In 2010, Barack Obama was signing the Affordable Care Act into law, and I was losing my virginity. Crybaby– my boyfriend, not Obama– was twenty-one. I was seventeen and was his first girlfriend, but not his first time. He liked everything about me as a static concept, which was inconvenient since I wasn’t done figuring out who I wanted to be.

We had an immediate connection, but I was just starting university in a different city. Crybaby called me every morning and blew kisses over the phone to wake me up. He held me and cried the first time he said he loved me. Feeling everything so deeply was part of what I loved about him, but his depth wasn’t limited to love. While we were together, I was going through the existential crisis of trying to find my life’s purpose and was unhappy in every one of my classes. After my first semester, I told him I wanted to drop out entirely, write songs, and sing on a stage. His reaction was more visceral than my parents’.

This year has been great year for the DSA, the........

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