I was tweeting about my current addiction to cashews, and I joked about contacting Emerald Nuts about sponsoring a blog post. (Half-joked. I’d totally love to set that up.) I couldn’t find them on Twitter, so I headed to the Emerald Nuts website…

…and proceeded to have to wait for their ridiculous Flash animations to load every time I clicked one of their internal links. It irritated me. I hope they have a mobile version of their site, since many phones don’t do Flash.

So I wondered if it was just me, and the easiest way to find that out was to conduct a quick poll via Twitter. I asked:

QUICK POLL: Do you ever WANT to see a Flash-y brand page, or would you rather just get down to business?

@ChristinaGayle flash? never.

— Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) March 15, 2012

@ChristinaGayle Just get down to business and skip the flash page.

— Don Galbraith (@dongalbraith) March 15, 2012

@CutestKidEver down to bidnez.

— M Houghton (@evil_bat_witch) March 15, 2012

@CutestKidEver I hate Flash pages — especially since I block scripts by default. I have to enable your page and wait for it to load? No thx

— Mindy (@MindyKB) March 15, 2012

@ChristinaGayle get down to business!

— Kate Downes (@katerdownes) March 15, 2012

@CutestKidEver if I go a site that’s too flashy or doesn’t work in mobile browsers, I immediately leave.

— Kat’s GF Kitchen (@katsgfkitchen) March 15, 2012

Not a single person who responded ever wanted to see a Flash site. Not one.

So brands take note: keep your flashy designs off the Web and keep it simple instead. We don’t want to sacrifice function for form.

Brands of the World: Just Say No to Flash is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

After participating in Bulldog Reporter’s Mommy Blogger Panel, I must say that I started getting some much better pitches via email. However, the bad ones have not stopped coming.

Today’s bad pitch is actually quite hilariously irrelevant for my life and my blog, and I need to share with you how awesomely bad it is:

“Brush Buddies the makers of the wildly successful Justin Bieber line of oral products announced today, on Bieber’s 18th birthday, that Brush Buddies is inviting his fans to create their own Brush Buddies Justin Bieber Singing Toothbrush; as a gift, of sorts, from Bieber to his fans.”

That’s right, folks…stick Justin Bieber in your mouth, and he sings! (He’s 18 now. I’m allowed to make inappropriate comments like this.) No one in my house would ever want a singing Justin Bieber toothbrush. I can’t imagine anyone actually wanting one, but there’s just no accounting for tween girls and their obsessions.

The pitch went on, and I started laughing harder.

“Justin Bieber fans, known as “Beliebers”, have been busy today delivering a number of gifts and tributes to the pop music icon. True to his character, Bieber has been exceptionally gracious to his Beliebers by repeatedly thanking them for their outpouring of support.”

Now I can’t get Journey’s hit song, “Don’t Stop Beliebing” out of my head. (They were fans before he was even BORN!)

The thing that really killed me, though, was visiting the Brush Buddies Justin Bieber Toothbrush page from the link provided in the press release. The picture of the toothbrush is ridiculous enough as it is, but they clearly need to hire me as their copywriter or editor. I never would have let them push this page live with this description text:

“2 buttons – 1 button when you wake up in the morning and one before you goto bed. Each button will play a Justin Bieber’s song for 2 minutes which is the dentist recommend time to brush your teeth. Now you can enjoy brushing your teeth while you listen to Justin’s best songs”

For the record, that horrific sentence should read: Each button will play a Justin Bieber song for 2 minutes, which is the dentist-recommended time to brush your teeth. It’s still a bit awkward without changing the wording, but it’s at least grammatically correct my way.

If nothing else comes of this but shared laughter (and perhaps getting this post to rank for Justin Bieber singing toothbrush) I’ll be happy.

Bad Pitch of the Day: Stick Justin Bieber in Your Mouth and He Sings! is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

Resumes are supposed to be pretty serious things, right? I hadn’t worried about a resume in years since starting Phenomenal Content, but a few months ago, I did try to land a gig with the Cheezburger Network, so I got a little crazy.

