Survival Guides Archives

A Letter to the Aces

By : Miranda Kargol December 9, 2020 Comments Off

From one ace to another, here are a few things that I want to tell you: Asexuality is a real orientation, no matter what anyone else says. People who identify as asexual make up about 1% of the population. Even though that is a small percentage of people, it still adds up to about 78 million people! No matter what society tells you, there are 78 million other people around the world who can prove them wrong. You are not alone. You can think that people look attractive. When I first discovered asexuality, I was very confused about how I could be asexual, but also find people attractive. This made me really uncomfortable for a while, because I thought that I couldn’t be asexual and also think that people are

Thanksgiving Hate Mail

By : Angie Williams November 29, 2020 01 Comment

On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up feeling relaxed, refreshed and determined to knock out some work before celebrating one of my favorite ( albeit subdued because of the pandemic) holidays. That was short-lived when I checked my emails around 8 AM. "You should've killed yourself back in 05." It was a simple pointed message from someone named Alvaro C in response to an ad placed on Craigslist in DC to recruit new writers. My initial reaction was, "Well, this person has nothing else better to do with their lives," and laughed it off. Over the next hour or so, I thought of at least 50 different responses that I could've sent to this message, from passive-aggressive phrases to expletive-laden rants. In the end, I had to remind myself of one

Staying Sober During Shelter-in-Place

By : Maira McDermott September 9, 2020 Comments Off

In March of 2015, I quit drinking. This came after a (literal) dry run of staying sober for all of the year prior, thinking I had finally gotten my drinking under control, and realizing that I did not. It took me three months to realize that if I kept drinking the way that I was - predominantly bingeing on shots and wine - I would not make it to 25. My mental health was all over the place, and I noticed that my prescribed antidepressants weren’t working the way they should. This, I realized later, was because I was rapid cycling, a term used to describe when someone experiences four or more episodes of hypomania, mania, or depression in a 12-month period. I was once again self-medicating with alcohol for

Navigating Professional Settings as a Nonbinary Person

By : Sage August 19, 2020 Comments Off

Navigating Professional Settings as a Non-Binary/Trans* Person Coming out as non-binary or trans* can be uncomfortable in straight, cis-normative settings - especially the workplace. At work, we may not feel we can speak up when we are uncomfortable, defend ourselves from inappropriate comments, or express ourselves in the same way would if we were off the clock. We may not have LGBTQ+ colleagues or friends at work who can relate to our experiences or allies we can turn to for support when we need help. We may fear potential consequences of coming out such as discrimination, harassment, or disciplinary action. Coming out has been an important and deeply personal part of my journey to live an authentic and meaningful life, and when I share this aspect of my identity with

Surviving a Queer High School Relationship from Teen to Adult

By : Sam Weiner July 18, 2020 Comments Off

The mainstream narrative surrounding high school relationships is usually to break up when both of the individuals go to college. It is hard enough transitioning from being a child to a young adult without outside pressure to break up with the person who has been your support system. This is especially hard for gay couples because often times, as was the case with me, our partner is the only person who fully understands what we are going through as a queer person in society. I met my girlfriend when we were fifteen, we started dating when we were sixteen, and we are now twenty-four and going strong. Both of our parents accepted our relationship, but they would constantly tell us that we needed to “find ourselves” in college. Sometimes I

Navigating LGBT+ Representation in Media

By : Audrey July 18, 2020 Comments Off

There’s no doubt that good LGBT+ representation, in basically any form of media, is still hard to come by nowadays. Being part of the community, I tend to cling onto whatever LGBT+ related movie or television show I can get as most of us do. Which can sometimes be a problem as I have to bear witness to all the ways an LGBT+ related story can be poorly executed. It’s often the same story repeated over and over again: coming out, facing backlash, finding a support system, and getting a partner. Yes, this is a very common experience that LGBT+ individuals face, but it’s also an extremely safe story to tell. The LGBT+ character, in this case, is most likely to be white, cis, and male. The piece of media

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