"Things Substack Doesn't Know About Me (Yet)":

I'm a leaf in the wind. Nothing holds me or grounds me. I don't have roots. There's nothing keeping me in place except my foster dogs, and they're temporary. I don't have ties to anything in this world. My whole life I could leave, travel, start over, and not look back.

Now that I'm older, it doesn't feel like freedom anymore. I want a family. Parents, siblings, grandparents. Something I'll never have.

I don't care much about being here, but I'm here, so I'm making the best of it. In the larger picture, life feels long, but it's short, and it will be over sooner than I know, and remembering that helps me stay with it and not run from it.

(Please don't comfort me. I'm not sad, I just want to share my truth.)

The unfortunate souls I nominate are: Monica Van Fleet Words and Wilds Elissa Dines A.M. Bowman Bradley Ramsey Helen Higgins