They never got back to me, and I assume it’s only because they hired someone like Betty White instead. (I’d pick her over me, too.) Because I don’t think I’ll ever have a use for this particular version of my resume again, I figured I’d share it with you, the Internet. All you have to do is click on this link to see it in all of its PDF glory:

Writing a resume like a boss

Oh snap, that was fabulous, right? If it made you actually interested in hiring me, my email address was on there. Use it. I’m available for writing, blogging, proofreading, editing, and social media projects. I’m on Twitter (twice), Facebook, and Pinterest most often. If you don’t need to hire me to directly complete any of the aforementioned tasks, I am also available for consulting.

The Most Awesome Resume that Never Got Me the Writing Job is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

So I like to browse my spam comments before I delete them…just in case there’s a false positive. The most recent wave of spam comments I got was on my recent Merry Christmas video, where I sang a karaoke version of Santa Baby for fun. There was too much negativity in the social media sphere, and I wanted to post something positive to make people smile or laugh.

Imagine my surprise (and, admittedly, amusement) when I read this comment that had been spammed from that post:

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.

Riiiiight. The commenter’s “name” was Cholesterol diet (amasidi0324@live.com) from healthycholesteroldiets.com – and if you want to block the IP address from your blog, it’s 59.146.188.76.

So this is a thing now? I don’t understand the tactic. A lot of bloggers would delete the comment simply because it was insulting – or possibly offensive, if they really were whining and looking for attention.

It doesn’t make sense to me. The fake “Nice blog” comments are getting auto-spammed, so spammers are trying the attack route? I wonder if anyone is dumb enough to argue back…

Spammers Now Offending Bloggers to Get a Reaction? is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

Do you remember way back in August 2009 when I made a post about SEO Cold Calling, aka Contact Form Spam? It was lambasting a company (that I didn’t name) who tried to sell me crappy SEO services by using my copywriting services contact form.

Amusingly enough, I got a spam comment on that post a few weeks ago. Because the spammer intended it to be a publicly viewed comment (or not? – you’ll see why) I feel no remorse about leaving the email address and such intact. I don’t want the actual links to work, of course. Emphasis is mine to point out the ridiculousness.

Hello,

Greetings for the day!

I am lerry, Marketing Manager and I am contacting you after visit your website.

To introduced,

We are a Leading New Delhi Based Online Marketing, Design & Web Development Company and one of the very few company which offer organic SEO services with a full range of supporting services such as one way themed text links, blog submissions, directory submissions, article writing and postings, etc.

We are a team of 60+ professionals which includes 20 full time SEO experts. We are proud to inform you that our team handled 1000+ SEO projects and obtained 50000+ manually built links in the past 1 year.

We will be glad to assist you with offering our services.

Do let me know if you have any question and I would be happy to send in more details.

Best Regards,
Name: Lerry
Post: Marketing manager
Reply me: lerry.marketingmanager@gmail.com

Note: Though this is not an automated email, we are sending these emails to all those people whom we find eligible of using our services. To unsubscribe from future mails (i.e., to ensure that we do not contact you again for this matter), please send a blank email at removeme@gmail.com

So Let’s Review…

Bad English. Why would I hire an SEO company that can’t even write a sentence in proper English? (Yet another reason to hire native speakers for your online endeavors. Outsource to India to save money, and you’ll often find that you get what you pay for.)

“One of the very few company [sic] which offer [sic] organic SEO services.” If this is the way you pitch me – with blog spam – I can hardly believe that your SEO services are going to be anything close to “organic.”

This wasn’t an email. The template was obviously meant to be used for email spam, but they didn’t bother changing the text when switching to to blog comment spam instead.

Fake remove instructions. I can guarantee that removeme@gmail.com does not belong to the company that spammed me.

With all of this, if anyone actually falls for this spam, I’m half-convinced they deserve to be parted with their money.

The Irony of Spamming My SEO Cold Calling Post is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

I know that link building is hard. That’s why I don’t do that sort of thing for a living. But if you’re going to do it, at least try to do it right. And by that, I mean: don’t spam people, and when trying to pitch bloggers in a personal manner, don’t try to automate “personal.”

Case in point: It’s great to actually check out someone’s blog, determine it’s a good fit for your client (or your own site), and let the blogger know you’ve done a little research by mentioning one of their posts that you found to be relevant to the site you want them to link to. Get this part wrong, and it’s obvious you’re just faking it – and that almost never goes well.

