I begged my dad for a dog. I was in eighth grade. It had been one year since my mom died, and my sister had just left for college. I was suddenly the only child in the house – just me, my dad, and our quiet grief. At school, I was
Today, Paulina represents the idyllic image of a happy family — mother of two with a loving husband. She cherishes her family above all else. Her drive to create a close, loving, and supportive family derives from a traumatic childhood that never provided the familial love she has today. Loss and
On Monday mornings at 7 a.m., runners lace up their shoes and gather outside a local coffee shop in Austin, Texas. Rain or shine, they run not just for fitness, but for healing. Leading the group is Sam. Sam wasn’t always a runner. Just a few years ago,
Hava grew up under stares and whispers. Surrounded by constant judgment, two things kept her afloat: her family and her violin. Hava picked up the violin as a young child, just as a rare genetic condition—Trichorhinophalangeal Syndrome—began to shape how she saw herself. “It’s incredibly, incredibly rare,
Mindy’s story begins before she was born, shaped by two people who fled for their lives. Her mother and father—who hadn’t yet met—escaped from Europe during the Second World War. “They fled to Holland, but when Hitler invaded, they caught the last ship out of Amsterdam.
“I never thought I’d make it through high school—let alone college,” Bayley says. But this past May, he earned his bachelor’s degree. “It seems like a dream,” he says. “It’s crazy that I’m here now, but I’m very thankful for it all.” For Bayley,
Emily Lubin was a little girl who loved performing for her family — funny, full of life, yet already aware that her body was being judged. For as long as she can remember, she was critiqued and picked apart for her appearance. “I was about 10 years old, and I was
“I remember talking to the trees and the forest. And I would talk to the insects falling into the barrel of rainwater. I was creating live stories for them.” Hope Silver, the pen name of Nadezhda Serebrennikova, has always brought the magic of her reality to life through writing. Writing
“I don’t want a cleaning person. Being able to clean and scour bathrooms reminds me that I’m okay still.” You wouldn’t know, just by looking at her, that Jackie is living with stage four cancer. She prefers it that way, because the emotional toll of sharing her
Sharen stood in front of me in a pink shirt with pink nails, eating saltines and spooning melted chocolate ice cream. She was slouching confidently—4 foot 8 and 65 years old. “This is my dinner,” she said, shaking the saltines. “The white lab coat syndrome,” she began. “They’re
“Prison is a whole different world,” Charles Says. “I damn near got beat to death in prison, but I’m here. God saw me through it.” He describes prison as a brutal, survivalist environment. “The prison system is a dog-eat-dog world,” he explains. “If someone approaches you, they’re probably
Charles walks free after four years in prison for indecent exposure, but the sentence still shadows his daily life. It wasn’t until after his release from prison that, at age 50, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Before the diagnosis, he was barraged with medications to tame him in