Learning to put myself first.

I am learning to put myself first...even when it hurts. Parts of my childhood and teenage years were consumed with surviving, making me wonder what my ACE score was. An ACE score, "is a tally of different types of abuse, neglect, and other hallmarks of a rough childhood," (Starecheski, 2015). It has been recognized that …

Honesty, Connection, and Grace

One of my dearest friends recently moved back to Montenegro and I keep finding myself yearning for our heart to hearts. Instagram picture shares, emailing, texting and face timing tend to fall short. The other day in one of our limited media platforms, we had a brief conversation that I cannot stop thinking about. We …

The Ides of March

Oh bittersweet March, how I dread you and anticipate you all in the same. I never understood why people who lost loved ones religiously dedicated death dates to ceremoniously mourn...why they would spend that day mourning, posting on their social media accounts and making the rest of us unbearably uncomfortable trying to find comforting words …

A Mother by Different Standards

In the wake of the early 20's of my life. That is where I am and it is in full swing and yet I am beginning to feel something that I have read about before. It is this feeling when the tiny humans you have vested all of your love and energy into begin to …

Postcard Signed Me to Me

My high school boyfriend was a few years older than me which meant that he started college before me. When he went to college, he sent me a letter every month. We talked on the phone so it wasn't our means of communication, but instead he used it as a way to express his love …

The Embodiment of Sarcasm: Women of bargains, common sense, and too many animals.

You know when you see a family and there is not a single doubt in your mind that they are biologically related? Well that is how my mom and her sisters are/were: The Inscho Girls. If we are all honest, the genes extend to some of our cousins. And since I look like my mom, …

Cookies and Their Maker: An Intro to Mothers of a Motherless Daughter

I was slowly but surely becoming a woman and making decisions on what type of woman I should be. I was talking back and rolling my eyes (more than normal). I  was insecure and clumsy. I was indecisive (still am) and confused. But all of a sudden a train came rollin' right on in. It …

The Weed Killer

Yesterday was a day. A day that I complained about to just about everyone. Let's just say that the people I passed on the sidewalk probably heard me whine above the normal octave. I had to teach a lesson that I wasn't comfortable with. It had little mobility and it was not the most creative …

She speaks at fourteen.

Sometimes you look back at a day in your life and it comes to you only in still photos; snap shots at the pain or sometimes at the excitement that unfolded. There is one day in my life that flashes through my mind in those still moments more than others: the day my mom died. …

To be raised without a mother

There is something truly heart wrenching in losing those that you love. For me my first real experience of that pain was the loss of my mother. Nothing in my young life could have prepared me for the emotions I would experience as a result of it. Losing a mother or any parent for that …