Bright lipstick. Sequins on glitter on shine. Champagne and dance music. These are (usually) a few of my favorite things. This New Year’s though, I’m just not feeling them. I like holidays a lot. I’m not one to pass up a chance to dress up like a human disco ball and countdown obnoxiously with a […]

*Your problems don’t go away if you ignore them.* I feel like this is a lesson I should have learned already in my life, first as a child, then repeatedly as a teen, and then again as a college student grappling with my own schedule for the first time. In some areas of my life […]

I held it together pretty well on the second-to-last day. I felt more like myself than I had all year. I joked with my students, laughed a lot, enjoyed myself. It felt like the fog that had descended earlier in the year and hung about my ears every day had finally lifted, however momentarily. With […]

I was in middle school in the 2000s, which meant that I got to experience the emergence of “emo” culture. When I was a nerdy middle schooler with no friends, my one desperate desire was to fit in. (God, I really hate thinking about middle school.) “Emo” culture was really about music, but in my […]

Disclaimer: In light of the response I got from my last, more-honest-than-usual post on perfectionism, I’m going to continue in a similar vein this evening. If you are only here for unadulterated positivity, teaching stories, or reading recommendations, I might suggest you skip this one. 🙂

I’ve considered writing to be a near perfect form of catharsis for quite some time. I think this idea stems from the diaries of my childhood. Purple and pink soft-covered booklets filled with terrible sketches of flowers and ramblings about all the kids in my neighborhood, locked up with tiny heart-shaped padlocks, forever populating the […]