EDITORIAL
MENTORSHIP
​​
​​NORTHEAST OHIO SPOTLIGHT

Mentorship Recipient
Stuck

Recipient Reflection: 
Kirsten L. Parkinson

On "Stuck" by Kirsten L. Parkinson

by ​​Nardine Taleb

After I read “Stuck”, I couldn’t forget about it in the coming weeks. The story’s title did it justice—I was stuck on this story. Kirsten’s piece made me feel heard on how I felt during and after the pandemic, especially when she gives us little windows into her own struggles. I appreciated that she was upfront about what happened and how she was challenged to pick herself up. The lakebed could represent any struggle we’ve ever come across; how a struggle comes suddenly and how sometimes little angels (like the stranger with the dog) are sent to throw us lifelines.
 
Kirsten’s story made me realize that perhaps there was a shift during and after the pandemic in our transparency—we’re all tired, maybe a bit more hopeful, more realistic, and definitely more straightforward. I notice to this day people at work and in the community speaking up when they feel burnt out. A lot of my acquaintances have scheduled therapy sessions for themselves as an outlet. For the first time in my life, I’m realizing rest is okay. It is okay to ask for help. The definition of “success” and “happiness” has changed for me.
 
In the process of editing Kirsten’s story, she and I discussed what her experience meant to her and what it can mean to her readers. I like her style and the moments in the piece that she slows the experience down to really make us sit in discomfort—like when she is stuck in the lakebed and is slowly trying to pull herself out. “Weariness ate at my bones” she writes in her piece. I almost wish we had all seen this story sooner.
 
As with all “workshop”-like experiences, I came out of my meeting with Kirsten feeling like we’d forked through not only the story, but our own reflections about life. I hope readers can sit in this story for a while and hopefully come out of it with a release and sense of hope. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this story and the pandemic is we, as people, weren’t wired to give up.
 

Nardine Taleb

Nardine Taleb is an Egyptian-American writer and speech therapist. Her writing has appeared in Rattle, The Commuter, Hobart, Mizna, wildness, and elsewhere. With a background in helping people communicate and express themselves, she is passionate about mentoring others in writing and helping them share their work with the world. She is a Cleveland native and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon: the people and the coffee are too great.