Tasnim Ahmed

Wait some time before you start following your date on social media platforms — allow for a connection, chemistry, a mutual understanding of each other on a personal and real level before you take it to the internet.

We want love because we want to be understood, because we have been misunderstood for so long and we are so tired of being the only ones to understand ourselves.

When freelancing, you are often faced with the dilemma of having to do something that you don’t want to do, nothing morally opposing, but something that makes you feel like you need to compromise your truest self and you are forced to come out of your comfort-zone.

People over the age of 30 begin to take you seriously. They stop to listen to what you have to say. Your parents start to take you seriously, as well.

When I first moved to New York a few months ago, I lost my metro card that was meant to last me a month.

This is not about sex; this is about you, it is the resentment you feel toward yourself, like a despicable cancer spreading through your body, like a disease that must now be put to its death.

All conversations with your father a monosyllabic; there are not enough words for what your mother has to tell you. She is fourteen again, a gossiping teen. No, she is just lonely.

Like an apology that is extended, I say, “You can call me Taznim; it’s easier to pronounce. You can call me anything that is easy for you.”

Never have I met a woman who has not been in the highest of spirits after masturbating.

We love ourselves unconditionally, and for this we loathe ourselves.

It began at thirteen, breakfasts hidden in desk drawers, flushed down the toilet, and, when the toilet had backed up, its pipes blocked by bananas and boiled eggs and buttered slices of toast and so much cereal and so much…

The key to a successful trip is the least amount of sleep. A total of four hours of sleep prior to leaving is a good amount. Take the earliest flight out. 6:30 in the morning is a good time.