It’s in fiction that we find pieces of ourselves yet to be discovered, that we recognize our own humanity in the eyes of figures expressed in words and alive through our imagination.

The journey toward being a good guy isn’t one of weakness, it is one of strength. To reflect on where I have failed and how I try to grow isn’t to garner sympathy or redemption points, it’s to help create more happiness for myself with the understanding that being a kind, compassionate, and emotionally healthy person will invite healthy relations from others.

Before you become a content creator, you dream of the day your work is seen and your voice finally matters. Virality seems essential for your growth, a lifeline that promises your message can reach someone who feels less alone. Sure, you know there are risks—exposure, vulnerability, even trolls—but you convince yourself that blocking a few haters is a price worth paying. Until you’re on the other side.

​​In this time we are living—where we hit the order button and immediately look at the tracking info because we want what we want and want it now—patience is scarce.

In order to become who you want to be, you have to love yourself enough to believe you deserve to be who you want to be.

by Asante Haughton, ​for The 44 North Guest Writer & Editor X: @asantetalks IG: @asantetalks Web: asantetalks.net Asante Haughton is a TEDx Speaker, Human Rights Activist, Change-Maker, Dream Chaser, Visionary. Link to his TEDx talk   here .  A butterfly flying over water. I had a breakdown this summer. ​ I was on the floor, holding my knees, rocking back and forth, ugly crying. Two months later I’m evolving into the best version of myself that ever existed. Complete transfor

Time can stand still if we carefully curate our wading through its waves, stretches, and folds.  Basketball taught me that a game can be won in just 0.3 seconds.

At the beginning of a new year, each of us is encouraged to jump in with vivacious energy. We are told that to get to where we want to go, slay those big goals, or accomplish the dreams that have been set on the variety of virtual or tactile vision boards we have created, we must resolve ourselves to be a new version.

As you ponder forward on how the people, like chapters, have crossed before you, joined you on adventures and left imprints on how you see the surface and the depths of your identity, consider the following: who has at all costs, worked alongside you, wiped your tears and helped you see the brightness when it all felt dark?

While more awareness is being brought towards the level of sexism in dress codes across North America, there doesn’t seem to be the same level of justice seeking in the online world

Our minds are quick to support these doubts. We start listing all the prerequisites we haven’t taken, all the students who have, all the New York Times articles* we haven’t read, and all the students who have. The comparisons become endless, and the more we focus on what we lack, the deeper we sink into the belief that we’re not enough.

It's hard to try and remember who I was before the pandemic.