For a period of time after I broke up with the man I’d been dating for four years, all I wore was black. I mourned the relationship by donning a widow’s wardrobe. Shapeless t-shirts, a wool sweater with a stretched out collar, an old pair of ballet slippers. I couldn’t imagine any other combination, besides […]
I knew what it was as soon as I opened my mailbox. I picked up the large envelope addressed in lovely calligraphy to Ms. Ami Angelowicz. I held it in my hand, for a moment. It felt heavy. I tossed it on my kitchen table. I’ll open it later, I thought. I’m not quite ready to deal […]
Don’t get me wrong. I was a step-kid. I know how hard it can be to be a kid and your parent who used to be married to your other parent starts dating somebody who is not your parent. It’s not easy for anybody: the parent, the potential step-parent, or the kid. So when I […]
My dad is gay. It is usually after I have known you for a little while before I will say those words to you. Sometimes it’s our first long conversation, when people go through the whole “Where are you from; what do you do; where’d you grow up?” script that everyone in the world receives […]
People say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Then allow me, Keysha Whitaker, to declare myself insane … at least in my dating life. I’m a 31-year-old woman of color who keeps dating the same type of man, over and over. Unfortunately, they often end up […]
Not long ago, I was promoted to Associate Editor at the local Toronto magazine where I had been working as an Assistant Online Editor. Shortly after receiving the news, I cried at my desk. They were not tears of joy. No. These were snot-is-coming-out-of-my-nose-running-into-my-mouth tears. These were I-am-an-uglier-crier-than-James-Van-der-Beek tears. My co-worker sent me an email, […]
Here is a collection of memories from my childhood. I am in kindergarten, it is story time, I am wearing a turtleneck that itches at my neck and I am not feeling well. I throw up on the rug, in front of everyone, sobbing hysterically, and my father leaves the campus where he’s teaching to […]
Seven years ago, I was doing an internship in Mexico and attempting proficiency in Spanish. One night at a club with some friends, I nearly broke my face after slipping on the booze-soaked floor. Had I been with English-speaking friends, I would have dusted myself off and uttered with a sly smile, “Well, that was […]
The first thing anyone asks a battered woman is, “why did you put up with that?” Domestic violence is the only crime I can think of—well, besides rape—where the victim is treated as complicit in her own abuse. This is why I rarely talk about my two-year relationship with a batterer. I wasn’t a housewife […]
