Escapril Day 1 – Vision of the Future

It’s been a long winter and I can’t begin to explain the relief of finally entering April.  The air feels lighter, the sunlight coaxes me out of bed earlier and earlier each morning, and for the first time in a long time, I feel hopeful again. I feel more grounded and present and real. I’m…

I’m Back (Probably)

I stopped talking openly about depression a long time ago. Really, I stopped talking openly about anything full stop. Something I used to explore and deal with through writing came to a grinding halt when I began working full-time jobs. There were a lot of reasons for this - mainly, I didn't want my mental…

BEDA 2022: The Collection

Here is a collection of the posts I wrote for BEDA this year for you to explore at your leisure. Enjoy! Day 1 - When I Opened My Eyes TW: Discussion of Suicidal Ideation There have been many days where I didn’t want to open my eyes. So many mornings where my brain would wake…

BEDA 2020: The Collection

This year's BEDA posts were really hit or miss for me. Sometimes the prompts sparked some of my best work, and other days I hit a brick wall. I guess this is natural when you're forcing content every day for a month. So instead of leaving them all like loose threads on my blog's homepage,…

Managing Anxiety During a Pandemic

  It’s hard to escape the constant slew of news about Coronavirus. Every Twitter post, Instagram story, Facebook article and news alert is linked to the rising number of cases and deaths, and contain updates about government reactions and procedures. Yesterday the situation overwhelmed me in light of the news my partner might be laid…

‘It’s Complicated’: A Relationship With Social Media

I haven’t properly posted online for weeks. There’s an almost obnoxious sense of calm that has accompanied me since my decision to deactivate Facebook and delete the Twitter and Instagram apps off my phone. When people ask: “did you see x on y?” I try to keep the smugness out of my voice when I…

Twenty-Four

Twenty-three was supposed to be my golden year. As both my lucky number and the day I was born, I had assumed that turning twenty-three would be the age where everything fell into place. A year where I thrived and achieved what I wanted to. An age where I felt settled and comfortable in myself.…

Dating With Herpes

When the call from the clinic came back with the confirmation of what I feared for weeks, I felt like my potential for ever finding another sexual partner was over. I got diagnosed with herpes when I was in a long-term relationship and even telling him was a stressful experience. It was definitely a learning…

Why I’m Going Public About Having Herpes …

When you post something online, it’s there forever. So, much like what this blog post is to the Internet, this STD is to me. It’s time to come clean, as it were. My name is Darcy, I’m twenty-three, I’m a researching historian and I have genital herpes. GHSV-1, to be exact. Before I get into…

Day 30 – Catharsis

When I moved down South seven months ago, I never dreamt that I would feel a sense of stability or comfort here. I came back to Surrey yesterday, and my first day back has been full of sunshine and being reunited with my friends. I did my food shop and the simple act of reclaiming…