I see you. I know sometimes it feels like we’re standing in our own cubes with a glass wall around us and people are looking at us, but they can’t see us, they can’t come inside our cube and understand all of us, they can only observe from the outside. So we try to describe it and tell them so they can really know who we are and so they can confirm that they know, but words don’t ever do feelings justice. We speak around our feelings but never seem to get it exactly right.

No matter how many words we use, we always still feel a little bit unseen or a little bit unfelt, especially if we’re successful. Success makes things difficult, it takes us out of the norm. It makes us not the same, not fit in, it makes us an exception. And we want to be an exception, but it’s hard too. We want to stand out but we also want to fit in, too. Fitting in is comfortable. It feels like acceptance. Connecting with people in ways you see them connecting with other people confirms that we’re not weird because being successful makes us feel like we’re weird. …

Dear Medium Staff,

Thanks for all you do. I am really loving the new updates and algorithm changes. They make all kinds of sense. I appreciate the work you’re putting into the platform, it is by far my favorite writing platform.

I hope your bubbles are staying safe and healthy, happy holidays, well wishes for the new year ahead, and THANK GOD TRUMP IS LEAVING OFFICE!!!

Ok, now that the niceties are out of the way…

Could you please separate these two features?

Don’t tell people they’re not the label they’ve chosen to adopt

I appreciate the pro-choice argument that more abortions could be avoided through various societal changes, access to healthcare, fewer barriers to facilitating survival, and more education. I don’t accept the idea that the term pro-life has or should have a certain definition. Taking someone’s label from them and reapplying it to other circumstances is aggressive and disrespectful.

Self-identification is a private and personal matter. We are here only to receive people as they present themselves. …

At nine months pregnant in the middle of a pandemic, I was breaking down pretty much daily. One thing after another caused me to panic; was I going to be able to breathe through a mask during labor? Would I be able to labor without pain medication if I couldn’t breathe through my mask? Would my husband be allowed in the room to support me and receive his baby into this world?

These thoughts were stewing in the back of my mind since the beginning of the pandemic but as my due date was approaching, they became center-focus. I was afraid and angry, and feeling desperate. I just wanted my husband there with me, that’s all I cared about. …

It’s been such a long time since any of us have had a good night out… can you even remember how you used to get ready? Maybe you take showers that steam up the bathroom, meet societally-imposed shaving expectations on all sections of your body. Wear a brand new outfit. Slick back your hair. As you’re getting ready you imagine life is better, happier—even for just a few moments, a few hours laced together.

Right before you walk out the door—to avoid sweating too much in your new shirt—you throw on the final piece, button it carefully, shake your pant legs, and give it all another once-over before heading out to meet your equally coiffed friends. …

What does it mean to have rights?

Imagine a mouse placed in a maze. There is prepared food at one end. Performing a series of preset actions will lead the mouse directly to the prepared food, there may be some diversions and delays, but eventually, he’ll make it, to some amount of prepared food, as long as he keeps working the maze.

He could starve to death while working on the obstacles, that is a real possibility, but if he works hard enough—or smart enough—he should be able to get to the food without issue. …

Sometimes, we need others to reflect back to us who we are in order to validate ourselves. We need confirmation that who we’re trying to be, who we want to be, is coming across to other people, that we are succeeding in being the selves we’re building.

Not all things can be resolved internally.

The kind of person we are, our humanness, is not only about how we treat ourselves. That is one experience, one relationship, within our humanness. Our completeness is made up of all our relations — to people, to animals, to things.

How people and animals and things experience us, is what makes up our existence. We cannot always be simultaneously treating ourselves a way *and* feel that way we’re being treated. …

I continually pose this question to Trump supporters who are claiming fraud and election misconduct. Nobody is willing to answer though... Why couldn’t Biden have just won?

The responses vary from, “Come on, do you really think he didn’t cheat?” to “Listen, I believe they cheated, you don’t and you’re not going to convince me”, or sometimes inquiring as to how I cannot possibly believe the signed, sworn affidavits of the poll watchers.

But in all seriousness, why is it implausible that people were sick of Trump?

No Senate Action

Since Trump’s nomination to the Republican party, people have been divided on whether they love or hate him. Of course, there are those who block their eyes and ears and vote for him based on some unfounded claim of preferring republican policies or aligning ideologies. …