Here’s the bad link request that inspired this post. (And I’ll spare you the broken HTML that displayed in the body of the email when I received it.)

Hello,

I saw that you have a list of links to other resources on your website, christinagleason.com/check-your-sources-false-information-online/, and I would like to provide you with another resource for your list. My website, 100bestdatingsites.org, contains valuable information for those contemplating entering the online dating world, such as articles, statistics, and advice on how to remain safe and minimize the risks associated with this type of viral communication.

If my site sounds like something your viewers would be interested in, please think about placing my link on your list of resources. In doing so, you will be providing them with unbiased and objective information, and you will also be aiding me in spreading awareness about my site.

If you have any questions about my request please don’t hesitate to contact me via email. 

Thanks and have a great day,

Joe Morris
Blogger | Owner
100 Best Dating Sites

So let’s review. The part that you didn’t see was the random broken head, style, and paragraph tags floating about. Seriously, people. If you’re going to go for the fancy email formatting, make sure it renders properly.

Next up: The sender tried to score points with me by linking to a specific post on my blog that he supposedly had read. Of course, if you check that page out, you’ll see that there is no list of links to other resources as Joe Morris seems to think there is. Unless he’s talking about my blogroll, which is probably what his automated software detected as a list of links to other resources before compiling this “personalized” message.

Also? What about my site screams “online dating safety tips?” I certainly didn’t write anything about online dating in my post about false information online. I’m pretty sure I’ve never written about online dating before – since I am, after all, a happily married woman - although I bet I’ll start ranking for it with this post.

Another fun fact: Joe Morris says I shouldn’t hestitate to contact him by email with any questions I may have, but the reply-to address on his message is donotreply@domainsbyproxy.com. Although, since his unsolicited link request was so helpful to me, I clicked the handy dandy “show details” link in Gmail to determine that his email address was joe.morris@100bestdatingsites.org – how else could I send him to my You Pitched Me page?

Bad requests make good blog fodder. They also help serve as a PSA for what NOT to do when pitching bloggers.

Don’t be that guy.

Bad Link Request That Tried to Fake the Personal Touch is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

So when I had the concept for this post – Save My Ass – it was because I realized that it’s been five years since the gastroenterologist told me I should come back and see him in five years for another colonoscopy. You see, my mom’s brothers have all had cancerous polyps in their colons. That wasn’t enough to get me to have one before I turned 30, but I was having a host of other issues, and mainly the doctor wanted to know why I was so anemic and why I had so many GI problems. Then he found a bunch of polyps in there – thankfully benign, but combined with the family history, enough of a concern to have me come back in five years. And now, my dad’s lingering indolent lymphoma has set up camp in his colon, so it’s been making me nervous…

Did you know that the average colonoscopy costs $3,000?

That’s on average. When you have to have polyps removed and biopsied, the cost goes up. And my husband’s health insurance plan sucks – we have a $5,000 deductible. So the idea was I’d ask people to hire me (well, my company) to write enough blog posts to pay for my colonoscopy. Save my ass. Get it? But come to find out, we’re only about $900 away from reaching our deductible, and our insurance plan considers colonoscopies a form of preventative care - and therefore not subject to the deductible, because they cover it.

So my literal ass does not need to be saved. My figurative ass could use some help.

Work has been slower than I needed it to be this year. (That $5,000 deductible was new this year and really hasn’t helped matters.) Our garbage disposal died. Our dishwasher died. And I hate to admit this, but I’ve missed making estimated tax payments for the past two quarters, and I’m terrified of how much I may owe the IRS come income tax season, because I don’t know where the money will come from. And I have at least 5 different people telling me that I should get tested for Lyme disease because of my back and joint pain – and doctor’s office visits and lab tests still cost money.

I know we could be worse off. At least we both have jobs. We can still make our mortgage payments. But health care costs are killing us. (I’ve been in agony all week with back pain like I’ve never felt before in my life, and for the first time ever, I didn’t seek medical treatment because we couldn’t afford it right now.)

