How easy it is to just shut off voices that disagree with me. Whether on social media, in person, or even in my own reading and research — if the opinion is contrary to beliefs and values I hold, I prefer to ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist.

Let’s say we’ve moved beyond that initial aversion and now we’re open to new and different ideas. We often do nothing more than justify the prejudice that caused the aversion in the first place. We may claim that a true engagement with a contrary opinion is at best to demonstrate just…

Bring me to those days when I was younger,
the days I can barely remember,
yet which return to me fractured, as flashbacks.

Let me know the child inside who feels so lost, so alone,
the one who is in my heart directing me with his fears,
his pain, his joy;
those moments especially when he felt so alone,
with no friends,
no one to talk to;
the one who felt like the outcast.

The boy who didn’t belong;
the boy who knew it.

Let that child come to me.

It’s not a perfect work of poetry, but it’s from…

We consider “friend” those people with whom we share several traits. Essentially, a friend is like a twin — a copy — of ourselves. Friendships blossom when two or more people share ideologies. They also sprout from a shared experience of some event. Friendships are shared identities. Any possible relationship with someone considered “other” is, then, best avoided. It couldn’t possibly work out.

Colleges and universities are communities with built-in social networks. Friendships frequently begin at campus-sponsored social events, participation in Greek life, or within individual courses of study. …

When I set out to write this story, I imagined writing about how my studies in Rome as an undergraduate student dramatically changed how I travel. That Rome taught me the beauty of taking in the local flavors of a place and settling in.

I had chosen to write about my travel experiences of seeking out the local coffee shops, bars, and restaurants tucked away in the neighborhoods. About how becoming a regular at a café in Rome made me dream of relocating there permanently. …

I’ve been telling myself to start writing for years now.

Start a blog. Do that independent research project you’ve been thinking of. Write some long note on Facebook. Write in a journal. And yet here I am. I never started a personal blog (a business blog, yes). I have a number of research projects in queue, yet very little writing to show for it.

I am, one might say, one of those writers who doesn’t write. …