamins from a vitamin store, of course. My sister and I take probiotic vitamins and multivitamins. My friends take magnesium supplements and calming gummies and gender-specific one-a-days. My boyfriend takes melatonin like it’s no one’s business. The list goes on.

Besides multivitamins, the only time I lean towards taking supplements is when they offer some kind of calming effect that I am desperate for. 

POV: You and I spill the tea over lavender stress-relief tea served in a Madame de Pompadour tea set.

I am no medical expert, but I do have a list of supplements, whether it be in pill, gummy, or tea form, that I choose from when I’m having an anxious or stressful day. They could be placebo, they could be legitimate, or they could be somewhere in between. Regardless, these are my favorite go-to supplements for calmness and relaxation:

*These recommendations are my own opinion and should not be taken unless consulted with a doctor. 

  • L-Theanine – I think of L-Theanine as my brain’s cuddle buddy. Found in green tea, this little amino acid boosts feel-good neurotransmitters like GABA and serotonin, helping me stay relaxed yet focused. It’s perfect for those days when stress is high, but I still need to get things done (which is pretty much every day).
  • GABA – When my brain feels like it’s in overdrive, GABA tends to slow it down. As the body’s natural calming neurotransmitter, it helps quiet racing thoughts, reduce anxiety, and even improve sleep. I like taking GABA at the end of the day to wind down before bed.
  • Chamomile – A warm cup of chamomile tea before bed isn’t just cozy—it’s science-backed stress relief. Chamomile’s antioxidants interact with our brain’s relaxation receptors, helping to melt away anxiety and promote restful sleep. I drink chamomile tea during the day when my anxiety is high, or at night when I want a good sleep. I like to throw in some lemon and ginger in there when I’m feeling a bit under the weather, too.
  • Ashwagandha – Period! This powerful adaptogen helps balance cortisol (our stress hormone), making us more resilient to daily pressures. Whether you need a mood boost or better sleep, ashwagandha has been known to help with anxiety and stress. Ashwagandha tea and gummies have always helped with my anxiety.
  • Lavender – There’s a reason lavender is in so many spa products. Its soothing scent and calming properties help reduce anxiety, lower stress hormones, and even improve sleep. Whether in tea, essential oils, or supplements, lavender feels like a cute lullaby for my nerves. I like throwing in a lavender shower steamer or two for extra relaxation after a workout. 

All in all, vitamins and supplements can be helpful to add to your diet, with many of them being scientifically proven to improve your mood, cognitive function, and stress tolerance. However, not every vitamin supplement is the magic cure marketers want you to believe—unless your wallet is feeling a little too full, like the reality stars and their extra IV drips. Before you start popping pills like a medieval king trying to avoid the plague (RIP King Henry the 8th, you would’ve loved vitamin B12), chat with your doctor to see what, if anything, you actually need.

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Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.

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Dodging Office Saboteurs: How to Stay Strong in a Challenging Work Environment

Monday, February 17th, 2025
Common Statistics of Workplace Bullying in America.

We like to think of bullying as something only kids go through when they’re learning about social hierarchies and how to approach people’s differences. Most of us are taught at a young age about the cycle of bullying and how to break the chain, however, as many as 45% of Americans say they have been bullied during adulthood. Often, adult bullies are more calculated than those we can recall from our childhood, as they tend to teeter the line between being domineering and unambiguously committing a form of harassment. This leaves workers questioning themselves, feeling uncomfortable, and struggling with their mental health.

According to the WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey conducted in January 2021, “30% of Americans have experienced workplace bullying; another 19 percent have witnessed it; 49 percent are affected by it; and 66 percent are aware of its occurrence.”

It can be hard to tell just what constitutes workplace bullying, but a lot of the characteristics are the same as what we learned in grade school. The Workplace Bullying Institute defines bullying as “repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms: verbal abuse, offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating; or work interference – sabotage – which prevents work from getting done.”

In a 2017 study, the Institute discovered that nearly 75% of workplace bullies are men, with 60 percent of that portion targeting women. Moreover, two-thirds of women workplace bullies (referred to as “mean girls”) target other working women.

When work issues get the best of me, I like to turn to my hobbies to bring me joy. Here’s a coconut lemon pie I made from scratch, which was sooooo delicious! Baking has become a very therapeutic pastime of mine.

