Christen O'Brien – Medium

Christen O'Brien

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Human Parts

What It Felt Like to Almost Die

My near-death experience taught me not to fear those final moments

Jan 18, 2019

What It Felt Like to Almost Die

Jan 18, 2019

My Brush with Anthony Bourdain

“Tony wears fucking espadrilles now!”, she said to me as the three of us huddled together at the after-party, her voice laden with humor…

Aug 27, 2021

My Brush with Anthony Bourdain

Aug 27, 2021

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As I Stood on the Edge of Death

Realizing I was dying was like being pushed into a pool. No sliver, no ounce, no existence of control. I kept my story secret for a…

Aug 18, 2021

As I Stood on the Edge of Death

Aug 18, 2021

How to Lose Your Best Friend

No one tells you what it’s like to put your dog down, to hold your best friend as they take their last breath. Here’s what no one told me…

May 17, 2021

How to Lose Your Best Friend

May 17, 2021

The Truth About His Divorce

The beginning of the actual divorce long predated the beginning of the legal one. You could say it started when his business sank into…

Dec 12, 2020

The Truth About His Divorce

Dec 12, 2020

We Are Made of Stars: A Look at Human Ashes Under a High Powered Microscope

Everything changed for Gabriela Reyes Fuchs the day she got that phone call from her Father. A physician who saved many lives during his…

Jul 11, 2020

We Are Made of Stars: A Look at Human Ashes Under a High Powered Microscope

Jul 11, 2020

I Ignored My White Privilege in a Mixed Race Family

In my high school class, I was the only white O’Brien. My Aunt Judy had adopted seven children from Brazil many years earlier, two of whom…

Jun 10, 2020

I Ignored My White Privilege in a Mixed Race Family

Jun 10, 2020

Published in
Human Parts

My Dog Lay With Me at the Hour of My Death

She helped me survive with a new understanding of the world around us

May 29, 2020

A black and white photo of the author’s shadow along with her dog’s shadow.

May 29, 2020

We’re All Living in a Spaceship Now: The Oddity of Our Pandemic POV

“This is Major Tom to Ground Control I’m steppin’ through the door And I’m floating in the most peculiar way And the stars look very…

Apr 11, 2020

We’re All Living in a Spaceship Now: The Oddity of Our Pandemic POV

Apr 11, 2020

Why We Struggle to Talk About Death

It wasn’t until I almost died that I began to understand death. After surviving a massive pulmonary embolism that the E.R. physician…

Jan 29, 2020

Why We Struggle to Talk About Death

Jan 29, 2020

The Year I Lost My Way — & My Wildest Dreams Came True

On January 1, 2019, I was lost. And yet, the more I let go and lost people and things I loved, the more my wildest dreams came true.

Jan 1, 2020

The Year I Lost My Way — & My Wildest Dreams Came True

Jan 1, 2020

Why You Shouldn’t Fear Death

What almost dying taught me about more fully living.

Oct 13, 2019

Why You Shouldn’t Fear Death

Oct 13, 2019

Published in
Human Parts

How It Felt to Come Back to Life

Coming back from near-death was a gracious endeavor, but it was also deeply heartbreaking

May 28, 2019

How It Felt to Come Back to Life

May 28, 2019

11 Powerful People Who Changed My Destiny (Without Ever Knowing It)

As I’m nearing the end of my 30s, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how ridiculously fortunate I am to have learned from some of our…

Dec 31, 2018

11 Powerful People Who Changed My Destiny (Without Ever Knowing It)

Dec 31, 2018

The Girl Who Cried Woof

The vet gave us a checklist. It was a simple piece of paper with boxes next to words like “Loss of appetite” and “Uninterested in things…

Dec 17, 2018

The Girl Who Cried Woof

Dec 17, 2018

Freaks Like Us: A True Story from a San Francisco Bus

I used to ride the San Francisco city bus (Muni) to work many years ago.

Dec 10, 2018

Freaks Like Us: A True Story from a San Francisco Bus

Dec 10, 2018

Fathers, Raise Your Daughters to Be Nerds

I’m just going to come out and say it — If your daughter is “popular”, if boys call the house, if her friends look like the cast of “Mean…

Nov 25, 2018

Fathers, Raise Your Daughters to Be Nerds

Nov 25, 2018

Leaving It All Behind

They wanted me to learn the “right” way. Half notes and full notes. Metronomes and clefs. I stared listlessly at beginner’s piano books…

Nov 18, 2018

Leaving It All Behind

Nov 18, 2018

The Day LeVar Burton Held My Hand

It’s 1986. A seven year old girl in a small town sits in front of the television set, mesmerized by Reading Rainbow. She has never felt…

Nov 13, 2018

The Day LeVar Burton Held My Hand

Nov 13, 2018

Divorce

I was a writer even as a young girl, and at the age of 13 the book I most wanted to write, one day, was about divorce. More specifically…

Oct 7, 2018

Divorce

Oct 7, 2018

Christen O'Brien

Christen O'Brien

Writer & Collector of life stories. Work featured on The Today Show, NYT, CNN, MSNBC, Medium. Documentary coming out 2022. (www.christenobrien.com)

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