Writing Like a Madwoman
I arrived at Columbia University convinced I was a writer.
Then came harsh critiques, a manic episode, depression, self-doubt, and a mentor who changed everything with a single observation.
This is the story of how I found my voice—and why sometimes the person who changes your life doesn't give you anything new. They simply help you recognize what was there all along.
Letters to Things That Can't Write Back
Sometimes there are questions that never quite leave us.
Questions for the Internet. For our younger selves. For anxiety. For the people we've lost. Even for God.
This week, I decided to write a few letters and see what happened.
The Myth of the “Real Me”
We spend so much time trying to figure out which version of ourselves is the "real" one. The confident one? The anxious one? The person who makes everyone laugh, or the one crying alone in a grocery store parking lot? What if authenticity isn't about consistency? What if all of these selves belong? My latest post explores the many versions of who we are—and why none of them are impostors.
Here I Go Again…
After seventeen years of blogging, I had a brief panic that I'd been writing the same post over and over again. Then I remembered: we don't move through life in straight lines. We spiral, returning to familiar questions with a little more humor, a little more tenderness, and better stories to tell. Still wondering. Still laughing. Still here.
Did God Block Us?
Sometimes it feels like life forgot to tell us something important.
These three poems started with that feeling and wandered through questions about God, identity, loneliness, and connection. I don't claim to have found any answers, but I found a few interesting questions.
Did God Block Us? is a trilogy of poems:
A Note in the Margin, Borrowed Language, and Part of What I Am Is Your Name.
I Feel Very Ho Hum
Sometimes life isn't exciting. It's not a crisis, it's not depression, and it's not joy either. It's just the quiet middle. Lately I've been learning that balance may not feel as exhilarating as passion, but it might be just as important.
When Mental Illness Became a Conversation
Mental illness used to be something people kept hidden. Today, it is part of a much larger public conversation. As someone living with Bipolar Disorder, I've witnessed firsthand how openness can reduce stigma and create understanding. But while we've become better at talking about mental health, many people still struggle to access the care they need. Awareness matters—but action matters too.
dear nina, it’s me god—Repost
I don't know exactly what happened that morning. Was it mania? Was it a spiritual experience? Was it both? Years later, I still don't have a definitive answer. This is the story of the first time I heard a voice in my head, thought I was in Heaven, and began a journey that would eventually lead to a bipolar diagnosis.
If My Body Had a Customer Complaint Department
If my body had a customer complaint department, it would be flooded with tickets. My knees are protesting, my memory is unreliable, and my back has apparently joined a labor union. A humorous look at the increasingly complicated relationship between me and the aging body I live in.
The Olympics of Overthinking
Some people run marathons. Some people climb mountains. I spend my time imagining worst-case scenarios, replaying awkward moments, and preparing for conversations that may never happen. If overthinking were an Olympic sport, I'd be bringing home gold.
The People I Almost Became
Have you ever wondered about the person you might have become? The therapist, the lawyer, the New Yorker, the parent, the version of yourself who made different choices. A reflection on alternate lives, unexpected paths, and finding contentment with the one life we actually get to live.
The Exhaustion of Constant Self-Improvement
We are constantly told to be better, healthier, more productive, and more healed. But what if the endless pursuit of self-improvement is keeping us from appreciating who we already are? A reflection on wellness culture, therapy talk, and the freedom of accepting ourselves as imperfect humans.
Somewhere Between a Song and a Scroll
Why do we keep listening to songs we’re tired of, watching one more episode, or scrolling long after we’ve stopped enjoying it? In this personal reflection, I explore our obsession with unfinished business, the comforts we chase, and the growing sense that technology can’t replace real human connection. Somewhere between a song and a scroll, I found myself longing for something much older: friendship, nature, and the simple comfort of being together.
Somewhere Between Spirituality and Bollywood
Somewhere between the music, the food, and the inevitable questions about my marital status, I found myself reflecting on culture, identity, and what it means to belong. This essay explores the joy, pressure, spirituality, and pride woven into the experience of an Indian Sikh wedding.
Aging and Other Humiliations
My body clicks, creaks, and occasionally injures itself for no apparent reason. Young people think I'm old, all blankets are now my favorite, and somehow I have wrinkles and pimples at the same time. Welcome to aging and the many humiliations that come with it.
Maybe Happiness Is About Noticing
Happiness is complicated. Sometimes it feels impossible, especially when life becomes grief, exhaustion, and survival. In this piece, I reflect on caregiving, depression, healing, discipline, and the quiet realization that happiness can still exist beside pain. Maybe happiness is not something we find, but something we slowly learn to notice again.
Narcissistic Interview—Repost
What possesses someone to interview themselves on their own blog?
Apparently… me.
This repost is equal parts confession, philosophy, ego, insecurity, humor, creativity, and complete emotional chaos. I talk about writing, Bipolar Disorder, meditation, attention-seeking, God, privacy, and why creating sometimes feels less like a hobby and more like survival.
Welcome inside my brain.
“Some of my best stories cannot be put on the page. They play in my heart.”
The Shape Of What We Are
Three poems about identity, divinity, and what it means to exist inside a universe that feels both endless and deeply personal.
These pieces explore the loneliness of being human, the possibility that we are all made of the same essence, and the strange idea that death may only be another transformation.
The Shape of What We Are is a meditation on selfhood, connection, and the quiet search for truth beneath everything we pretend to be.
A Few Small Acts of Kindness
The smallest acts of kindness can stay with us for decades. A cashier’s patience, a stranger’s encouragement, a student wanting to protest for you, a person who makes you feel seen for five minutes in the middle of an ordinary day.
Lately I’ve been thinking about how disagreement does not erase humanity, and how kindness may be the only bridge we have left.
This piece is about the people I still remember because they were kind to me — and the kind of person I hope to become.
My Emotional Support System Has Calories
Sometimes comfort comes in the form of melted cheese, oversized lattes, and desserts we know we probably shouldn’t eat. This is a reflection on emotional eating, modern food culture, and the complicated relationship between health, pleasure, guilt, and carbs. Funny, honest, and slightly hungry.