The only rule is insanity — According to 23 and Me, I should know how to play chess. Of course, that’s not what the app actually said, but I am, in fact, Indian, and Indians are supposed to be able to play chess. That’s one stereotype. The best I can do is checkers. What a shame. …

In the wake of yet another sexual assault, I’m struggling to let go — “I should be used to this,” I told my friend Kelly. The two of us were sitting in a car meant for a family of at least eight. I laughed, just thinking about it. I laughed at everything she said. I couldn’t stop. In Kelly’s car, I giggled. I cackled…

Dissociation is my refuge — The world is a dangerous place, and I want a gun. I suppose I could end my story here, the way I do in casual conversation; six letters and a perfectly placed apostrophe stop further questions in their tracks. I’m fine. I tack on a “thanks for asking” if I’m…

I Don’t Want to Lay My Weapons Down — I am from the jungle. Of course, it’s not really the jungle anymore, and I’m not even really from there, but a man who considered himself Wise Once said that I am what my father is. …

Learning to embrace former triggers — I have eggs in my refrigerator. For the first time in over two years, I have eggs I intend to use in my refrigerator. I open the door, look at the eggs for a fleeting moment, then close the door again, but I will use the eggs. I promise to…

And I’ll continue to do so — When I was a kid, I thought love was a bad word. That, along with ‘stupid’ and ‘yucky.’ I remember the day my little sister, only two years old at the time, proclaimed that I was yucky. That didn’t go over well. Neither did the time I was trying to…

Rest easy — Sometimes, a story is the toothpaste still left in the tube when my little sister proclaims that it’s empty. Other times, it is the first rain of the season, the kind that heals the cracks in the dry earth like much-needed Vaseline for the chapped lips of a middle school…

The world lived on — I have rules. It is true that I am far from picky: I believe that most home repair jobs can be completed with nail glue and I readily perform these jobs myself. …

My lived experience is my contribution — Two years ago, the sun fell out of the sky. Or at least, that’s how it felt because our daytime star refused to shine. Rochester December’s are really something, a different breed of cold. The kind that used to make my eyelashes freeze, a thousand years ago when I was…