The Wolf Finally Frees Itself
— Brianna Albers

I’m writing this the night before my best friend’s plane lands in the U.S. I’ve been working nonstop the past three weeks to make sure everything is ready for her arrival, so this installment of my column probably won’t sound as nice or be…

My parents and I have been traveling to Iowa every weekend for the past few months. We recently bought a vacation home in Wisconsin, and we’ve been getting the farm that my mom inherited ready to sell. Other than painfully slow Wi-Fi and a less-than-comfortable bed…

I’ve never liked my voice. I went to speech therapy as a child, and people have struggled to understand me for as long as I can remember. I learned at a young age to let my parents talk for me. Even now, at…

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed that I’ve been posting a lot of selfies lately. I’ve written about my complicated relationship with selfies before, and I’m forcing…

Those of you who’ve followed my column for a while know I try to be honest about what I’m going through. I don’t pretend my life is perfect for many reasons, one being that … it isn’t. As nice as it is to curate a “life”…

I deactivated my Facebook account a while back, so I’m trying to be more active on other social media platforms. This is partly to keep in touch with people and partly to curate a more professional presence online. I rarely ever take pictures, but I’ve always…

When I started grad school earlier this year, a friend told me that I could not, under any circumstances, start to psychoanalyze the people in my life. I laughed because technically we’re not supposed to do that anyway. I told her she didn’t have…

I’m lucky that I was diagnosed at a young age, too young to remember anything that happened. I was talking to my father about it the other night, how he and my mother sat shell-shocked across from the doctor, listening to explanation after condolence…

You know how sometimes a comment can stick with you? That’s been my life this past week. It was something my dad said a while back. I don’t even remember the context, though I’m pretty sure it was random, out of the blue. “You…

I’ve never been all that interested in the Oscars. I prefer TV over film and, anyway, I can trust social media to keep me informed of the fashion highlights. Still, I’ve found myself getting reluctantly dragged into the discourse surrounding the lack of diversity…

I recently switched therapists. I’ve only seen her a few times, but I already have a good feeling about it. She’s survived two different types of cancer and has a wheelchair for when her chronic illness flares up. Her daughter also was misdiagnosed with…

I officially graduated with my bachelor’s degree in December, but I only just received my diploma in the mail. I’ve been expecting it for weeks now, but it was still kind of surreal, opening the manila envelope and seeing my name in fancy script,…