As I sat in the vacant waiting room outside my most recent audition, I couldn’t help but feel its walls daring to close in on me. The Senate Judiciary Hearings for Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford played silently on the television in the corner, and their mimed expressions of respective rage and terror threatened to suck the oxygen right out of the tiny room. It begun to feel dangerously close to a padded cell. I sat in anticipation of my audition, distracted by their pantomimes, pain, bombarded with similar memories of my own…and, thankfully, the whole of who I am. I [...]

“I’ve started interviewing for a new job.” My good friend—a recent transplant to New York—was guzzling his enormous iced coffee. I stopped mid-sip on my soy latte. “OMG, already? You’ve had your job for less than a year. You have benefits, catered breakfast and lunch, a masseuse on staff, free metro cards and a ridiculous coffee shop on your floor…you have the sweetest deal going for a corporate gig straight out of school. Ever. WHY?” “Yeah, but I don’t feel like I’m making an impact there. IDK—I just feel like I should be making more of a…difference, ya know?” Yes, I [...]

I survived sexual abuse in the Air Force academy. I am not a victim. I am a victor. — Published on August 7, 2018 by Polo Tate, Author of DEEP DARK BLUE, Actress, Artist, Athlete Polo Tate, author of DEEP DARK BLUE: A Memoir of Survival “Pardon me, sir, I’m finished. May I give you back the form for my dog tags?” I handed the grizzled gray-haired vet behind the counter back the form he had given me. His woolen baseball cap said ARMY in gold letters and was adorned with various combat pins along the sides, hiding most of a [...]