by Erica Maul ‘21
Content warnings: eating disorders, body dysmorphia
I don’t have a full-length mirror at Wellesley, and this was my first time seeing the stretch marks. I’ve had plenty in my life, and they tell the story of hips sprouting from my pre-teen body several years ago. But I’ve never had them here.
Read Moreby Sofia Rose ’22
You are hit with a brilliant epiphany! You’ve been stupid! When you’re feeling bad, you should reach out for help! Obviously! You are a fully functioning person in control of your fate, so you make an appointment at the Stone Center for Monday.
Read Moreby Alicia Olivo ’20
Last October, I was lying in my bed, pretending I was still asleep while scrolling through my Twitter feed. I heard knocking at the front door, and then my mother answering the door. Although it was ten in the morning and the sun was radiating heat through my window, leaving me sweating, I closed my eyes and pretended to be comfortably asleep. My mother entered the room. Mamá looked annoyed, and then she told me why: “The neighbor came by and told us to bring the dogs inside. They’re barking too much, according to them.”
Read Moreby Maggie Roberts ’20
That semester, I was reading Ulysses for an English class. I had been too anxious—for no particular reason, just mentally fried—to commit to the novel. I viewed reading it as a chore instead of as the stimulating, enjoyable challenge it should have been for me. Finally, at the end of April, when I had just about given up on myself intellectually, writing myself off as dumb as well as fat, I was able to fall in love with the novel, its creative language, its self-involved, ever-so-realistic characters. Most of all, I fell in love with Molly Bloom.
Read MoreBy Anonymous
Content warning: depression, suicide, bipolar, anxiety, physical abuse
I’ve always struggled with getting out of bed. This is usually a result of lack of sleep the night before, but more recently, I know that hasn’t been the case. I’m getting at least seven or eight hours of sleep every night to try to combat the problem. I pray before I go to bed that I’ll wake up in the morning—I ask God to help me, just to nudge my feet because I know I don’t have the strength or mental capacity to do this on my own. I set multiple alarms in the morning just to make sure I will hear the ring. I’m not sleep deprived, so what the hell is wrong with me? “Laziness” is the only diagnosis I can fathom. But I’m not lazy.
Read MoreBy Emy Urban '18
Content warning: suicide
It was exhilarating to have complete control over Sebastian, whose life was always perfectly in order, his “mood meter” always full. At the times when I was most stressed, I would return to my little world of The Sims, half-jokingly telling my friends, “If I can’t have my life together, at least Sebastian can."
Read MoreBy Samantha English
Content warning: mention of anxiety, depression, and emotional abuse
I fell in love with the Brontë sisters when I was sixteen. I read Wuthering Heights in a slow-churning tempest of terror and intrigue, Cathy’s ghost lingering over my shoulder as I drew complex family trees of the Earnshaw and Linton families at my kitchen table. I carried my black-penned copy of Emily’s singular work to you, Wellesley, where it sat watching me, witchlike, waiting to be joined by its sister novels. It didn’t take long. By my second semester, I was in the Nineteenth Century Novel class, combing obsessively through Jane Eyre. I wasn’t just hooked. I was haunted.
Read MoreBy Alicia Margarita Olivo
Content warning: description of violence, implication of depression, mention of hurricane, flood
Being at Wellesley makes me feel like I’m wading through flood waters (I remember when Tropical Storm Allison hit home and my dad took my hand and helped me walk through the water to see the cars stuck on the street; I thought they were sharks in the deep), or that I’m carrying a weight on my chest. Now that I’m 1,806 miles away from home (if I were to walk home—sometimes I imagine society collapsing and everything going to complete shit [more than it already has] and, stuck without the availability to drive, I would walk those 1,806 miles back home) and family, bringing up any topic that might be considered Heavy seems rude.
Read MoreBy Samantha English
Content warnings: description of anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder
When I was fourteen years old, I bought The Fault in Our Stars at a Barnes and Noble in Darien, Illinois. It was a hot summer weekend, and I spent the afternoon in my grandmother's air-conditioned basement curled up on a blow-up mattress, falling in love with John Green's most recent novel of the time.
Read MoreBy Sophia Temkin '17
Content warning: implication of depression; mention of attempted suicide, sexual assault, and anxiety
The first time I went to therapy, I was in second grade. The last time I went to therapy was about a week ago. I think I’ve spent more years in weekly therapy than not.
Read MoreBy Anonymous
Content warning: explicit descriptions of depression, death, suicidal thoughts, drowning; mentions of ableist terms describing mental health conditions
The hood on my raincoat comes to a point where all the water streams down. It’s streaming down into my coat. I am drenched, but my umbrella is in my bag.
I didn’t use it because at least when I’m drenched and miserable, I’m feeling something.
Read MoreBy Anonymous
Content warning: implication of depression and anxiety
No matter how prepared I may have been, how many web pages I read or maps I studied, how much I knew I wanted to do this, study abroad is not all worry-free days and adventure. It’s not just weekend getaways and clever Instagram captions. It’s a lot harder than that.
Read MoreContent warning: description of Donald Trump; mention of sexual assault, mental illness, homophobia
The Counterpoint staff recently had a discussion about our Content Warnings Policy, specifically on whether or not we would provide CWs for articles that discuss Donald Trump. We decided as a staff that, as a magazine by Wellesley students for Wellesley students, we should open up the discussion to our campus readers via an anonymous poll and comment section. However, we also as a staff agreed that if just one Wellesley student said that they wanted CW for Donald Trump, we would provide them because we are a magazine for all Wellesley students. Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that we will provide CW for Donald Trump. In addition, though, we have decided to start having more detailed CWs overall. We will now provide three categories of CW, described below. These descriptions will now be available in the inside front cover of every issue of Counterpoint for our reader’s convenience.
Read MoreBy Anonymous
Content warning: mentions of gender dysphoria, descriptions of medicalization of intersex bodies
When my doctor called me with the final test results, she seemed to be nearly in tears. She wanted to immediately put me on two different types of birth control, regardless of the fact that I would need to be taken off of medications important to my mental health. She made me swear I wasn’t having sex. She repeatedly told me that even though chances were low that I could even have my own biological kids, I would need to have an abortion if I ever did get pregnant. The reason? If I was to have a child, that child would most likely have full-blown CAH resulting in ambiguous genitalia. In other words, any of my future kids would most likely be visibly intersex.
Read MoreBy Tamar Davis '16
At Wellesley, I’ve developed a clear understanding of privilege: who has it, who doesn’t, and why it’s bestowed upon some and not others.
I’ve realized that despite the multitude of different backgrounds we all have, just being on a college campus is a privilege that we all share.
But as a woman of color, especially a Black woman, this recognition of privilege is all the more potent.
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