Social media. Can’t live with it. Can’t live without it. Even though this saying is cliché, it definitely applies for social platforms. I have found some really inspirational things and met some really nice people through different social apps and websites. Yet sometimes, I feel overwhelmed by social media. Especially on Facebook. As an introvert, it is already hard for me …Read More >
The InStepp Blog: Our Perspective
Visit the InStepp Blog often to get our perspective on issues and local events. Our bloggers continually scan the internet looking for news, ideas and other information of potential interest to our readers.
Shrinking Toward Growth
I began stashing food in dresser drawers when I was seven years old, after I had experienced trauma. By high school, I held steady at 5’2” and 142 pounds. While I was not ‘fat’—a fact I would neither see nor believe until much later in life—most of my female classmates held steady at a relatively equal height and in the low 100s. As an undergraduate, while I found …Read More >
Sing Like Her
It rained today. A steady, hard, summer-in-the-south kind of rain. The kind of rain that makes the air feel thick enough to take on a persona of its own. At 4:45 pm I took note of two things: 1) It was time to “call it a day” at work, and 2) I would be succumbing to a mad-dash-sprint-in-heels finale to the day. I had, yet again, forgotten my umbrella. As I watched the rain …Read More >
The Collision between Life and Meaning
On June 13, 2013, I collided head-on with a pick-up truck. In the midst of making a right turn, I noticed a traffic sign, and hoping that it didn’t say, “No turn on red,” looked back to read it. I was relieved that it said, “Do not block intersection.” But when I turned my attention to the road in front of me, all I saw were the grill and front headlights of a black …Read More >
Lights, Camera, Action: FIFA Women’s World Cup
Since 1991, every 4 years, teams from across the world qualify to participate in a tournament, a whole month of non-stop matches of the most popular sport in the world: football (soccer). This year the tournament is held in France, with its opening game starting on June 7th. Women’s football has come a long way since the first unofficial Women’s World Cup took place …Read More >
Words Matter
“…you were sent to me because I’m sick.” (Jamie Sullivan to Landon Carter in A Walk to Remember) “... you make me into someone I couldn't even imagine. You make me happy, even when you're awful. I would rather be with you—even the you that you seem to think is diminished—than with anyone else in the world.” (Louisa Clark to Will Traynor in Me Before You) “Some …Read More >