Swiping Sunday Nicole Cannizzaro

In this episode I'm able to share Ankit Sinha's story, which has traveled across the globe. Ankit grew up in Dubai and decided to go to college in Boston, found work in Manhattan, tried living in Tokyo, and eventually made it back again. But, upon his arrival, he was greeted with some absurd efforts by his university to help "acclimate" him as a foreigner in America. He shares what it's like to grow into foreign places, how he found and kept friendships, and the harsh truths that he had to face when being forced to leave the US. He even shares the process in which he used to make his toughest decisions, and then admits how it failed him.

In this episode I sit down with Sam* and discuss the traumas and growth that she’s gone through in the past years. We talk about recognizing your mental health issues, the stigmas or misconceptions around them, and the weight of it all, as two women who have dealt with depression. We also discuss the relationship that *Sam found herself in where physical abuse became something that she felt she couldn’t escape. *Sam admits some of the situations that she endured, the fears that seemed to continue to be reinforced by outsiders, the decision of an abortion, and her eventual freedom from her abuser. Once again, this episode is a reminder that you never truly know what someone is dealing with behind closed doors, and just how important it is to be kind, learn, and grow to be and feel better.

Resources for depression, domestic abuse, and pregnancy or abortion support: 
https://www.thehotline.org/
https://ncadv.org/resources
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://www.availnyc.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAx9mABhD0ARIsAEfpavSAKzYjPp8U3J4-F2KClJAMgw9NNvvV_djxTq8U2Cur4Dx2XBesaBwaAo03EALw_wcB

In this episode, I finally sat down to reflect on the past year of my life. I walk through the ways in which I've been able to transfer pain to progress, admit the embarrassing thing I used to wish for on every birthday, grazed the surface of my struggles living in Manhattan, and share with you how Swiping Sunday started and how it's impacted my life so greatly. I have always been one to feel everything very deeply, but I never actually went deep enough to figure out why. Being in quarantine, along with some other factors in my personal life this past year, forced me to understand and take ownership for my life. I struggled and I stressed, but ultimately, I feel I progressed. And I wouldn't have been able to do it without you.

In this episode, I sit down with Arianna Tong to discuss the trouble with dating apps, taking ownership and responsibility for your own feelings, and the importance of relationship check ins. Ari was once the spokesperson for Flutter Dating, a new kind of dating app that's main goal is to provide community style dating and be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community, specific religions, and other groups that are typically underrepresented. Ari grew a huge community through sharing her research, advice, and relatability in her dating tip TikTok videos for the company. We both share how we've come to realize the importance of relationships outside of our romantic ones, as well as how to ensure we don't fall into traps of romanticizing sometimes impossible realities. Ari shares the scientific research behind why we have so many matches but never as many dates, as well as how to stop the toxic cycle that stems from dating apps as a whole. She also gives us proven methods on how to deal with conflicts with your significant other and so much more.

In this episode, I sit down with Gabriel Prado, cohost of the podcast Two Twenty-Somethings, to discuss his journey from Brazil to the U.S and back again. Gabe is 24 years old now and he opens up about the struggles he faced when coming here for college and chasing his dream to play volleyball, adjusting to the culture, having no home for the holidays, and what has kept him going throughout these past few years of life-changing scenarios: his approach. Throughout the episode you can see how motivated and dedicated Gabe is to his own future, his positive mindset, and contagious energy that he shares with the world. His clear approach to everything that he encounters in life is something we could all learn from. Gabe always seems to have a story, and while they all start off simple, they end in with valuable pieces of wisdom

In this episode, I sit down with Lara Wyatt, cohost of the podcast Two Twenty-Somethings, to discuss our experiences with social media. I'm 26 and Lara is 20, so we were introduced to very different social media platforms at very different times in our lives. I reminisce about MySpace’s “top 8,” while Lara reminds me of the Snapchat “top friends” that used to get us all into trouble. And I made my first Instagram post in college, while Lara was just 14 years old. But, together we realize the realities of social media that fall on all of our shoulders, from FOMO and comparison, to connections and communication. We discuss whether or not we believe social media has made our interpersonal skills better or worse, as well as what we personally struggle with most. This is the start of a conversation I want to dive deeper into on future episodes. After you listen, let me know what you think; does social media hold more pros or cons?