 Aside from the more commonly known experiences like written or spoken personal insults, name-calling, or public shaming, workplace bullying also includes:

  • Intimidating or undermining employees by demeaning their work standards
  • Setting them up for failure and constantly reminding them of old mistakes
  • Threatening employees’ personal self-esteem and work status
  • Withholding Information that involves them
  • Making unreasonable demands, creating undue pressure and stress, and overworking employees
  • Giving constant and unfair criticism
  • Blaming without factual justification
  • Giving hostile glares and other intimidating gestures
  • Purposely excluding or isolating a coworker
  • Deliberately insulting others and taking part in behind-the-back putdowns
  • Monitoring another excessively
  • Ignoring personal boundaries

 A meta-analysis based on 140,000 participants showed an overwhelming amount of evidence that toxic work environments have an incredibly negative impact on mental health. This can even generate chronic stress and burnout, and it can lead to the worsening of any pre-existing mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression. Chronic stress has been linked to issues such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and a weakened immune system. After all, we spend about ⅓ of our lives working, so it’s no wonder how a negative work environment could impact us so tremendously. 

Another thing I do when the going gets tough is remind myself of how far I’ve come and where I’m headed. This is from December 2023 when I found out I was going to Emerson! Reminding myself of the small wins I’ve accomplished (like Emerson and being a part of Campus Clipper!) is a great way to stay positive and push through difficulties.

The most common tell-tale signs of toxic work environments that are often supplemented by frequent bullying include a lack of organization, high turnover rates, poor communication, gossip, a general absence of trust, micromanagement, and inappropriate work-life expectations. Often, we are unaware of just how toxic a work environment can be until we’re knee-deep in it, searching for a way out. Of course, many people are not in the privileged position to simply quit a job without having another one lined up immediately. What, then, do we do after we’ve found ourselves stuck? Surrounded by workplace bullies?

  1. Focus on the Positives, if Any 
    • Focusing our attention on the positive things about our work can help protect our mental health by shifting our mindset away from stress and frustration and toward moments of gratitude and personal growth. Finding small wins here and there can boost resilience, making it easier to maintain motivation and emotional balance, at least while you try to find a new job. 
  2. Keep Good Company
    • Having supportive colleagues can provide a sense of belonging, validation, and encouragement amid workplace stress. By building positive connections, we can also help counteract negativity, making it easier to navigate challenges and maintain our sanity.
  3. Leave Work at Work
    • Setting a boundary with yourself to leave work at work allows us to protect our personal time from stress and negativity that doesn’t belong there. Disconnecting helps us recharge, focus on self-care, and maintain a healthier work-life balance.
  4. Connect with HR
    • If your workplace has an HR, contacting them is incredibly important for your mental health and self-care because it ensures that acts of harassment and bullying are being documented and addressed, helping us create a safer and more respectful environment. Speaking up also reinforces the idea that we deserve to be treated with respect, and we won’t expect anything less. Most importantly, workplace laws protect employees from harassment and unfair treatment, and HR has a responsibility to uphold these standards to ensure a fair and lawful work environment. 
  5. Quit! 
    • Quitting a toxic job sometimes is the only way to protect our mental health. As we know, staying in a harmful environment can lead to overwhelming stress, anxiety, and burnout. It can cause us to lose self-esteem and feel like things won’t ever get better, and the consequences can be long-lasting, both mentally and physically. Prioritizing our well-being by leaving allows us to reclaim our peace, build confidence, and seek a healthier, more supportive workplace. Being upset every day you go to work is no way to be spending ⅓ of your life. Your future self will thank you.
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Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.

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The Benefits of Doing Things Alone

Wednesday, February 12th, 2025

Joanne and I sit next to one another at the theater for Life & Times of Michael K. As she stands up so I can take my seat, I compliment her tan faux fur hat and ski pants as a form of introduction. She is my height and frail, and her eyes have a smile to them that makes me inexplicably emotional. 

There’s silence for a few minutes as we settle in. I take pictures of the art deco ceiling and she reads the playbill. I play with my nails, and she smooths back her white hair into a thin ponytail, her hands shaking from an aggressive tremor. Then, when she takes a sip of her coffee, I gather up just enough courage to tell her this is my first time inside the Paramount Theatre, and I’ve made it a point to myself to do more things this year, even if it means doing them alone. I feel uncomfortable rambling to a stranger, but her smile has an earnest compassion to it, like that of a pre-k teacher listening to a child tell them about their weekend. Originally, she says, she was supposed to meet up with two girlfriends, one of whom is from Barbados and paid for her ticket. 27 degrees and overcast kept them at bay, but she loves doing things, too, anything to get out of the house, and she finds the theater especially “cathartic.” 

