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Today’s guest essay is written by Nicki Stapleton (honeybeenicki), who has previously shared her essays, “My Life as a Prison Wife” and “My Life as a Post-Prison Wife” on Dear Wendy.
When I was a kid, I loved going through the photo albums that lined our book shelf, looking at pictures of “young me,” as well as other people I knew. In one album were photos of this beautiful little dark-haired baby girl, often held by my mom. I was my mother’s only child and as blonde as blonde could get, so I knew that baby wasn’t me. When I asked my mom about the dark-haired girl from the photos, she told me her name was Jessica, that she was my sister whom my mother had at a very young age and that she had been given up for adoption. As a child — and now as an adult — I always had an insatiable thirst for information, so I had question upon question upon question for my mom, and she answered them as well as she could with what information she had and with what she believed I could understand.
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by Wendy on May 9, 2013
· in Essays,Getting Personal,Guest Column
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Today’s essay was written by guest contributor, Dennis Hong.
A few weeks ago, Wendy responded to a letter from a woman who was disgusted by her current boyfriend. As she put it, “He is grossly hairy EVERYWHERE, he is poorly educated, lacks common sense, is extremely clingy and he has halitosis.” Further complicating the situation was the fact that this woman was still in love with her ex.
Wendy’s advice was not to tell the current boyfriend how much he grossed her out and instead focus on the part about her not being over her ex. Pretty much everyone agreed with this advice. I mean, it’s the tactful and compassionate thing to do, right? He’s already going to be crushed. No reason to bludgeon him after reducing him to a whimpering pulp.
But then, over the next few days, I kept thinking back to this letter. And I kept wanting to put myself in the stinky boyfriend’s stinky shoes: [Click to continue]
by Wendy on October 31, 2012
· in Essays,Getting Personal,Guest Column
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Today’s essay is written by guest contributor, Gauri, an engineering graduate student in Los Angeles.
I decided I had nothing to lose. My family had known his for over two decades. He’d graduated from prestigious schools and was doing well career-wise. We both hailed from the same community, and had had a similar upbringing in the same hometown. And from the pictures I’d seen of him, he was tall and extremely attractive. The only apparent catch was that he lived over six hours away from the city I had just moved to for graduate school. He was given my email, and wrote to me after our parents had discussed setting us up with the intention of marriage. [Click to continue]
by Wendy on October 3, 2012
· in Essays,Getting Personal,Guest Column,weddings
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Today’s guest essay comes from humor writer Dennis Hong.
I confess. Back in college, I was in a fraternity. And yes, I engaged in some of the dumbass behaviors you probably associate with fraternities. Even today, friends sometimes express surprise when they find out that I was a “frat boy.” Other times, when I’m caught in moments of douchiness, I’m told that I’m “still such a frat boy.”
But, I have a dirty secret to tell: I’m proud to be frat boy. I have exactly zero regrets about being in a fraternity, because my fraternity made me the guy I am today. You’ve heard the expression, “Kids can be so cruel”? You learn the meaning of “cruel” when you live in a house with 40 other guys, many of whom spend a solid portion of their waking hours in varying stages of belligerent drunkenness. [Click to continue]
by Wendy on July 18, 2012
· in Getting Personal,Guest Column
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