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The Weight of Other People’s Expectations
Eds. Note: Please welcome our newest writer Laura P.! Look for her column Integrity of Heart the second Wednesday of every month. “Will you marry me?” I’m usually very good at avoiding situations like...
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Squishes and a Journey of Learning and Unlearning
Until a few years ago, I believed that I’d had exactly one crush in my life. It didn’t last very long, nothing came of it, and the man I had the feelings for never knew about it. In fact, it wasn’t...
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The Boyfriend That Wasn’t and Other Tales of an Asexual Girlhood
I may be the only person whose sole venture into dating ended less than two weeks after it started because my boyfriend got bored and left. I was 15 and we met at a casual school dance I attended with...
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What Does It Mean to Grow Old Alone?
On February 1st this year, my 78-year-old uncle suffered a severe seizure. Although he’s recovered physically, he hasn’t regained his former mental acuity. Following a hospital stay and stints at a...
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Learning How to Trust
Sometimes you barricade yourself so securely into a safe space that you forget how to take the walls down again. Sometimes you close yourself up so tightly against being hurt that you forget how to...
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“I’m Queer”: Grappling with Orthodoxy as an Asexual Muslim Woman
Recalcitrant. Disobedient. Deserving punishment. These words filled my mind one night in March 2014 as I bowed, and then dropped to the floor to prostrate before Allah. Prayer before bed is usually my...
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A Love-Hate Relationship (Or Two)
The first time I encountered J, she was tweeting that if President Obama was a secret Muslim, it showed in how he was a good husband and father. J wasn’t Muslim herself, but her father had converted to...
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For my parents, on their 45th anniversary
They met on a cruise of the South Pacific and immediately hit it off. Back at home in the U.S., they dated and found themselves all the more drawn to each other. In an era when most people their age...
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