Emily Rachelle Writes

#5 5/2/2018 Dear Freshman, This series didn't really go the way I expected. I had a lot of big, vague ideas with not a lot of direction. I 'planned' for several letters, meaning I made a list of one-word topics and assumed I'd remember what I meant months later. Let's just say that's not the most effective approach to blogging. But here we are. I've shared my senior year experiences and how they compare to the dreams and realities I had as a freshman. I told you about the types of friends I made in college, and how friendship doesn't fit into templates or rules. I listed the most important pieces to my (admittedly still developing) time management skills. And I narrated a few of the many, many pieces of identity that are often explored and discovered in college.

Don't forget: today is the last day to enter my Spring Cleaning Giveaway ! # 4 4/25/18 Dear Freshman, This year, I've heard the phrase "identity politics" a lot. I guess the idea is that people let their identities dictate their political stances and alliances instead of grouping together by party. I've never understood why saying something like "hey, LGBTQ people deal with unique problems everyone else doesn't, and I'm part of an LGBTQ group trying to do something about that" is so horrible, but political talk makes everyone jumpy and irrational, I guess. The concept of identity and how it shapes your opinions, worldview, lifestyle, and choices is nothing new, though. And it's a huge part of the college experience. Let's talk a little about some of the pieces that make up a person's identity, and how we think about them differently in a college environment. This letter is going to be limited in what I can teach based on my...

The series is finally back, with a few more letters before I graduate. I know it's been a while, so you can go back and read the beginning of the series if you'd like. # 3 4/11/18 Dear Freshman, There are a lot of sayings out there about time. Trust me, I'm as sick of them as you are, so let's skip the mottos and platitudes and get straight to the point. In college, your most hoarded resource, possibly even more than money, will be time. So if you know how to budget it from the start, life will be a whole lot easier as you go. Everyone in college talks about time management, but what does that really look like? Honestly, an effective system is different for every person. There is no one-size-fits-all. But there are a few common factors to successful time management and fitting your needs and your wants into a realistic schedule.

A group of my friends on Facebook were once discussing "bad first date/first meetup stories," and I had a fun one to share. My comment turned out so massively long I decided to turn it into a blog post. Hopefully someone will find it as comedic and entertaining as I do now in hindsight. Once upon a time, I met a guy on Tinder. Call him Adam. My friends think this story is hilarious because he was a skinny bald plumber, but I swear he was really cool. Listened to cool music and made me laugh. I wasn't even sure if I had feelings for him, I just thought he was a cool friend.

#2 10/4/17 Dear Freshman, When you come to college, you'll have a lot of ideas about friendship. I came to school with expectations. I would make friends with my orientation class. I would bond with the people in my dorm. Ten years from now, my roommate and I would still be talking every month. Life never meets expectations.

#1 9/27/17 Dear Freshman, It's been roughly a month since I started my senior year of college. I've been looking back on my college experience and doing the "self-reflecting" thing a lot. It's weird, being one of the older students on campus. I see the (many) freshmen on my floor. I notice the questions they ask me, how they listen to my stories, nod with alert eyes. They expect me to know the campus, to have an inside scoop on life here. It's an odd sort of respect, the kind you give to someone who is technically your peer but you view in a different position. I feel very strange to be on this end of it. How did I get here, and so fast?

Once upon a time, there lived a little Christian girl in a little Christian family who led a good homeschooled Christian life alongside her youth group Christian friends. Saturday mornings were reserved for evangelism. Modesty was the most important part of her wardrobe. Her greatest dream was to get married and have eight kids. ponytails have just never been my look Once upon a time, that girl was me. I thought feminism was wrong and God's plan for me was to be a homemaker. I thought I couldn't be a functioning adult woman until I knew how to sew my own clothes and bake from scratch. I was convinced that four boys and four girls was the ideal family size. Nope.

