Blog by Dana Latisha Young
A.K.A Day Love
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What’s your favorite thing about yourself?
My favorite thing about myself is my creativity. I love writing, drawing, painting, improvising songs and short piano composition. I rarely have time to create as much lately, but I love it.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
…was the Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. It broke me as a child to read about a tragedy. I cried every time I read it, but it changed me so profoundly.
I understood loss, but I could also see the love, healing, hope and life after trauma. It helped me with my own painful thoughts and situations at the time in ways that are hard to describe.
(What I wish I could tell my family member to explain some of my struggles)
Poem by Dana L. Young
I feel like we are on 2 opposing sides
Of socializing.
You cling to the idea of being surrounded by loving family.
You pull me towards your web of extrovertedness and assertiveness.
You pull me into your suffocating world of long conversations and overwhelming emotions.
You grip and yank at me, keeping me bound
To you.
Bound to being social with you.
I push away as if it’s an object I refuse to be near.
As if just the thought of socializing could…
Break me.
You don’t understand this tug of war isn’t a game that I feel I can win.
By denying you my time and space I feel
Like I’m robbing you of your own joy and satisfaction.
Yet I feel like I’m drowning, submerged in a form of quicksand.
Not able to move or breathe.
sinking, sinking.
Inwardly crying out for you to hear me but afraid to say the words.
To let you know that socializing drains me.
Drains me faster than off brand, cheaply made batteries.
And drains me faster than an app running in the background of a phone.
I need resets, refreshes and relaxation
Just to keep going.
I’m operating on an outdated system.
My brain is shutting down, playing
On autopilot, replaying archived conversations.
Speaking without thought, sound or emotion.
Knowing that neither of us wins, really.
You successfully pull me into your solo social circle.
But you lose too because I’m only halfway present.
This social game of tug of war has no winners.
Poem by Dana Young
Poem by Dana Young
Depression
I hate you.
You stole the joy from my mother’s eyes,
Exchanging her smiles with frowns,
Turning her sunshines into turbulent black skies.
You made every day of rising out of sleep uncertain,
Of the mindset she will be in and what side of her I’ll get.
I hate that you took what could’ve been.
The tiny glimpses of happiness that I see radiate off of her in rare, stolen moments.
That ends abruptly in seconds.
You stole the light from inside of her, forcing her to live in the darkness
Of her thoughts and self hatred.
You caused her to hate each second of every day that she was born
Yearning for death at every second
Because it’s death and not life that she considers a gift.
You changed her perceptions of everything.
She doesn’t feel the warmth of love or the security of family.
She sees holes, and pits, despair and other distortions.
I hate how you cause her to view herself and her life
As just unnecessary, worthless and hopeless.
She doesn’t see the reason why she is alive
And can’t take the pain of living through another day.
Depression.
I hate you. Not just for the mental anguish you bring but for the physical representations.
For the guilt she feels for wanting to share feelings from her wounded soul
But knowing the burden and pain it places on the loved listener.
To hear for the umpteenth time that she
Wishes death had claimed her at any of the moments in her life, whether through her hand or natural causes.
Depression.
I hate you.
You took everything from me and I have to watch my mother slowly fade away.
Dying internally, mentally hemorrhaging as her thoughts take her to deeper, darker depths.
You took away the “her” that could’ve been from life traumas and hardships.
You took the oxygen away from me when you claimed my mother.
When you chose her as one of yours.
You took my heart beat when you placed your greedy, narcissistic claws on my mother’s heart.
Depression.
I hate you more than I could ever express.
You chopped away at her heart until all that’s left.
Is a void…and depression.
Dana Young
What jobs have you had?
A babysitter for my nieces and nephews
An intern at the Student Success center at my high school under the PYN (Philadelphia Youth Network)
A Muralist at the Mural Arts Program
Smoothie King associate then a Supervisor then a Manager than a GM
Home Depot customer service associate, then Hardware Supervisor then Customer Service Supervisor
Throughout these differing jobs that I’ve had, I always was and always will be a writer.
Poem by Dana Young
I want to exhale the breath that
I’ve been holding onto
while in hell on earth.
Not able to inhale or break free.
Gasping for air that is tainted
And reeking of despair and
Hatred.
Submerged in an ocean
Of tears and blood
From years of inner and
Outer lacerations.
Crying, struggling to mend
once again.
I want to exhale the breath
I’ve been holding onto
While walking on eggshells
Tip toeing around verbal
landmines
Detonation waiting around
Hidden corners.
Traps set for me
That I can’t see until
I walk into them.
“Just breathe” repeated
In my mind.
Easier said then done.
I want to… No I need to
Exhale the breath that
I keep holding onto.
Written 03/21/25 @ 11:32 PM
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
“I once was a girl that was metaphorically lost, and this is my story on how I found myself as an adult.”
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
My middle name is Latisha. (Luh-Tee-Shuh). It doesn’t really hold any special meaning to my knowledge.
My mom wanted to name me but she let my father choose my first name. She said she always loved Latisha as a name.
I wanted to be called by my middle name for many, many years. Even before she told me that she wanted to name me that. As a young child, I often wrote Latisha Young on my school papers, which confused my teachers until they realized who I was and asked why I did it.
As a teen, I finally embraced my first name, and then my dad told me the significance to my first name, which helped me to appreciate it more as a young woman.
Now, I do different versions of my first name. (Day Love, Day Lite, Day Know, Day Lee, Day Zee) My first name is important, but my middle name, Latisha, will always be special to me.
I pray that everything is alright
That you’ll wake up after surgery
And go to sleep at night
But not now
I pray that everything is okay
That God will take charge
Of the operation today
Somehow
I pray that I get to see you smile
While discussing your latest K drama
Because I can’t imagine a world
That can spin without my mama.
I pray that you can speak
Even it’s to reprimand me
For something I did wrong
Because that is another day to teach
I pray that God can hear my prayers
Because I am trying to have faith
But as time ticks my fears
Build until there’s no escape
I pray that you remain alive
This is a plea from your daughter,
and your caregiver
who will never leave your side
What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?
In my leisure time I love to read more than anything. I have always had a love and obsession with reading since I was 4 years old. To me, there’s nothing better than getting comfortable and opening up a new book or picking up where I left off in a story.
It’s so calm and cozy and I feel like I’m transported into whatever book I am reading. To me, it feels like coming home to rest after a hard day’s work. It feels like sitting in front of a crackling fireplace, sipping hot chocolate with a blanket thrown over me, tucked away from a freezing storm outside. These scenarios describe how I feel when I read.
