Columns

My husband and I are graduating from medical school this spring (hallelujah!). To celebrate, I am finally getting the tattoo that I have wanted for many years. It is a large back piece, and it will be my first and probably only tattoo. I am very excited, and my husband is extremely supportive. Notably, the tattoo will be completed before our graduation in May. My father and my in-laws both detest tattoos. Passionately. They feel that tattoos reflect poorly on the characters of those who have them (couldn’t disagree more, but that’s their opinion). Because graduation is a festive weekend where women will be wearing their loveliest summer dresses, I will have…

“I’m pregnant with identical twin boys and engaged to the father. But now that we’re pregnant, I’m not sure if I want to marry him.”

I’ve been married almost two years now and, for the past few years, I have tried really, really hard to establish a relationship with my husband’s brother and and his wife, “Cheryl.” When I first met her, Cheryl didn’t drive or have a job, and, from what I heard, she was depressed. Especially because she was “depressed,” I would always try to get her out of the house. I would take her out for lunch all the time, support her events, even helped put together her 30th birthday party. When she started working, I drove her to work a few times and brought her lunch often. She got her license and a…

I left home when I was about 20 years old to move in with my then-fiance, whom I met a year earlier. We’ve been together ever since then. We now have a 7-year-old child and are happily living our lives as we please. My partner works and I’m on home duties as well as a volunteer fire fighter. The problem is that my parents want us to travel south, a 3-hour drive away, to see them, which we do sometimes, but they never come up to us for a visit in return — it’s always one-sided and we’ve tried talking to them but it falls on deaf ears. I’m also gluten-free because…

My partner moved in to my rental apartment with me and my three children a year ago and rented out his own property. The agreement was that he would save for a deposit in order for us to buy our own house. Because of a poor credit rating, I was unable to be considered for a mortgage, so we continued with the plan of putting the mortgage in his name. After about six months of his being here, I told him he would need to contribute as I was no longer able to cover my bills due to a cease in original single parent benefits. I had been using my savings to…

My boyfriend and I have worked together for several months now, but we only started dating recently. He says that he has liked me ever since we first met when he got hired, and to his credit I didn’t really do anything to encourage his advances (I’m very shy), so he ended up hooking up a couple times with another girl we work with. When he and I started seeing each other (casually at first) he broke it off with her immediately even though she liked him and wanted to make them a “thing.” Shortly after that, we became exclusive and “came out” at work about our relationship. The issue is that…

“For about a month, I was dating a younger guy (25 to my 30), we were spending a ton of time together, and it all seemed great…”