This post happens to be my 600th ever written, and my first written or published for 2016. I never planned it that way -- actually, I didn't plan to write this post until just now, at one a.m. in bed -- but I guess God knew I was ready for a big one. About a year ago, I came out online as bisexual, through a blog post that shared a journal entry from the previous November. I told a handful of people before I posted anything. When I did have my "coming out," it wasn't really a coming out. It was just part of a series sharing many thoughts and struggles I'd had over my first college semester, which happened to include sexuality. Since then, I've referenced my sexuality in certain Facebook posts, maybe a few blog posts, a handful of conversations with friends. I want everyone to know I'm bisexual, because it's part of my identity -- like writing, or Christianity, or my family. But I don't want to shout it from the rooftops, because it's not ...

Recently I discussed mental illness with a good friend. She compared mental illness to a broken bone, gesturing to her leg. "You can see the broken bone, there's something that needs to be fixed." But think about internal bleeding. Can you see that? Or lung cancer. Is that outwardly visible? Not until scans or tests are done are many illnesses and injuries visually noticeable. We first notice symptoms, then seek out the cause, and treat from there to alleviate symptoms and prevent further problems. Why is mental illness any different? As research and technology in this area improve, we see more and more proof that brains affected by mental illness are physically and chemically different from healthy brains. There are plenty of symptoms of mental illness. Why don't we look for them? Notice them? Mental illness, untreated, can lead to complications as bad as the inability to complete basic daily tasks or even death. Why don't we seek out treatment before these...

Until your friend stands and looks you in the eye explaining why mental illness isn't the same as physical illness... Until your professor refuses to let you make up an exam and get full credit after missing a medicine dose caused a missed class session... Until your school requires you to get a three-page sheet on disability filled out in order to accept that your mental illness is real... You don't understand. Not until it happens to you.

Good evening, my lovely readers. Or morning, depending on where you are in the world. I wrote this earlier this week with a plan to post it once the Twilight  review series was over, but I think I need to share it now. I'm writing a follow-up post, too; make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it if you're interested. I'm a writer. And I'm a blogger. As such, I do a lot of reading and a lot of blog-following, because you can't write something until you've read a lot of that something by other people. As often happens when I read book blogs, I ended up following rabbit trails on and off GoodReads one night. Somehow, I ended up reading a lot of reviews of books and a lot of articles about the same topic: the evils and lies of psychiatry.

On Fear: 11/26/2014 Becoming a professional writer scares me. I think that's why I chose education [major] at first. I mean, everyone talks about the uncertainty of the writing industry and how hard it is to make a living and "don't quit your day job." People always need more teachers. Mom and grandma were teachers, too. I was following the family footsteps, you know? But now [English Lit major] I'm being just me in a brand new world and I'm so afraid of failing or going broke and being just another average Millennial story. I'm not afraid of being a terrible writer. I'm afraid of being an average one. Ho-hum, three stars, not worth ranting over but not worth my money either. I'm afraid of being forgotten.

On Friends: 11/24/2014 Tonight I shared yesterday's entry [ read it here ] with my small group and Jordy prayed over me. Then when we came back to the dorm from Payne's [local restaurant] Morgan prayed over me. And then Rachel and I talked for a long time... I told her I am bi, and I told her about the girls I've liked. She was so supportive. She hasn't had these same homosexual feelings but she was so supportive. She said I'm not gross or creepy and stuff like that and she said she's not weirded out and she doesn't think of me differently and we're still the exact same friends.

To readers who know me or my family personally: I understand this series is personal and controversial in nature. I'd like to kindly request that any questions, concerns, or private comments be made directly to me rather than my family members. Thank you! On God: 11/19/2014 "The big You is in love with the little me... and I don't know what to do with that."

On My Bisexuality:  11/13/2014 Why is it wrong? Why is something simultaneously so pure and so passionate wrong? Why is it that what I feel so deeply and personally and sincerely is violation of an ancient law by which I am supposed to live my life? Who says this is wrong? Well, God says.

As many of you lovely readers heard, I have a new book coming out! Yay! This is a bit different from Sixteen , though. It's a book of poems called Rain in December.  There are many themes in the book -- ranging from love to depression to friends to the weather -- some of them more prominent than others. Although there aren't as many poems about certain topics in my book, those that are in it were very significant in the book's coming about and the stories behind them are stories I haven't shared publicly before but feel I need to now. So starting today I'd like to share journal entries and other thoughts and stories leading up to the release of Rain In December . I request for this journal series this month that parental permission and guidance be sought out for readers under sixteen.