I meant to write a column while I was in Indiana. I even imagined what it would be like to sit on campus, enjoying the sunshine and pleasant bustle of the counseling center with my new Pixelbook sitting on my lap tray. The reality of the…
The Wolf Finally Frees Itself
— Brianna Albers
Brianna Albers (she/her) is a crip-cyborg storyteller living in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type 2 in 1996 and lives with co-occurring physical and mental health conditions. By day she works as an advocate, bridging disability and mental health awareness to empower people to live their best lives; by night, she dabbles in imagination, and is currently writing “An Angel in the Garden,” an adult space fantasy with #OwnVoices disability representation. Find her online at briannahopealbers.com and on social media @briehalbers.
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I knew things would change when my mom retired. For one thing, there was going to be a whole third person hanging around our house; for most of my life, it was just my dad and me, with my mom winning the proverbial bread every day of the week.
I’ve been struggling to get back into the swing of things now that my friends are gone. And not just with schoolwork, either. Basically, anything that isn’t Dungeons & Dragons, “National Treasure,” or self-insert role-play is having a hard time keeping my…
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…
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