Hello out there, in internet land! I'm Naseem, and you've stumbled across my musings on growing up in America in this day and age. The large question that I want to address is: how do we form our identities as we grow up?

I was born in Chicago to two Iranian immigrants, living in a religious center during my childhood. My brother, 19 months my junior, was diagnosed with autism at age three. My childhood was largely defined by fitting in to neither American nor Persian culture; knowing I was vastly different from my friends on sheer family dynamics; and dealing with my own issues of depression and self-worth without realizing that's what I was doing. In high school, I started therapy; in college, I developed an eating disorder and began taking antidepressants. Now, I'm two years graduated and realize I know nothing about what it means to be an adult.

My experiences are not remarkable: as the years have gone on, I've met more and more people who have gone through or are going through the exact same thing. I've also found that people are more comfortable with their own experiences when they know someone else has gone through something very similar. When I tell the story of my eating disorder, depression, best-friend break ups, arguments with parents, I hear the same stories echoed back, told with different characters but with the same plot. Ultimately, that's why I'm writing all of this: I want my experiences to validate yours.

I would love to hear your thoughts: how I'm doing; if I'm writing things that interest you; what you want me to discuss next. I can be reached directly at naseem.in.neverlands@gmail.com, and maybe will set up an anonymous form, too. And I desperately want to hear from all of you.

Rest assured, this is just an introductory entry; a real essay will follow shortly. I am planning on updating once a week, likely on Mondays (or maybe Wednesdays, HUMPH (and hump) DAY, hmmm) with work that hopefully is polished and ~profesh~. I promise to not write like that in my essays.

Let's have a dialogue on growing pains, and how much we'd all like to kick them in the nuts.

Note: my essays will be very honest, open, and often explicit. No, that does not mean I'm going to write sex scenes on here. But I do mean that if I'm describing details of my depression, I will do so honestly. Now, I will try to put content warnings on every entry, not just because for some people, it triggers symptoms of their disorders, but also because for many of us, these things are just difficult to read. I don't think foul language will add anything, but I'll use it when necessary (likely when quoting). My beloved parents are reading this, and even so, I want to be as open as possible.