The Paramount Theatre before showtime!

Joanne tells me she’s been in Boston since ‘66 or ‘68, and she hardly ever goes back home to Minnesota because she finds it boring. There are valleys, however, along the Mississippi that she still dreams about, and great rolling hills and cliffsides. She sways her shaking fingers from side to side as she demonstrates the movement of the tall grass blowing in the wind. In her dreams, she goes everywhere, even the Notre Dame de Paris. She asks me if I liked growing up in Miami because it seems a lot less boring than Minnesota, but I tell her I don’t really like going back home either, and Miami reminds me of the girls in high school who had boating licenses and access to ketamine. I refrain from telling her my dreams often involve screaming because I want her to like me, the same way a granddaughter craves the approval of her matriarch.

When she finds out I’m a publishing grad student, she asks me what I think of the word ‘charming’ and whether it’s out of use. This is because she had a conversation about it with her siblings wherein she described one of her brothers as charming ‘even though he has brain damage’, and they found it weird to call someone with brain damage charming, so she’s been thinking about it ever since. I tell her I use the word charming relatively often, and I think it’s fine to describe her brother that way. She says I can call her Jo since that’s what her siblings call her, anyway.

Jo was a substitute teacher for a while and worked a bit in psychiatry, but she developed a neurological condition and has been retired for some time. After telling me this, she is quick to change the subject and mentions when she first came to Boston, she would go to all the libraries and bookstores and just sit there for hours and hours reading. She gestures with her hands in circular motions when she says ‘hours and hours’, and her eyes light up as she seems to regain a sentimental memory that has been out of thought for some time. Her brother also loves books, so they have a bond there. I tell her my brother and I were the first in our family to get degrees and they both happened to be in English, and she says it’s nice to have someone older than you who understands those things.

The best acting is at Central Square, and she prefers the interior design of the Paramount Theatre to the Opera House. She doesn’t know anyone in the mafia, but she knows a lot of Sicilians, and she doesn’t like their attitude. She says the only way to get used to the cold is to be in it often, and that rule applies to a lot of things in life. I’m not entirely sure what she means by this, but it sounds important.

The announcer comes on, and we quiet down. I am immersed in the play, but from time to time, my mind wanders to what Jo is thinking. There is something about her that reminds me of myself, though I can’t quite place it. In a way, I see her as an older version of myself, and I want to know her whole life story but feel too embarrassed to ask. I wonder if she’d think me a loser to ask her to coffee, as I’m sure when she was my age she didn’t want an old lady as a friend. I also wonder if she is going home to an empty apartment and might enjoy the company. 

Shakespeare in the Park from the first time I came to Boston by myself in 2019!

After the standing ovation, we slowly gather our things and put on our extra layers. I contemplate asking her what her plans are for the rest of the day, but as I shove my hands through the elastic of my jacket sleeves, she says, “It was nice to share a little bit of life with you.” I shake her hand and say “Maybe I’ll see you again at the next play,” and she agrees. As I’m heading down the stairs, she mispronounces my name in an attempt to remember it, but I don’t correct her, I just smile and say yes. I put on my earmuffs, open the theater door to the outside world, and cross the street to the cafe. I find myself waiting for her to walk out after me. I tell myself if she comes out within the next 5 minutes, I’ll run over to her and exchange emails. I wait for 10 minutes, but I don’t see her, so I leave. The whole encounter leaves me feeling refreshed and lost at the same time, like someone who takes their honeymoon alone. 

When I get off the trolley, I pass the local elementary school and baseball field. A flock of Canadian geese is resting in the milk-white snow, their long black necks coiled up into their feathers. They are sitting so still that they look like little pebbles. I think to myself that they must be stopping in from Quebec or New Brunswick, making their way down to Florida. 

I wonder if Jo enjoys the migrating geese in Minnesota, if they ever pop up in her dreams about the nature of her home state. I imagine a young Jo about 12 years old, sprinting through the Aspen Parkland prairies in the spring, her siblings at home waiting for her. The Canadian geese fly above her against the clear blue skies in a V formation. I make her hair blonde like mine, and I wonder if one day I will be in my 80s, trudging out through the snow to the Paramount Theater, alone. If I am, it will be an honor. 

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Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.

