Hello gentlepeople, welcome to Muted Mouthful! My name is Tiara (She/They/pronoun fluid), your humble host and guide through the inner workings of my mind. Muted Mouthful is a safe space I've created for myself, and hopefully, others, to navigate through some of life's cringiest moments. As someone that has felt misunderstood and out of place for most of my life, I now understand how important it is to share your story; this blog allows me to do so in the form of personal essays and creative writing. I hope we will be able to laugh, cry, and cringe together. If nothing else, you just made a new, quirky, weirdo friend!
Becoming my friend is a long, arduous process. It usually takes me a year or more before I feel like I can be myself and until then, it is one-sided conversations, lots of head nodding, and me deflecting personal questions so the other person continues to talk about […]
2006- One day, during my freshmen year of high school, after the bell rang alerting us to move to our next class, a group of kids in my biology class laughed behind me as I gathered my binder and backpack. I began to walk out of the classroom […]
Yesterday, I had the honor of listening to Michele Norris speak in person at a wonderful Women’s Forum. If you do not know who she is, she is an award-winning journalist and author and was the first African-American female to host a series on National Public Radio (NPR); […]
Because I do not speak a lot, I apparently come off as either snotty, arrogant, smug, conceited, or, for lack of a better word, a bitch. In case you are wondering, someone has either said this to me or about me at some point in my life. My […]
What annoys me is there are things that I am proud of that do not generate as much excitement as the idea of me having a significant other. I have bigger accomplishments than just being “off the market”.
I thought I would make a list of tiny things I do/need in order to recharge that does not involve: forcing myself to “feel pretty”, getting a massage, going for a jog, or eating kale. For me, sometimes simple things can be neglected when I feel overwhelmed or not myself. Maybe if you are struggling with how to fulfill the concept of self-care in your life, this may help.
My resistance and admiration of D&D stem from the same places, which makes every session so damn conflicting. It involves interacting with other people, which I hate. It involves working together to solve problems, which I hate. It involves sharing your ideas, which I hate. Lastly, it involves thinking of things on the spot, which I hate.
This is how is goes for me, someone acknowledges me in some way, and I immediately want to disappear. Why is that? Shouldn’t I be thrilled that someone noticed me? The attention, the unsought validation, should make my heart flutter not fold over so it becomes tinier and tinier.
The award is given to bloggers, by their blogging peers, in hopes to gain more recognition. Nominated blogs typically have less than 200 followers and have a simple task once accepted. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to simply follow the rules below and pay it forward.
This is where it starts. A vague idea and a dash of creativity.
