Note: This is an essay that was written for and published on The Frisky in 2011. However, the site has since shut down and my essay has disappeared… But the internet gods allowed me to find it in its entirety, so I am re-posting it here since a) it was fun to write & b) this piece was an important part of my emotional development so I wanted to continue to share it. Enjoy! I met Omar* at a New Year’s Eve party shortly after graduating college. He was 6’2″ and built with dark brown eyes and black wavy hair that fell below his ears. I was a 5’2″ chubby bookworm who had recently…
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The lesson I learned about myself on my first Valentine’s Day with a partner
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Valentine’s Day isn’t for everyone. It’s a very specific, sort-of-made-up holiday that tends to favor those in love and fans of cheesy gestures of affection. I have never in my life been one of those people. Sure, I was a self-admitted hopeless romantic but I usually kept my romanticism where it belonged: cheesy boy-meets-girl rom-coms. I’m not someone who has been counting down the days until a cute boy puts a ring on it with a secret wedding planner scrapbook under my bed since I was 16, nor did I want to be. Which is why it might seem fitting to…
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How my boyfriend got me to eat healthy again (and visa versa)
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Sometimes it takes falling in love to remind you of some of the things that are important to you. For me, that something was healthy eating. I have quite a complicated relationship with food. After a lifetime of being overweight, losing 90 pounds with Weight Watchers in college, regaining most of it shortly after and finally getting a gastric bypass in 2009, I’m finally settled at a weight that I am happy and comfortable in. Unlike many people who have had weight loss surgery, I’ve been able to maintain (most of) my 100 pound weight loss. I did it largely thanks to embracing…
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Why is it so hard for us to accept true generosity when we date?
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. I wrote this piece in a bout of excitement, elation, love, wonder, guilt and generally feeling both really happy and a little down on myself. It’s been a month and a half since that moment, but this still rings true. Enjoy! Tonight, as I lay in his arms, I asked my boyfriend if it was okay for me to get out of bed because I was inspired to write – inspired by the love that we share, the special gift that he shared with me that evening and the constant flow of kindness I experience from him. “Of course,” he immediately…
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How early is it TOO EARLY to travel in a (fairly new) relationship?
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. After dating for just over two months, Adam and I made a pretty monumental decision: we sent in our applications to get our passports renewed. You see, mine was due to expire and his had already been expired. I can’t quire remember exactly when in our relationship we had initially talked about it, but by the time we got there it seemed like the most natural thing. So one Saturday a couple of weeks ago, we went to the local CVS to take our passport photos. I had already filled out both applications, we signed them and away they went! I…
