I think everyone can agree that COVID-19 has impacted their relationships. Whether it is platonic, familial, professional or romantic relationships, the pandemic has affected the nature and quality of these connections.

I had been engaged for almost three months when I went back to school in the fall. The excitement, while still present, turned into something less blissful upon my return to UNC-Chapel Hill. For me, not much had changed. I didn’t really feel different, yet one simple piece of jewelry on my finger seemed to suddenly change how people looked at me.

Although the phrase did not lean into the ideas of any one political party, we found that it was just as thought-provoking. With all of the care that went into creating the jacket, we realized that skirting around political topics in order to not offend people was a problem in and of itself.

As someone who struggles with depression and is undergoing major changes in my academic path and personal goals, COVID-19 has taken away any of the energy I had left and replaced it with questions and more stress. Especially in isolation, I have found myself with what often feels like an overwhelming amount of time to explore my own mind, usually while staring at the ceiling.

But, as the leaves begin to turn and the temperature grows cool, it feels as though an end to this painful year may finally be in sight. Yet, I do not feel relieved, calm or even remotely excited. In fact, my anxiety about our collective future is at an all-time high. After all, feeling at ease could not be more impossible knowing that we still have one more battle left to face, and that this one means it all… The election. 

But in the last four years, the threat has moved from jokes to my personal rights being challenged. More specifically, the right to access safe and legal abortions. 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and a champion of women’s rights, died on Friday at the age of 87. On her deathbed, Ginsburg dictated to her granddaughter, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Ginsburg …

In this Op-Ed, Leslie Guzmán explains the complicated grief of losing someone she never met.

The conversation between my style identity as a Black person and my political identity as a Black person have not always come into contact. But these identities have consistently been in conversation, as they both have an indelible impact on America’s broader sociopolitical context.