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How to Stay Somewhat Sane

Tuesday, February 4th, 2025
Another week of trying my best to not end up like Georgina Sparks

It’s 6:30 p.m. on a Sunday, and I’ve just had dinner—sausage and roasted asparagus. I head upstairs to fold the laundry and hang my dresses as reality TV plays in the background. When I finally crawl into bed, I shed a tear, and then a few more, and then a lot more. With blurry vision, I find myself clicking “pay” on a transaction for vintage Coach ballet flats I don’t need, and then I pour myself a tall glass of Prosecco. With a damp sleep mask over my eyes, I fall asleep to the sounds of 40-year-old narcissists screaming over Andy Cohen. I toss and turn throughout the night, and when I wake up, I’m puffy, nauseated, and a bit disoriented. 

This past weekend, I had brunch downtown with my two friends. We waited outside in 30° weather for gourmet omelets and signature lattes (they were luckily worth it). In between conversations about crispy tofu and men with anger issues, my friend Grace asked us if we’d been to Pressed, which is a popular cafe with a main location in Boston. My friend Amber and I thought Grace said, “Have you guys ever been depressed?”

 Slightly caught off guard by the apparent switch of topics, Amber responded with comedic elegance, “Yes, but it’s seasonal, and I have a happy lamp for that.” I followed, “I mean, hasn’t everyone from time to time?” The miscommunication was sidesplitting once we realized Grace was talking about hot paninis and not mental health issues, but it did get me wondering how many people might be feeling some variation of downcast lately, whether it be because of the season, politics, issues in their personal or work life, or just their biology. 

The signature latte in question

January was, in essence, the taking down of cheerful holiday lights, the drives back to work that grow drearier by the day, and the slow realization that the insolent Jack Frost is here to stay. Many Americans start falling into the rut of being low-energy, negative, and struggling mentally. With an election year on top of it, the levels of stress and anxiety around the country have only served as the cherry on top.

Some of us turn to escapism tactics like online shopping and celebrity drama. All in good fun, too much of anything is a bad thing. One Sunday night of wine and tears is excusable, but frequenting such activities is—say it all together now—self-destructive and detrimental to our well-being. I may not have all the answers or even relatively decent ones, but I’ve decided a list of ways to stay somewhat sane this winter is as good a start as any. Like Voltaire said, “Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”

Immersing myself in art is always a great way to get out of my head and appreciate my surroundings
  1. Practice Daily Gratitude: 
    • Focusing on things we’re grateful for can help shift our perspectives and make us feel less overwhelmed, especially during challenging moments. Whether you write out a list or just say it to yourself as it comes, practicing gratitude can encourage you to remember what you have, no matter how small, and foster a sense of stability within you.
  2. Accept Your Emotions: 
    • Acknowledging our emotions instead of hiding or trying to change them can help us prevent emotional build-up. We shouldn’t judge ourselves for feeling upset but instead, accept our negative emotions for what they are and use them to navigate our life with more clarity. 
  3. Get Off Your Phone:
    • Taking a break from our phones can help reduce stress and anxiety by limiting our exposure to negative news and social media. It also allows us to be present and make deeper connections with what is right in front of us daily.
  4. Set Small, Achievable Goals:
    •  Setting small goals can lead to more celebrations that boost our confidence and make progress more satisfying. By breaking up our long-term goals into more manageable steps, we can make our dreams feel more attainable. 
  5. Laugh With Friends:
    • Getting together with friends provides us with a sense of belonging that can help offset the stressors in our lives. Additionally, our friends serve as a great support system that can lift our dopamine levels!
  6. Avoid Negative Language: 
    • Positive self-talk opens our minds up to the possibility of things going our way. If we are constantly looking for the bad in us and our surroundings, we’re more likely to find it in everything. This can cloud our perception and send us into a spiral. Oppositely, if we train our brains to look for the good first, we can actually lessen our anxieties.
  7. Get Yourself a Little Treat: 
    • Of course, rewarding ourselves with even something small provides a psychological boost and solidifies a method of self-care during tough times. It serves as a reminder that we deserve kindness and moments of joy, especially when we need it most.
  8. Ask For Help
    • If you’re feeling like your emotions are weighing heavier than you can handle, it’s important to reach out to a professional who can offer support. Talking to a therapist or counselor can help you navigate through any kind of tough time. We don’t have to go through it alone, and there’s no shame in asking for help when we need it.
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Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. She is currently a teacher, specializing in middle school history. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.

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