Hire Me to Write and Blog for You

When I say hire me, I would like it known that my company is implied. Because my writers are awesome. Now that that’s out of the way…

Get a Blog Post for $100

Your company needs some fresh blog material? We got it for you. If I don’t have a writer who is already knowledgeable about your subject, I will attempt to find one, or one of my fabulous writers will do the necessary research to write a great post for you. Use this handy dandy PayPal button to place your order and send a follow-up email to content at phenomenalcontent.com with the subject line “My Blog Post Order” to let me know the title/concept for the post, the URL of the blog we’re writing the post for, when you need the post by (please allow at least 5 business days), and any other instructions you may have for us.

Give the Perfect Apology for $25

For this, I will be trying to write all of them myself. If you really screwed up, and you just can’t find the words to make it better, let me help you write an apology letter. I actually have a separate blog post written up about this service: Unique Holiday Gift Idea – An Apology Letter. All the details are available there.

Fix Up Your Resume for $25

Let me personally proofread your resume. I will fix any errors in spelling, grammar, or punctuation for you. If there are other issues, I will make suggestions for changes. If you make the changes, I’ll proofread the second draft, too, at no additional charge. I know too many people who need jobs right now and just can’t find them. Employers get far more resumes than they have job openings, and any errors whatsoever may get yours tossed into the garbage can when there are plenty available that are flawless. If you want me to look yours over to ensure you’re in the flawless category, use the PayPal button to place your order and send a follow-up email to content at phenomenalcontent.com with the subject line “Proofread My Resume” and a copy of your resume either pasted into the body of the email or attached as a .doc or .docx file. (I will not be able to make changes to a .pdf file.)

Thanks for your support!

Save My Ass – Hire a Blogger/Writer is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

Yes, I know this email was an attempt to scam me out of money, but I caught a phrase or two before I deleted it. I’ve gotta give them credit. At least they are getting more creative. I’m going to use bold print to emphasize my favorite passages; comments in italics are my additions.

MS Maria Cristina Gam
CREDIT ACCOUNTS OFFICER
HEAD OFFICE
BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK
12 ADB AVENUE,
ORTIGAS CENTER,
MANDALUYONG CITY
PHILIPPINES.

Good Day,

I sincerely ask for your forgiveness for I know this may seem like a complete intrusion to your privacy but right about now this is my only option of communication.Though,this medium (Internet) has been greatly abused, I choose to reach you through it because it still remains the fastest medium of communication. However, this correspondence is unofficial and Private, and it should be treated as such. Therefore you should take this information to yourself because all the information you have here is very very confidential and reality. (OMG! Reality!)  This mail might come to you as a surprise and the temptation to ignore it as unserious could come into your mind; but please consider it a divine wish and accept it with a deep sense of humility. This mail is written and intended to solicit your assistance to be presented as NEXT OF KIN to my late Client’s estate. Considering the sensitivity of this email to you, I advice that you keep its content to yourself. [Oops.] If you are not willing to do this with me, please delete this email an [Oops again. I think you left out a few words!]

Let me start by introducing myself, I am Mrs. Maria Cristina Gam, CREDIT ACCOUNTS OFFICER BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK. [ALL CAPS MEANS IT'S TRUE!] I am writing you this letter based on the latest development at my bank, which I will like to bring to your personal edification. I am writing you this letter with so much joy and excitement even though my heart goes out to the very powerful and distinguished gentleman who I was fortunate to have worked for and extremely privileged to have known for numerous years. I was a top official in charge of client accounts in EQUITABLE PCI BANK in the Philippines which has now been merged and is now a part of BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK.

In 2001, my client was going through a horrendous divorce in the United States of America and was on the verge of losing most of his estate to his vicious and diabolical wife. [That is my FAVORITE PART. The vicious and daibolical wife.] As a result of this alarming predicament, my client came to me with a very brilliant idea. He transferred some funds, ten million two hundred thousand dollars ($10.2m) to a fixed deposit account in my bank under an alias which only the two of us knew about as the confidentiality of the matter was necessary for his protection.

Due to his untimely death in early 2002, the funds have been sitting in the account ever since and will continue to do so perpetually unless we do something about it. This is where you come in. I located you through an agency that helps seek people by their email. [Are they hiring?] My client did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit. Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I would like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to my client so that you will be able to receive his funds. I want you to know that i have had everything planned out so that we can come out successful.I have contacted an attorney who will prepare the necessary documentation that will back you up as the next of kin to my client. All that is required from you at this stage is for you to provide me with your Full Names [All of them!] and Address so that the attorney can commence his job.

