Anonymous

While I may not get flowers on Mother’s Day, I live with the daily responsibilities that go along with the adulting of parenthood as a full-time caregiver.

I don't recall meeting my first love. It seems he was always with me.

Over those five years, I volunteered on hot summer days and rainy mornings. I stood in snow, wearing warm layers and fleece mittens. I volunteered beside women and men, many of them young, like me, but some older and wiser and living out a lifetime of experience on those sidewalks.

What do you do when you have no choice on how you get to work?

The sad thing is, it took someone almost destroying me to make me open my eyes to the extent of what happens when we talk not about a culture of consent, but about temptation and defense instead.

Anorexia is not what you think. Warning: Triggering pictures included.

My own father was, and still is an alcoholic, and is no longer a part of my life. Although he was never violent, his alcoholism still deeply affected and damaged our family, and me.

Seven years before I was born, my mother made a decision that would change her life—and lead to mine.

This support my gender-fluid child receives at school means so much to my family, but the ripple effects of what the children will learn will go far.

This article originally appeared on Mamamia