Mori’s Whimsical Burrow

  Everyone wants to be an advocate for mental health—until they actually live with someone who has a mental health condition. It’s easy to romanticize Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) when all you see are quirky TV characters like Harley Quinn or Rapunzel from Tangled—chaotic but charming, unpredictable yet lovable. On screen, they’re funny, authentic, and adorably “random.” But the truth is, the real people those characters are based on aren’t living in fiction. They’re living in the middle of a cyclone. They’re in pain. And most of that pain happens off-screen, where no one is laughing. What BPD Really Means According to the Cleveland Clinic, Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental health condition marked by extreme mood swings, impulsive behaviors, and unstable relationships. Marsha Linehan, a world-renowned psychologist and fellow borderline, once described those with BPD as “people with third-degree burns over 90% of their bodies. Lacking emotional skin, they feel a...

According to the dictionary, favorite means “preferred before all others of the same kind.” It can even serve as a trademark. Despite being a personal choice, however, a favorite is never purely personal—it can be shaped by culture, nostalgia, and lived experiences. As children, we often get to know others by asking about their favorites: What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite food? Who’s your favorite hero or cartoon character? It was a simple way to see if we had something in common, to know what gift might make them happy, or sometimes even to judge their personality. But as I grew older, I found it difficult to answer. Maybe I’m indecisive. Maybe I don’t fully know myself yet. To avoid explaining, I often just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. Favorites can be limiting. They tell us that one thing is better than another, when in truth, nothing is the “best” at everything. Teresa Kenny once wrote: “We’ve all suffered from it and we’ve all done it to some...

     I   have always been drawn to words. They are the threads that connect us to God, the foundation of religions, the spark behind theories, and the anchor of laws. Some people may say that words are useless without action, but I believe it goes both ways. After all, actions without words are like movements without meaning. It is a noun without verb—present, but incomplete. To be understood, to be remembered, they need to be spoken, written, named.      I can say that I showed my interest in writing at a very young age. My home was filled with books long befor e I even learned how to read them. In first grade, I wrote my first short story. By second grade, I recited my first poem. By sixth, I had written my first script. I grew up loving both facts and fantasies, not knowing which one to devote myself to—fiction or nonfiction. But one thing was always clear: I would write. I would write and carve my place in history. Whether my words contribute to sc...