I Kissed Dating Goodbye: A Call For Stories

I Kissed Dating Goodbye, we all know the book – we read it, our parents read it. It impacted our views of ourselves and our sexuality, it impacted our dating (or not-dating) lives, it impacted how we approached marriage. Recently Joshua Harris had an interview with NPR about his thoughts on the book, and how it’s been used. Claiming to have regrets, he is

Family was my Everything: Alida’s Story, Part One

Seven years after my first college course, I’m still struggling to find where I make sense and figure out the process of growing up.

What About Toxic Parents?

HA Note: The following is reprinted with permission from Michelle Hill’s blog Notes From A Homeschooler. It was originally published on April 10, 2015 and has been slightly modified for HA. From my research and own personal experience with homeschoolers, I’ve come to realize that there’s a link between homeschooling and toxic, or over-controlling, parents. This control is all too apparent in the

Notes From a Homeschooler: Michelle Hill’s Story, Part Three

You can follow Michelle Hill at her blog notesfromahomeschooler.blogspot.com At best my mother is toxic, at her worst, she’s been emotionally abusive.  I’ve now come to realize that during my childhood, along with self-harm and restrictive eating, I also suffered from depression. My parents are now more controlling than ever since I’ve moved away to college. Not in the physical

Getting My Wings Back

“So I saw Maleficent over the weekend. And for me and many other sexual assault survivors, that gut-wrenching scene where Stefan cuts off Maleficent’s wings instantly read as rape.”

Forgiveness and Power

“Over the course of my life I have been instructed to forgive so many times. Ironically, the people who were telling me to forgive were also the people who spent a good deal of time telling me that in reality there was nothing to forgive, or that no wrong doing had occurred.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Eleven — Conclusion, Don’t Brush Off the Next Generation

“I have a unique perspective. I just went through the child’s side of a relationship, I have been on the other side of parenting. And I expect to be taken seriously because I know that my perspective is not any less important than the parents. Frankly, I think getting a child’s perspective and not just the parents is important in getting the full picture.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Ten — I Am A Phoenix

“I say ‘bring it on!’ to anything that’s coming in our future. If we were able to get through what we did, then there is no reason why we won’t make it through anything else that might be coming. Going through those three years of trial after trial only taught me more about being resilient. The past four and a half years have proved to me that I can make it. The past six months have taught me that I am strong.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Nine — We Made It

“We made it to the end. We were getting married. Despite the people who didn’t believe us, despite the heartache, the tears, the hurt, we had made it. Three words that are such a relief to write: We made it. “

Relationships, A Series: Part Eight — The Means To An End

“All the way up to our wedding, my dad still would not acknowledge that we were engaged. The days after that fatal Saturday were quite fraught with chaotic pressure from pastors, parents, and even some friends to break off our engagement. But somehow, we made it, and continued to say that we wouldn’t break off the engagement because that was something that was strictly between us.”