After you have been made the next of kin, the attorney will also file in for claims on your behalf and secure the necessary approval and letter of probate in your favour for the movement of the funds to an account that will be provided by you. There is no risk involved at all in the process as we are going to adopt a legalized method and the attorney will prepare all the necessary documentation. The allocation of our money will be as follows: 40%($4.02m) to you for your part in this,and 60% for me. I think this is extremely fair, [oh yes, totally fair] as you have nothing to lose but just a little time, while on the other hand I am staking my flawless reputation among other things. And besides $4.02 million is no pocket change. Once you are approved, the entire transaction should take no longer than fourteen business days after which we will go about our daily business, but just millions of dollars richer. As you can see this is easier than taking candy from a baby, [tired cliche; have you ever TRIED taking candy from a baby?] but mind you, trust is something that is developed over time and [damn paragraphs keep getting cut off]

Again, I will be in charge of everything else. I will assume all responsibilities for this endeavour so you don’t have to worry about any legal ramifications, [just the jail time for illegal wire transfers] just what you will do with all that money. Your urgent response is highly anticipated so please email me through this email; (}for more details on this transaction as soon as possible. This should be kept very secret and confidential. I believe you know. [See how well that works out for you?]

Kind Regards,
Ms. Maria Cristina Gam
mariacristinagam@yahoo.com.ph

So feel free to email Ms. Maria Cristina Gam and pester her about her “perfectly legal” operation to have a complete stranger overseas declared next of kin for a former client who entrusted her with millions of dollars over a decade ago. Untimely death? If I didn’t know this was all BS, I’d have to wonder if she killed him and had been trying to figure out a way to get his money all this time.

As a matter of fact, I think this could be the plot of a fairly awesome made for TV movie. Who wants to write the script? It’s like a soap opera. No, a telenovella. All I ask for in return is 40% of the royalties. I think this is extremely fair.

Gotta Give This Scammer Points for Creativity is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

I was one of the millions of people ranting about how much I hated the “new Facebook” released yesterday. (Unlike most people, I actually tagged Mark Zuckerberg in my post.)

There’s a really easy fix to get rid of the ridiculous “top stories” format and just read your friends’ status updates in reverse chronological order the way you used to do by clicking on “Most Recent.” Here’s how to get Most Recent posts on Facebook…

Bookmark this page:

https://www.facebook.com/?sk=cf

You’re welcome.

Easy Fix to Get Facebook Most Recent Posts is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

Ten years ago, I remember sitting at my computer desk in our old apartment when the phone rang. I have no idea what I was doing at my computer – and the Internet wasn’t like it is today. We may have even had dial-up Internet service at the time, which means I wasn’t online when my mom called to tell me that a plane had flown into the side of the World Trade Center.

I remember feeling a moment of sadness for the people onboard, but I didn’t feel the full weight of what had happened. I thought it was another freak plane crash, no reason to believe anything sinister was taking place.

My husband Tom and I both had the day off from work, and we’d been planning to go look at houses while we had some mutual free time. We didn’t sit glued to the television screen that morning like most other people did, so we actually went out to do just that.

I still don’t know if I was in shock or denial about what was actually taking place. I do remember Tom asking me, “Are you sure?” about going out to look for a new place to live, and I said yes.

We started our search at the modular home place down the street. They had a few model houses we wanted to look at – building a house seemed more appealing to us than buying someone else’s home. The two employees at the modular home office were gawking at the television when we arrived. They went through the motions of telling us about the homes before sending us off to walk through the model homes on our own. I’m sure they were talking about us once we left them alone, wondering who could be shopping for a house at a time like this.

It didn’t really hit me until later that night when we finally started watching the TV. And then I was hooked into the nation’s mutual horror of the terrorist attacks. I couldn’t stop watching.

