This isn’t the second blog post I planned on writing. Pride Month always brings up a strange mix of emotions for me, and I decided it was important to honor them. I’m writing this for myself, to help process and release the past, but also for the readers in hopes that it might inspire reflection and, even better, action. As a heads up, this article contains a few stories about assault from my personal life that may be triggering for some readers. It was May 13, 2023, around

It was another beautiful, sunny day in Auckland. I was doing a little work in my Airbnb before setting out to explore for the day. This had become my routine since deciding on a whim to solo travel through the South Pacific for six weeks. At the time, I was in the throes of a brutal job search that had persisted for more than a year and a half, and I had developed a habit of incessantly checking LinkedIn. Some days, scrolling through LinkedIn feels mindless and uneventful, ye