Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Viva.
Girls are a lesson
Being a daughter whose mother had a traumatic childhood is not an easy situation. My mother has a somewhat dysfunctional relationship with her mother, but that is a story for another time. She has a complicated relationship with me and my sister. However, my mother went through something that will affect her and her daughters for the rest of her life. At the age of 5, she was sexually assaulted. My mother told me and my sister this at a very young age. It haunts her. She has seen therapy and while therapy helped her a bit, she still is affected. And it shows based on how she raised my sister and me.
The First Step.
These are kinda tight, I thought as I wiggled left and right trying to squeeze into a pair of jeans. The fluorescent white light caught all the bumps in my thighs, whilst the precariously placed mirrors made sure I saw parts only a lover should. A few years ago, this size would have hung off me.
Kathryn GwynethPublished about 19 hours ago in VivaObviously, It's Not A Problem Because It's "Not All Men"
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. When force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault.
Eliza WrightPublished about 21 hours ago in Viva
To The Women who still inspire me today ....
Dear Isabel Pauley... In late 2015 I met you. You were an ADA in the Major Crimes Unit of the Chatham County District attorney's office. My probationer, L.P. was an unmedicated mess (not her fault). It was her mother. For months, her mother would cover up her part in L.'s issues, and her missing daughter. The adult probation office didn't notice that a little 15 year girl was at an adult offenders home. When I found out and called them they didn't care. Terry McMurry then with the Thunderbolt Police department would check on L. P. on his way home, just to make sure she was safe. (Thank You Terry, you helped me save her life. To Sean Clayton the now Chief of Thunderbolt..You getting Chief of Police was something done right. You should be ashamed of Kevin Diagou, I am. You and I worked the N. A. case together until Feb 2016. You don't know but I tried to get him on an EM and Judge Colbert wouldn't. You might remember that N. A,'s brother was killed and N. A. was shot himself. We could have prevented that. I tried. )
WonderBellePublished 2 days ago in VivaMy Journey in Construction Technology
I’ve spent the past 13 years of my life using cutting-edge technology to optimize construction. It may not be surprising to hear that construction is one of the least digitized sectors of the world economy, second only to agriculture. However, McKinsey Global Institute stated that “the construction sector is one of the largest in the world economy, with about $10 trillion spent on construction-related goods and services every year.” Grace Ellis, of Autodesk, reported that “23% of [construction] firms report they are taking steps to improve jobsite performance with lean construction techniques, tools like [Building Information Modeling], and offsite prefabrication.” I am working hard to be the change I want to see. I work for a company that is owned by Stanford graduates. There is a world-renowned Stanford professor on our board of advisors along with one of the top people at Amazon Web Services. With all of that talent and knowledge, it can still sometimes feel like we are taking two steps forward and one step back. It’s progress, but it is a steady fight. When I started my journey in construction technology, we were in the thick of the great recession. I was a year away from graduating from UC Berkeley and took an internship at a well-established structural engineering firm. That internship changed the course of my future. I was fascinated by a little-known program at the time called Revit. It was like the easy button to all the heartache I had experienced with AutoCAD and this structural engineering firm was implementing it on all of their projects. I had to be a part of it.
Jennifer ThomasPublished 2 days ago in Viva
Men Make Women Crazy...PERIOD!
Men absolutely do not know what the hell they want or what they do not want . You can not win with men. One minute they want you to be a fierce, sexy temptress and then the next minute they think you are flirting with everybody and that you are acting like a s*** or dressing like a hooker.
Amanda J MollettPublished 3 days ago in Viva
Sport Bras
Before I begin, I figured I should share a portion of my accreditations 💁🏽♀️ One reason I quit riding as a young person (just to get it sometime down the road once more) was a direct result of my boobs 🤦🏽♀️ As a teen I was "honored" with GG cup boobs that caused huge torment and shame. I can genuinely say that if the item and ability that presently exists in the Sport Bras industry was around at that point, I most likely couldn't have ever stopped my riding. Truth be told, it wasn't until subsequent to having had a bosom decrease that I hopped back in to the seat 🏇🏽
Sport BrasPublished 3 days ago in Viva
The Diary of a Single Mother
One morning, I woke up and decided, I was ready to be a mother. I wanted to see the ten little fingers and ten little toes. I was ready to listen to the heart warming giggles. I thought, the slobby kisses and hugs from a tiny person is just what I needed. At that time, I truly thought I was ready to be a mom. I thought, I was equipped with everything. I graduated university, I was working within my career, I had money in the bank, a stable home, a loving partner, married for over 4 years. And most importantly, I was at my prime pregnancy age. I was under thirty and didn’t want the biological clock ticking ahead. Motherhood, oh it sounds so sweet.
Chrissy MerlikaPublished 3 days ago in Viva
Esperanza Rising
Esperanza Rising- Literature review Esperanza Rising transports us into the lives of Mexican-American immigrant agriculture workers and we get to see the kind of extreme hardships they had to suffer during the 1930’s depression era in the United States. What makes this novel so important is the representation of strong, independent, minority women and girls who were able to overcome the challenges of systemic racism, extreme poverty and all while living under the rule of a patriarchal society. Children, especially young girls, need to have access to more powerful stories like Esperanza Rising which provides worthy role models and important messages like never being afraid to start over. Books that defy gender stereotypes and teach young girls that they have more choices than they realized, and that they might be more powerful and capable than they could have ever imagined are critical in the fostering of the future female leaders of the United States, and the world; books are powerful. Nelson Mandela asserts, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Duncan, A., 2013).
Fearless WarriorPublished 3 days ago in Viva
Me, the Anti-Abortion Mouthpiece Who Became Pro-Choice
I was 14 years old, living in my Mexican border town, and our high-school teacher had organized a debate on abortion. He asked us who wanted to be on the affirmative and the negative side of the discussion. Other kids and I quickly raised our hands to say we wanted to be “against.”We were given a day to prepare.
10 Hacks to Help You Become a Period Ninja
It's that time of the month again. You know, your monthly visitor? Do you feel like your monthly cycle is a time where it's hard to get anything done? Do you find yourself feeling drained, tired, and moody every month? It's no surprise that the menstrual cycle can take such a toll on our bodies.
Elena AthonPublished 4 days ago in Viva
Things They Never Tell You
It starts out like a normal day. You're sitting on the couch watching Netflix, you're washing the dishes from the night before or maybe you're concentrating super hard at work; your normal is no longer normal after today. Were you expecting a period that never arrived? Have you been trying for years and today is your nerve racking day to test? Or maybe like myself, you had no symptoms at all that Mother Nature's gift was being delivered. Something feels different, something has changed.
Olivia Tucker-WightPublished 4 days ago in Viva
