Dear Me from 2017, You’ve had a pretty steady year, not gonna lie. Maybe the biggest thing that happened was that YOU GOT MARRIED! Remember back in 2012, when you said to yourself that it’s okay to be single, that you didn’t want to wade back into the dating scene because it just felt toxic… Read More Leaving 2017/Entering 2018
I’m taking a break from checking student essays (and other personal and professional activities, including [but not limited to] – washing the dishes from yesterday’s dinner, formatting response sheets, and preparing for student presentations and workshops tomorrow) because I was really bothered by a tweet that came across my timeline earlier today. And no, it’s… Read More Writing For Your Life
One of the things I never saw for myself was marriage. Sure, falling in love was easy – I could do it in a heartbeat. But staying in love, working through a relationship? That was something that I only read about in self-help articles and Thought Catalog think pieces. I knew how to spot the… Read More Tying the Knot
Good lord, the semester is over and I don’t have to teach mid-year classes. (Gambatte, teachers teaching during the mid-year!) So I have a bunch of things I want to write about, in no particular order: – Getting married (to the best person, no less!) – Attending Jamilton and being fully immersed in fandom –… Read More Teaser Sequence
I’m in the middle of checking 56 exams by tonight, but I was just struck with the thought that, despite everything I do, I’ll still have something strange said about me and my work. (I won’t say they’re negative, because my first reaction when I read them was to laugh out loud.) So just to… Read More Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously
Preparing for a new semester has always been simultaneously the best and the worst part of teaching. There’s nothing more exciting than imagining what kind of thing you can teach in class – especially if it’s a new prep – and what kind of readings you can give to students. You wish and hope and… Read More Teacher training
The thing about December is that it decided to arrive at the tail end of an already terrible year. 2016 has decided to beat us up in terms of brutality (physically and psychically) on top of the everyday violence we already experience as human beings trying to live on this rapidly deteriorating planet. It probably… Read More December Doldrums and Delights
[sel-fish] adjective 1. devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one’s own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others. 2. characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself: selfish motives. This isn’t the first time you’ve been called that, although you’ve never been in the habit of withholding what other… Read More Why Words Matter
“Tonight I write the saddest lines,” said the poet, thinking it to be true. But there were sad days before, and sad days to come. Nobody has ownership of sadness, of mourning, of realizing that the world cannot hand you a reward just because you worked hard for something. Of course you deserve it, you can… Read More The thing with feathers
