Author: Kyle Banta
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Expectations Are An Illusion
Who else was told to “dream big” or “shoot for the stars” growing up? Who else was encouraged to set big goals, and that even if you failed to reach them, you’d be better off for it? Even if not directly told this, many of us pick up this sentiment from the society and culture…
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Poems Vol. 1
In the interest of challenging myself to explore writing in all of its forms, I decided this week that I would write poetry. I was tight on time and was up last week so late getting my short story in by the deadline for the writing club challenge I am partaking in. I thought, “poems…
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Pockets: The Light in Lost days
As he walked out of the automattic doors, the bright sun was glaring off of something to his left. He turned to see what it was, and saw a machine he hadn’t seen since he was a child. It was in rough shape, the red paint faded from years of exposure to the elements, but…
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The Lab Rat: My Experience Preparing for a Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Clinical Trial
“In the past week, how often have you felt like you wanted to kill yourself? Has it been Not at All, Fleeting or only a Couple of Minutes, 1 to 4 hours, Most of the Day, or All of the Time?” “In the past week, what reasons did you have for wanting to kill yourself?…
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It’s Good To Be Bad: The Benefit of Being “Bad” and Embracing My Fear of Singing
Skip to a TLDR Summary I sang in front of people for the first time since like 1st or 2nd grade this weekend (that’s almost 25 years). I remember growing up being told I wasn’t good at singing, so I just quit and vowed to not do it. I did the same thing with a…
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Dancing With Depression: My Story With Suicide and Why Our Youth Need Our Support
My name is Kyle, and I’ve thought about suicide nearly every day since I learned what it was when I was probably 12 or 13 years old, and I’ve dealt with feeling extreme depression for 20 years. Sorry for the blunt start, but I promise there’s a deeper point to this post. I think we…
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