It was a sacred object in every classroom of my suburban Toronto schools. A vehicle for self-actualization in an otherwise regimented day. Though I was not permitted to speak unless spoken to, to colour outside of the lines, or even to satisfy my most basic of human needs without first

I never should have agreed to take care of my father. I was too young to be responsible for a man with seven brain tumors, lung and kidney cancer. He lived for 11 weeks, but the toll it took on my body felt like 11 years. I drank all day