“Happy Memorial Day” is wrong. Not rude. Not technically illegal. Just — wrong. And the fact that most people don’t even pause before saying it tells you something important about where we are as a culture. I grew up on Marine Corps bases. Only child of two U.S. Marines. I didn’t learn about Memorial Day from a teacher or a TV commercial or a mattress…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #6 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. I’ve been building up to this one all month. Not because it’s the most complicated post to write — it’s actually the simplest. No frameworks, no clinical…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #5 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. When most people picture depression, they picture sadness. They picture someone who can’t get out of bed. Someone staring out a rain-streaked window. Someone crying for no…
Bad things happen to you. They happen to me too. They happen to everyone — the leader, the follower, the CISO with a $50M budget and the analyst grinding through alerts at 2 AM. Loss, betrayal, bad luck, unfair systems, people who lied to you, people who left you holding the bag. Real things. Things that hurt. None of that is the problem. The problem…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #4 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. I used to wear my sleep deprivation like a badge of honor. Four hours a night? Five if I was lucky? That meant I was working harder…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #3 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. For most of my life, I had a very clear and very wrong idea about what strength looked like. Strength meant handling your own problems. It meant…
Nobody told me a damn thing. Not my dad. Not my friends. Not a single guy I respect pulled me aside and said, “Hey, brace yourself.” I walked into this completely blind, full of confidence, and got absolutely leveled. Multiple times. Still do, honestly. So here I am. Telling you what nobody told me. You’re welcome. First — it’s hard. Like, actually hard. And I…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #2 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. Most of us don’t talk about shame. Not really. Not with any honesty or transparency. We’ll talk about depression, anxiety, addiction, burnout — we’re getting better at…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #1 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. There’s a voice in my head. Actually, that’s not accurate. There are several. And if you’re reading this, I’d bet good money you have them too —…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Introduction IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And every year, the internet does its thing. Pretty graphics. Soft pastel campaigns. Carefully worded corporate statements about “prioritizing well-being.” Hashtags. Webinars….