Outwardly, I know that approaching men makes me look outgoing and self-assured, but the truth is that I’m just as scared as everyone else. When I’m flirting with a stranger, I feel like I’m taking on a persona. I’m entertaining my friends, I’m putting on a show.

This dread, of course, comes from the events of the world around us, and I’m not looking to minimize the burden, but I suspected that the world’s crises and failures weren’t the only weights on the scale. It was something internal, individual, and inward.

“A sense of justice—and the forms of writing that are best equipped to discuss injustice—is in large part why I am excited to keep reading Equator magazine as we go into 2026. I am amazed by one essay connecting the Italian Renaissance to Abu Ghraib, and I hope that The Mirror can house writing like…