It really sank in when I went back to work the next day. I worked as a mental health worker at a psychiatric hospital. My home unit was the pre-teen unit. Most of our kids were ages 8-13, though when the teen unit got full, we occasionally ended up with 15 and 16 year olds. The television was on all day long for the staff to watch, though we tried to keep the kids away from the news as much as possible. I have no idea how they broke the tragedy to the kids the day before. I do remember we ended up admitting a girl who had lost someone when the Twin Towers collapsed.

I cried a lot. I watched the television coverage obsessively. I own a DVD copy of the 9/11 fundraising concert, America: A Tribute to Heroes. As an overly empathetic soul, I have always absorbed other people’s grief and experienced it as my own. I felt sadness in my bones for all of the people who had lost husbands, wives, parents, and children to the terrorist attacks.

But as time wore on, it morphed into something completely different for me. As President George W. Bush talked about the new War on Terrorism, irrational thoughts began to invade my head. I was terrified that the U.S. military would institute a draft again, that my husband could be unwillingly packed up and shipped off to fight somewhere. I was so afraid that I would lose him the way so many military wives lost their husbands. I became obsessed with these thoughts, and I would burst into tears at the drop of a hat just thinking about it.

I went to my primary care doctor and talked to her about my thoughts and feelings. I was bawling in her office. She reassured me that many people were feelings depressed and anxious following the September 11 attacks, and that my fears were unlikely to come to fruition. She wrote me a prescription for Celexa. She wrote me another prescription for Xanax to deal with the full-on panic attacks I was having, as well.

It took several weeks for the Celexa to kick in, since most of these antidepressants take time to build up to a therapeutic level in your system. I was still obsessed with keeping Tom safe, and I made a plan in my head to ensure his safety if a draft ever did become a reality. If he got called up, I was going to break his leg. A broken leg would take time to heal, so he wouldn’t be able to go to basic training. I debated the best way to accomplish this… pushing him down the stairs would risk a more serious injury like a broken back. Maybe running over his leg with the car? Better to hurt him and have him suffer for a few months than to risk letting him go off to die.

Eventually, time and Celexa did its job. As the months wore on, I realized they weren’t going to start involuntary conscription again. I cancelled my followup appointment with my doctor and just stopped taking the Celexa when I was feeling better.

Except that I would never be the same again. I’d always had anxiety running on a low burn, even in childhood. Perfectionism has its roots in anxiety. I was a straight A student all through school, but even as a toddler, my mom said I hid myself away in my room and spent an entire day teaching myself to tie my shoes because I didn’t want to let anyone see me fail at it. (To this day, I still tie my shoes using the bunny ears method. Tom is responsible for teaching TJ to tie his shoes the right way.)

But 9/11 had awakened my anxiety full throttle. The fact that I “felt better” meant only that I wasn’t obsessing about losing Tom, that I wasn’t having anymore panic attacks. For years, though, I ignored how anxiety (and the depression I still hadn’t acknowledged) were shaping my life and my actions. It took seven years before I admitted I had a problem and I needed more help than my primary care doctor could provide.

So 9/11 is a personal tragedy for me, in addition to being a national tragedy. I feel selfish in admitting this. I did not lose anyone on a plane that crashed or a building that toppled. My father was no longer active duty in the fire department, so he never even considered going down to help out at the World Trade Center site in the aftermath. He never had to inhale that toxic soup that was so pervasive in the air.

I still feel very deeply for the people who did lose someone on that terrible day 10 years ago. Just two minutes of a news clip the other night about the “9/11 babies” – the now-10-year-olds who were born to widows who were pregnant on 9/11 – was enough to send me upstairs to sob in my bed for 20 minutes. For them to have had to grow up without fathers because of hatred that burned so strong…

But I will not be watching any of the 9/11 tributes or retrospectives today because I cannot get sucked into the national grief again. I cannot intentionally put myself in that terrible place. Selfishly, I do not want to remember how my own life changed that day, how I “snapped” and became the emotionally broken person I am today. It’s been 10 years since we’ve been able to feel safe within our own borders. It’s been 10 years since I could consider myself “normal.” I can’t divorce the two facts in my head.

How did you life change because of 9/11? Are you like me, feeling slightly guilty that your own personal tragedy seems petty in the face of such egregious loss? I would like this to be a safe place to share your thoughts.

Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks and 10 Years of Mental Illness is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC