My name is Crystal.

With a C.

I am a writer, public speaker, and mental health advocate from Long Beach, California. I’m an early-80’s baby, but don’t fully embrace all aspects of the “Millennial” label. I value family, faith and integrity above all else. I learned the meaning of true love and sacrifice, watching the interactions between my parents on a daily basis, imperfect but selfless. I discovered the meaning of pure agony when my dad was taken from my mom, four siblings, and me when I was 15.

At age 16, I experienced my first manic episode which led to a full-fledged breakdown, and a year later I was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder days before my 18th birthday.

Life can be cruel, and life can be kind. It takes just as much as it gives, if not more. I’ve had times of angst, misery, and despair, but I’ve had moments of sheer joy, laughter, and elation, too. And I refuse to let the nasty blips of my timeline to eclipse the weight of happiness I’ve felt throughout my life. A lesson I learned, and I learned it late, is this: there is so much happiness stored in one morsel of gratitude. And as Mahatma Gandhi said, “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

Factoids:

• Full name: Crystal Nicole Lancaster

• I hold a B.A. in English Lit. and Language from UC Irvine, c/o 2006.

• favorite color = blue

• food I could eat everyday,

  any day is pizza.

• languages I’m fluent in: English and the Filipino dialect Ilocano, but only when it comes to food and genitalia.

• favorite drink = boba

• favorite Italian pastry = cannoli

• favorite musician: any artist that can combine a great melody with meaningful lyrics

• love listening to: “Light on” by Maggie Rogers and “One Day” by Matisyahu

• favorite genre(s) of film: romantic comedy and horror

• favorite screenwriter: Richard Curtis

• favorite planet: this one. but only because it’s the only one I’ve ever lived on.

• in another life, I would be…an astronomer.