This has never been a fear of mine.

Do you have Resting Smile Face? I do and it makes people assume I want to talk to them.

It comes down to your level of idealism. I hate the idea of being fake, it’s not my job to be interesting or funny or serious or any one single label every day. There are days that I am full of jubilance and others where I am serious and want nothing more than to work alone.

I think there’s a subtle but important difference between being likable and being a person people can like. Adichie is defining being likable as trying to meet an external standard, subjugating your own agency to try and meet the expectations of others. Being a person people can like is self motivated: it’s a good…

Yes! I know Adichie isn’t saying you should be a raging bitch to everyone all the time, and I totally get and agree with what she is saying: girls and women are encouraged to tie our self-worth to what other people think of us, and consequently we spend way too much time trying to change and conceal and lie about what…

If you think about it, any story about food is the beginning of a poop story.

It’s definitely a dream of mine to move back. I don’t know if it’ll happen, but I’ve already returned once for a vacation! :)

I went to college when I was 17, and I looked even younger. I ordered a fake ID with a different name from an ad in the back of Rolling Stone. The ID said I lived in AZ, but I was in college in the midwest. I needed a little more credibility at the bar entrance, so when I had my college ID picture taken, I filled out…

When I lived in Egypt, one of the ways I liked practicing Arabic was talking to cab drivers (Egyptian cab drivers can be a hoot*). However, I couldn’t be American, because then all they would talk about would be politics and how much they and everybody in the world hates “Boosh.” I couldn’t be Canadian, because…

When I was in high school in the 70’s, I was a cross between straight A student nerd and also budding bad girl, so I used to ditch school, then have a middle aged guy (who was a patron of the donut shop I worked at) call in for me the next day, say he was my Dad, and get me excused.

The year or two before I turned 21 was the best time I ever had pretending to be someone else.

I had just boarded the subway for an hour-long trip when a dude took the seat directly across from me, placing himself in prime position to spit some sweet talk. I had overheard his buddies mention their destination, and I knew I’d be stuck with this guy for the full duration of what was now certain to be an agonizing…

I used to do a lot of club and party performing and I had a Long Island, Jewish housewife “character” Rona, that I used a few times. I got this character from a woman I met at a bus stop in Seattle who was visiting from NY who preceded to tell me the craziest stories. Rona wore a plaid polyester pant suit and had big…

I always pretended that I was actually adopted and had way cooler parents and was probably a princess (because OBVIOUSLY).

I kinda catfished someone once. In my defense, he was an asshole. He was dating my best friend at the time and started IMing me out of no where and trying to flirt with me. He then proceeded to ask me out to which I responded with “You realize you’re dating my best friend, right?”. The reply I got back was “so?”

when i was 17 i joined a theater group. it was the town next to mine so I didn’t know hardly anyone. I had always hated my name so I told them my name was my initials. EVA. I thought it sounded sexy and mysterious. Then someone I knew joined and told everyone my real name which was lame. I felt really foolish. Still…

I was like that when I lived in BC. I was in love with the huge trees (especially their smell) and the mountains. I was remarking on it so frequently that my then boyfriend actually got mad at me one day. Whatever. It was amazing and I want to go back.