“Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today because if you enjoy it today, you can do it again tomorrow.” ~ James A. Michener

The definition of procrastination is “to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done.” Generally, we think of procrastinating as avoiding unpleasant tasks, but do you ever find yourself putting off doing things you honestly enjoy?

If there is one thing living through a global pandemic has taught me over the last year, it’s that you have to take joy where you can find it, as often as you can find…

When it comes to voicing complaints about the current state of my body, I have lost track of the number of times I’ve heard, “you’re young, wait until you’re my age” — as if being young is somehow a magical cure-all. As someone who lives with chronic back pain, I find it incredibly frustrating when people continuously dismiss my concerns based on some arbitrary stereotype which dictates that being young means I can’t have any health issues.

For the record, this is categorically untrue. I can assure you that being young is not a get-out-of-pain-free card. If only it were…

I’ve been taking the city bus to work every day for well over a decade. Now, I don’t know about the public transit where you live, but the bus rides here can get pretty adventurous sometimes. You never know what kind of people you’re going to encounter along the way. Hence I always come armed with headphones AND a book to read. I give off prominent “leave me alone!” vibes. But apparently, some people are a little slow on the uptake. I decided to clarify some things for the guys out there who can’t seem to take a hint …

1. …

The year 2020 was certainly full of unexpected hardships. No one could have predicted the challenges we would face trying to navigate a global pandemic for most of the year. While it would be easy to focus solely on the last year’s negative aspects, I’m choosing to take a different route. As we approached the end of this horrid year, I decided to focus on the positive side.

Here are some of the good things I experienced in 2020:

My only vacation this year

Back in early March, I took a trip to Las Vegas with my mother. We spent a week vacationing, then reunited…

Growing up, Christmas was always my favorite time of year. The decorations, the songs, the Christmas movies. I loved all of it. I especially loved our family’s Christmas traditions and picking out the perfect presents for the people I loved. Christmas was never about getting gifts for me. It was always about giving.

However, years of working in retail slowly but surely killed my passion for Christmas music. You can only hear the same songs on an endless loop for so long before you want to rip your ears off just to make it stop. …

Dear customers,

I know this year has been challenging. It has been an incredibly long ten months for all of us. I know you are all tired of living the pandemic life, and you want normality back.

Trust me. We do too.

But the pandemic is not over yet!

The vaccine is coming, but that doesn’t mean things can instantly go back to the way they were before. For the foreseeable future, if you are going to be out shopping, please wear a mask. Even if you are one of those people who thinks it is pointless — because what…

Sometimes I feel like jumping out of my skin.
I feel like ripping out my spine and heaving it over a cliff.
I would settle for the ability to trade it in for a new one, though.

When are spinal transplants going to become a thing?

Why can’t I just be normal?
Why do the simplest things always have to be a struggle?
Why can’t I just have one day where I don’t feel any pain or discomfort?

Why? Why? Why?

I never get any answers, but I can’t stop asking the questions. I can’t stop raging at the world…

When I first started writing on Medium back at the end of August, I thought it was just going to be a casual hobby. People have always told me that I have a way with words. I thought, what better way to express myself than by using a platform where anyone is allowed to publish anything? I had no clue that it was merely the beginning of a journey I sorely needed to undertake.

As I write this, I have just completed my third full month of writing. I initially expected to write a handful of articles about things I…