Tag: feeling
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The Things People Don’t See
People see me back at work, eating again and getting my life back. What they don’t see is the depression, the fear, the 25 pounds gained in one month, or the handfuls of hair I’m losing. Three days. That’s all the hair in these pictures represents. I’m recovering physically, but emotionally, there are parts of…
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Before Jules, There Was Julia
Before Jules was a tattoo artist, she was Julia, a shy little tomboy drawing horses on a cattle farm in Manchester. This is the story of the people who shaped her, the hard seasons that strengthened her, and how a life built around art, authenticity, and connection became unmistakably her own.
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To Understand Fetch, You Have to Meet Gretchen
You may know Gretchen as a chef or as the woman behind Fetch, but there’s a whole lot of life behind what she’s building. She’s fierce, funny, vulnerable and completely herself. There’s so much more to how she got here than most people know. This is Gretchen, and I really want you to know her.
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What You Cannot See
There is a strange loneliness in looking like yourself while quietly losing the ability to live like yourself. I have spent years learning how to push through a body that doesn’t always cooperate, but lately I can feel those reserves running out. This is the part of illness you cannot see from the outside, the…
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Three hours until takeoff
Three hours before I was supposed to leave for the airport, I was sitting in an emergency room listening to a doctor explain why I shouldn’t get on the plane. My heart sank as I realized I had to choose between the safest decision and a dream I’d carried for years.
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The Weight of Wonder
Two nights before leaving for the Pacific Northwest, I find myself surrounded by wrinkled itinerary pages, hiking gear, and a dream I’ve carried for nearly half my life. What begins as a story about planning slowly becomes something much deeper: learning that simply standing in the place you’ve longed for can matter more than finishing…
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Chapter Seven: Return to Wonder | Perfectly Imperfect Life
For years, the Pacific Northwest has lived somewhere in my imagination. As July begins, I’m reflecting on why some places stay with us long before we’ve ever arrived and how learning to notice beauty has quietly changed the way I move through the world.
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The Things Beneath the Thing
Lately I’ve been reminded that trauma rarely lives in one moment. It weaves itself through years of experiences, attaching itself to people, words, memories, and feelings we don’t even realize are connected. This week, my brain decided it was finally time to show me a few of those connections, and as uncomfortable as that was,…
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241 Days Later
For so much of the last week, I have been focused on what felt broken. The Body Dysmorphia. The RSD. The exhaustion. The darkness that likes to lurk in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to convince me that I am weaker than I really am. Monday reminded me that while those things may always…
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Loved Anyway
After several days spent battling Body Dysmorphia, RSD, exhaustion, guilt, and self-doubt, I walked into my first confession expecting to leave feeling lighter. That isn’t exactly what happened. What I found instead was something I wasn’t looking for: reminders that even in the middle of my mess, my mistakes, and my struggles, people kept showing…
