Tag Archives: personal essays

Advice For When Life Feels Like It’s Falling Apart

This fall, I experienced unexpected health problems. I have a message for anyone who, like me, finds themselves the owner of a frightening body and a frantic brain.

Awe and Oaks

Greet the edges of your understanding with awe, not angst.

Yarn

It may seem like I should be comfortable writing about this pregnancy by now, but the truth is I still feel like I am tempting fate every time I talk about it. Still, I am trying to hold space for that fear. And excitement. And gratitude. And grief. So that’s what I wrote about. I hope this essay resonates with anyone who is trying to move forward with authenticity after one of life’s curveballs.

Earthworms & Champagne

Is your social media feed split between masked and un-masked faces? Mine is and I’m fascinated. That’s why I wrote a meditation on loneliness and choice during the pandemic. Read my lyric essay Earthworms & Champagne in the NYU SPS’s Dovetail. It’s my first piece in a literary magazine.

My Latest For PALS: A Potential Space

When I thought about what I would write about for my bi-monthly spot in Pregnancy After Loss Support’s publishing calendar, my mind flashed back to something a doctor said to me right before an important ultrasound. She said, “A uterus is a potential space.” It’s an interesting way to talk about an organ but I think the reason the moment came to me wasn’t because of biology.

Introducing My Autistic Son

In my first essay where I introduce Owen as the autistic person he is, I write about how I used to worry about Owen’s success in school this fall, but everything that’s happened in 2020 has given me a new perspective. I now can see that success isn’t the goal, growth is. I hope you’ll read my latest for Scary Mommy, “I Was Already Worried About My Autistic Son Starting Kindergarten — Then 2020 Happened.”

The Most Consistent Person I Know

Hi! I’m Emily, and I’m a writer. That’s still a new thing for me to say. Honestly, it feels like a lie. But, after what I uncovered in my parent’s house this winter, I’ve come to think it might just be deeply true.