Buffy the Vampire Slayer follows Buffy Summers, a teenager chosen to be the latest in a line of “Slayers.” With the help of her close-knit group of friends, she faces both literal and emotional demons like grief, identity, love, and growing up. Grief is not just about death but also about change and loss of the life we expected or even the person we expected to be. Buffy the Vampire Slayer gives us great language for grief.

Queer relationships are beautiful and often built without a script. That freedom is powerful but also requires a lot of effective communication. Let’s talk about why communication in queer relationships can feel so hard and how to make it a little more doable.

Picture this for a moment: you’re standing at the top of a ramp on your board, about to drop in (which is essentially free-falling forward), by the way. You’re looking down, but you can’t see the entire ramp beneath you. You just have to trust that it’s there. There’s a pause as your stomach drops. Your brain is full with thoughts of falling, getting hurt, or looking dumb. This moment doesn’t belong only to skateboarding.