Now that almost the entire world is in a state of isolation and at home 24/7, there has been a rise in tweets and passive-aggressive Instagram quotes about how this is a “time to see who truly values you”. This follows the logic that people have no reason to be “too busy” to not message back instantly because after all, everyone is free now and should have all the time in the world.

Even before we began this isolation period, I had recently noticed a particular pattern with many of my friends. I would often send a text checking in on them, sharing news, or asking to make plans, and I wouldn’t get a response until many hours, or even days, later. …

The world around you might often feel like it’s falling apart, or more accurately it might feel like your world is falling apart while everyone else’s is doing just fine. You go to the park for a walk to clear your head, to stop being sad or angry or emotional, while everyone else goes to just be. Right? It seems ironic, and you know that that’s not true; you know that everyone else has their own problems — yet you convince yourself that somehow you are the person that has it the worst.

We sometimes tend to hold on to the idea that somehow, life has chosen us to be the bearers of its wrath. We look at our pain and grief and see it as the pinnacle of problems. …

In the Winter of 2015, I was in the middle of my third year of college when I realized that I felt confined. I was living life without much purpose or aim, and my existence centered around my college courses. I wanted to do something that would help me grow, something out of the ordinary, I wanted to get out of my box. So, as any rational person would do, I contacted a cultural exchange organization I worked with and committed to a 6-week project, and booked the next flight out to India.

My Lebanese parents were terrified. I’d never been outside the country without them, let alone for such an extended time. They didn’t understand why I was going. “Why don’t you volunteer here?” they’d ask. They didn’t get it, I needed to go somewhere else, I needed to “find myself”. So they bit their tongues and wished me well. …

“Pretend you don’t care” is the worst post-breakup advice I’ve ever received. It’s also the worst post-being-ignored-by-the-guy-I-was-kind-of-seeing advice I’ve ever received.

When a dating situation goes south, friends always come in to listen to your emotional waterfall and then tell you to pretend your feelings are a still lake, unshaken. Why can I not let him know about my steady streams of doubting myself? My pouring rain of wondering why he hasn’t texted me back? My trickling droplets of missing him?

What do we have against vulnerability? Trying to “win” a breakup springs from one of two assumptions, either the assumption that the person you are “up against” doesn’t care either, or the assumption that they care enough to be hurt by you being unfazed. The inherent problem with these assumptions is that if they don’t care, they never will, and winning doesn’t matter. …

A few years ago during our spring breaks, my childhood friends and I decided to take a girls’ trip to Turkey. We packed our bags and set off for a week away to destress, tour, and bond.

As one does during trips, we had our moments of vulnerability and opening up. One day over a late-night in our shared hotel room, I told my friends that I had recently been diagnosed with Anxiety and ADHD.

Having this diagnosis was life-changing for me, I had spent the majority of my teens wondering why I am the way I am, my college years leading up to that diagnosis had been riddled with overwhelming feelings of not being able to catch up to life moving way too fast, of being overworked and not being able to catch up. I couldn’t tell them that, though. …

Yesterday, sitting on my friend’s couch eating popcorn and talking about life, we had a moment of contemplative silence, followed by a question that took me off guard. “How do you accidentally hurt someone?”

She was referring to when I mentioned accidentally ghosting someone in a previous article. She said, “what does that even mean?”

I’ll tell you what it means, it means that I really liked a guy, and I liked him so much so fast that it overwhelmed me and hurt us both.

A little more than a year ago, I had just made a life-changing move to New York City. I was so excited to start a new chapter in my life and rediscover who I was in a different context from my small town in Lebanon. I was excited to meet people and go out on cute, fun dates, to have deep talks and superficial hangs and to just enjoy being alive. …

There’s so much comfort in knowing that you could confide in someone, that they want to support and love you and take care of you. It’s a beautiful thing to hear them say “I’m here for you”, but what’s the point of saying it if they haven’t shown you whether or not they can handle supporting you?

I’ve been struggling with mental health issues for years, and I’ve thankfully gotten to a place of comfort where I know my psyche enough to manage my anxiety and depression well most of the time. …

I’ve been away from New York City for six months today. When I landed back in Beirut in September, I remember feeling like my chest was heavy, like the world was closing in on me. it didn’t feel like a homecoming, it felt like I’d just left the one true home I’d ever known.

My mother hugged me and cried tears of joy, and I felt like I was holding the world in my hands by holding her, not knowing that the next time I’d see her cry would be when she held me, shaking as I poured out frustrated tears for feeling like I don’t belong here. …