Category: Writing Stuff

  • Summer Break

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    sundialgirl
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    I realize that this is the first time in ten years of teaching that I’ve had a summer break. I think most folks assume that teachers have a summer “break” since some of us don’t teach (at least those who don’t have mid-year classes to teach) but really, there’s a lot to do during summer.…

  • It’s Another Year Of…

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    sundialgirl
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    I actually wanted to write an end-of-the-year post around December 2021, but it was winter break and I was regularly raging against the snow (very pretty for the first ten minutes, and then ongoing misery for the next three months) and the world continues to fall apart at the seams, and so my brain simply…

  • Lockdown, Week 1

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    sundialgirl
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    We went to the office. I had a meeting. We heard about a possibility that there were cases on the rise, chatter on social media. Might be a quarantine. We decided to stock up on some basic grocery items at the nearby mall. The queues were already long, but it was okay. We didn’t want…

  • 2009 vs. 2019

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    sundialgirl
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    I didn’t plan these photos, but it seems apt to pull a 2009 photo from when I was living in Singapore, and a 2019 photo from when I visited Singapore earlier this year for a conference. I was 25 years old when the first photo was taken, and obviously after ten years, I think I…

  • On the Cusp of a New Year

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    sundialgirl
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    It’s disheartening to see that my last post here was last July and then for the remainder of the year, I simply let the blog slumber. I have about five or so incomplete drafts of things that I wanted to write about this year, but somehow I can’t seem to pull them out or even…

  • On Imposter Syndrome

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    sundialgirl
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    (Image from https://themighty.com/2017/05/what-panic-attacks-feel-like/) When I was a young (warthog) writer – roughly around high school age, when I first started taking this writing thing seriously – my teacher/mentor figure told me that writers don’t really call themselves “writers”; other people bestow that title on them, like a queen bestowing titles on their subjects. To claim that…

  • Life + Writing Updates, March 2018

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    sundialgirl
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    OH BOY. It seems that I haven’t updated this space in months. That’s insane. We’re in the middle of the semester, which means that the insanity is coming in April (staying true to its “cruelest month” nickname; thanks TS Eliot) what with final requirements for students, thesis defense panels, and final submissions for everything. The term…

  • Leaving 2017/Entering 2018

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    sundialgirl
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    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…

  • Writing For Your Life

    Writing For Your Life

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    by

    sundialgirl
    in

    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…