mental health – Page 2

Deep breath

On 2024-01-12

The Sugar Factory in Scottsbluff on the evening of January 11, 2024.

A few days ago, I woke up to find my computer had rebooted. When I went to recover my open files, LibreOffice went through the process, but, then, nothing. Untitled1, Untitled2, Untitled3, and so on were empty. I sat and stared at my screen. There was no anger, only sadness. I’d lost the all the posts I had been working on for the blog except one. That one is titled Book List 2024. I lost the last bit of the file, but it’s easily replaced.

Maybe October didn’t win

By Irene

On 2023-11-06

In Ramblings

Sometimes it’s hard to sit down to write and explain what is going on with me. There are always several different stories bouncing around in my head, so I’m never short of ideas. What I lack is providing a good description of things to people who have no experience in the realms I have been in.

I don’t sleep on Fridays

By Irene

On 2023-08-19

In Ramblings

I don’t sleep well most nights, but I never get any rest on Fridays. It’s been this way most of my life and I never knew why.

A game changing theory and realizing you’re not alone

By Irene

On 2023-08-06

In Ramblings

A sunflower soaks up the rays of the sun at BE Farm in Bayard, Nebraska on August 3, 2023.

A few days ago, I read a column, which really hit home. The author, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, is a trauma expert. After reporting on the Ghislaine Maxwell trial devastated her own mental health, she checked herself in to one of the world’s leading residential trauma-treatment centers.

I would encourage everyone to go read the article, but I wanted to share some parts of the article that resonated with me.

Burning an unfulfilled path to begin a new journey

By Irene

On 2023-08-04

In Photos

As we grow and learn, we are able to decipher when things are good for us and when they are not. Sometimes, we need a push to get there, but, for me, how I got to the next step in my journey in life doesn’t matter as much as the fact that I’m here and continuing on toward a better future.

Being good enough

By Irene

On 2023-08-01

In Ramblings

When I accepted the position with Nspire Today and decided to go back to writing, I knew I would have to deal with two issues – talking on the phone and some thoughts about my skills.

But you never went to war

By Irene

On 2023-07-14

In Poetry

Puck on the couch.

But you never went to war

Returning to what I love

By Irene

On 2023-06-20

In Ramblings

A robin rests on a fence post at the Scotts Bluff County Fairgrounds.

On October 28, 2013, Steve Frederick gave me the opportunity to prove I could write. As the editor of the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, he told me on my first day, “I can’t teach you how to write, you already know how to do that, but I can teach you to be a reporter.”

For nearly six years, that’s what I did. I learned about my adopted home of Scottsbluff and all of western Nebraska. I found cool stories to tell and suffered through countless boring meetings, so I could go out and tell more cool stories.

It never really goes away

By Irene

On 2023-06-17

In Stories

My mom had just taken me to get my hair cut. She had to run a few errands before we went back home. I was sitting in the front passenger seat. We were stopped at the red light by the police department when a friend of hers started talking to her from the next lane over. After a few minutes, her friend asked her who the boy was with her in the car.

“That’s not a boy, that’s Irene,” Mom said. She said it matter-of-factly like her friend was an idiot for not recognizing me. I was six years old.