Tag: Mount St. Mary’s University Los Angeles
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Writing from the Classroom: Ailyn Hernandez-Bazan, First Generation College Graduate and Its Discontents
Ailyn Hernandez-Bazan was a student in Literature and Contemporary class, which I taught this spring. She is a first generation college student, a cultural phenomenon I know well–to be the very first to go away to college, and all that means, how it changes our relationships with our loved ones. It begins with thanksgiving, then rips through…
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My Homeland: The Mission District, San Francisco
The above is a shot of the house we lived in when I was a toddler, Mission District, San Francisco. That’s my daughter Emily. I’m heading to San Francisco this week, to get away for a few days. It’ll be my vacation this year. Two of my kids live there, so we’ll hang out. And…
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Insanity: Look Up the Facts Then Face Them
These are some of the books I’ve read to understand better what happens in my bipolar brain. They help me live with the disease, work with it, manage it as best as possible. Again, books, books, books—how do people go through life without them? The information in these tomes isn’t pretty. Here are some tidbits…
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Psychiatrists are Crappy Poets
Don’t get me wrong, I love psychiatry. It has given me the language to understand what happens in my mind when I am sick. Diagnosis is a wonderful, wonderful thing, because, once you diagnose something, you can focus on strategies to confront it. That’s what you get from studying the disease you suffer. But psychiatrists…
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Checkup at the Asylum
It’s been five months. The break from reality began the second week of December. Insomnia kicked in first. Then came the tremors. As the winters days turned darker, the moods thickened. A mention of Christmas, the black hole in my existence, put me in a rage. I could howl the roof off the house. Then…