My body hair journey is ever-evolving and I still choose to pluck or bleach every now and again (which is not often so I remain a furry woman). And I love it. Me. I could not have asked for a greater body to nourish and love my soul.

I was 6 years old when the Chibok girls had been kidnapped and the #BringBackOurGirls tag was being used worldwide. Fast forward to 2023, not all of them have been returned to their families. As a Northerner, it breaks my heart that my fellow sisters aren’t safe wherever they go, whether it is Boko Haram or the activities of bandits. Northern Nigeria is currently bleeding because her children are being slaughtered everyday and our governors and president have refused to do anything about it.

Why have our mediums of change turned such a blind eye to the realities of homelessness? Instead of treating this global emergency as a norm or an environmental “given,” there needs to be a financial and political focus on this growing and pervasive social threat.

The only place you can learn new things is by traveling to places you’ve never been. If you stay in the same place, whether physically, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally, that is what we call the “comfort zone.” Outside of the “comfort zone” lies things you would’ve never learned had you not seen it for yourself. Step out of that zone, and learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

Suppose our expectations of love are backwards and each of us has embodied it and are experiencing it in this very present moment. Imagine love exists as an ongoing and unasked for ingredient of our oxygen composition, in which we instinctually and biologically epitomize the sensitivity of human care. Suppose love is not something that exists to determine our destiny or sway life values, but amplify our authentic selves. Dream along with me for a little.

Do we, as countries, have a right to kill? We hear of its' prevalence, read books glorifying its' existence, but still look the other way to the inequality that the death penalty constitutes. This sentence possesses a damaging history of racialized control, predisposed criminal stereotyping, and perpetuates socioeconomic deterioration. Although the death penalty has been abolished in over half the world, execution remains a proliferation of government censorship, unequal access, and exploitation of individuals' right to reflection and restorative justice.

Just two weeks ago, the Florida Department of Education rewrote their African American Studies curriculum standards to require the teaching of slavery as "in some cases, beneficial to slaves" as they developed skills they could use for their personal benefit. Floridians and Americans alike remain in fear of what this means for our growing youth population. By depriving the growing generation of historical realities, the nation risks further suppression of BIPOC voices and the potential for harmful repetition of the past.

Systemic inequalities and barriers can create significant disparities in health outcomes and hinder individuals' ability to achieve holistic well-being. By understanding these barriers and implementing targeted strategies, we can empower marginalized communities to overcome obstacles and cultivate wellness. Today will explore various wellness strategies explicitly designed for marginalized communities, focusing on breaking down barriers and promoting inclusive approaches to health and well-being.

As we yearn for policies of direct environmental intervention, it seems there is a counter-culture dedicated to short-term dopamine amelioration for selective groups instead of rebuilding a long-term future we can all sustainably enjoy.

The Supreme Court's most recent ruling has effectively altered our education systems in a potentially disastrous manner. Also referred to as race-based admissions, affirmative action has been deemed unconstitutional despite past precedents. America must now begin to cope with — and in some ways reconstruct — a method of vital student diversification without knowledge of individuals' racial and ethnic identity.

The most pressing news event during these last weeks of June 2023 has been over the missing submarine that embarked on a tour of the infamous 1912 Titanic wreckage. However, another devastation remains on the back burner of what is 'socially relevant.' A ship off the coast of Greece which contained about 500 migrants from a variety of Middle East countries capsized. What historically began as a necessary diffusion of knowledge has turned into a for-profit consequence of the capitalistic mindset. The consequences of our current media selectivity reach much farther than the United States and the Mediterranean and displace communities in need of legislative action. In diverting attention away from already underserved communities, the life quality of the wealthy and the powerful are further exacerbated.

I like to compare the always-ongoing self-love journey to different plants one may find in a garden. Some flowers — like the night-blooming cereus and kurinji — take years to fully blossom. But that does not mean the roots that go unseen to us are not expanding more and more each day. Likewise, daisies and roses produce petals like crazy and their growth is so close to the eye. But what makes the plant everlasting is not similarly celebrated. We all grow at different rates and one path is not grander than the other. Just simply, unique to that human and all they have encountered.

Native Americans have had a brutal course of territorial expulsion and assimilative measures in the United States. One cannot erase the history or the trauma a group has endured. Such loss and hardship continue to live on through inter-generational historical trauma and reiterated notions of past adversity. The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was a policy implemented in 1978 in response to the disproportionate amount of Native children being removed from tribal groups and placed into the care of non-Native families. The court effectively upheld the intentions of the ICWA on June 15th and its role in Indian relations superseding non-Indian environments. This has been a dire win for the Native American community, however, the debate over whether the ICWA faces future reversal lingers over Native American citizens across the country.

The Hispanic community in the United States has systematically endured and transitioned between different labels on the basis of their ethnic origin. These terms, along with the now evolving “Latinx” title, are used interchangeably to describe the Hispanic culture. We have had a tiresome experience in navigating the assimilative and repressive policies of American legislation and civil discourse. Most prominently, the rhetoric and deprecating agenda of President Donald Trump has perpetuated a state of xenophobia, anti-immigrant, and a downfall of the Latino legacy. Although the Hispanic community and our stories have gained valuable representation in academia, politics, and workplace environments, colonialist efforts remain pervasive in our way of life and media interaction, beginning with the newly coined Latinx label.

Despite so many new concepts, hobbies, research, or entertainment outlets at our fingertips, how often do we let our brains imagine like they once did? There is so much intrinsic and extrinsic value in allowing ourselves to be bored, undistracted, and full of individual creativity. Although our current society instills the value of production and external fulfillment into our everyday practices, allowing our minds to wander is almost solely the largest contributor to self, social, artistic, and professional success.

Doctors have a right to their moral and ethical practices. Patients have a right to unconditional medical care. What is the Medical Conscience Act and who does this simultaneously support and oppress?

As much as we push ourselves to be superhuman and resistant to exhaustion, our bodies need to rest. When we have dreams and desires, the most unproductive thing we feel we can do to get ourselves there is nothing. But it is when we do nothing - and remain still - our healing and creativity flourish. So how do we even begin to balance a life of grinding with peace and necessary calamity? Let’s talk about it.

In the United States we are so obsessed with civility that we lose sight of what is truly important in creating social change: making people mad. And our society has the tendency to blame individuals for their anger at inequities, as opposed to treating the injustices themselves. When it comes to displaying anger, marginalized communities are expected to conform to white culture and its institutionalized censorship.

There have been 14 school shootings this year: four months into 2023. Unfortunately, this is a reality that many politicians have yet to grasp. The American Public High School stereotype is horrifying. We say that it won’t happen to us until it does. Political elites argue the mental health epidemic or that these shooters are not representative of the many in possession. So how many kids have to keep dying and how many families have to be ripped apart for there to be substantial action taken toward our gun policies?