There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s just a hard time to be human.
I don't know if it's a Queer thing, or a D.C. thing—but most people I know are white-knuckling it through life right now. And to make things harder, there aren’t many spaces where it feels okay to say that out loud. When someone asks how they can show up for me, I find myself saying, “I just need it to be okay for me not to be okay.”
If no one’s said it to you lately, let me be the one: it’s okay to not be okay.
Being vulnerable is scary.
Sitting with someone who is struggling—knowing you can’t fix it and being uncomfortable anyway—is hard.
And in these dehumanizing times, it’s feeling more radical than ever. When everything around us feels automated, fake, and isolating - more AI, more ghosting, more performance, fewer safety nets - choosing to show up messy, honest, and human is a kind of quiet rebellion.
And that rebellion isn’t just emotional. It’s practical. Letting yourself be real doesn’t mean you can't keep up. It means refusing to pretend you’re a machine. It means showing up to work, relationships, community spaces, and yes, the job search, with a little more truth. Some days, that might look like asking for help instead of pushing through. Some days, it’s saying “no” to a job that would make you shrink. Some days it means being the first one to say an uncomfortable thing. Most days, it’s just allowing yourself to feel what you feel—and letting that be enough. Our humanity is not the thing we need to overcome. It’s the thing that will carry us through.
In solidarity,
Katie
