As scholar and activist Angela Davis said, “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” As I’m writing this blog post, I’m in the middle of packing up my apartment and trying to push down the fear that keeps popping up, although I know it’s a losing battle.

I’m going through a major life transition at the moment and it’s HARD. Some days I barely have the energy to get out of bed. It feels like the life is being drained from my body when I think about the fact that I have to get up and do things that I really don’t want to do in a place where I really don’t want to be.

Have you ever been affected by a traumatic event that you were exposed to but didn’t actually experience yourself? If yes, then you’ve likely been impacted by vicarious trauma.

Like many people, I was shocked by the death of Stephen “tWitch” Boss last week. I was logging on to my computer to start work for the day and opened CNN like I do every morning and saw that the beloved dancer I had been watching for years had passed away.

I think I can speak for a lot of Black women when I say that 2022 really put me through the ringer. The ongoing trauma of the pandemic combined with an all-out assault on reproductive rights and a never-ending news feed of gun violence across the U.S. (all against a backdrop of climate catastrophe and rising inflation) made for an incredibly difficult year.

If you’re anything like me, this time of year can be challenging. When the clocks roll back and it starts getting dark outside at an earlier time, it takes a real toll on my well-being (I love the sunshine, y’all).