We’re staying at our house in Maine for part of spring break. This is such an exciting development that the preceding sentence doesn’t do it justice. Future posts will certainly explain the thrill of being able to say, “We’re staying at our house in Maine,” but for now, please realize how over-the-moon I am at…
Author: caritagardiner
11. Why I Eat Bagels
My school offers a lot of amazing perks. I’ve gotten to travel, with an without students, to Ireland, China, California, Tennessee, and more. I’ve gotten to take courses on counseling, creative writing, and cooking. More often, I get to live in an beautiful home, enjoy a stunning view, and work with stellar students. And I…
10. Why I Exercise
Of course, you already know the obvious reasons: it’s good for me, I’ll live longer, I can eat more, etc. But none of those obvious reasons gets exactly at why I am so consistent about my exercise routine. The short answer is that I feel better when I’m sore. Obviously, sore muscles, by the definition…
9. Why I Don’t Overthink Things
turning yourself upside down with too much stress When you read the title of this week’s “Why I,” you probably thought I meant that I act spontaneously, forging ahead without mulling over what dumb decisions I’ve made. Though I try to move forward, that’s not what I meant. In fact, I don’t believe it’s possible…
8. Why I Read Romance
I teach great books to my students. Every year, I’m happy to reread the kinds of books they should understand allusions about when they come up in everyday conversations. References will come up because absolutely everyone who went to a halfway decent school will have read some of the same novels. And they’re great. But…
7. Why I Got a Dog
I grew up in a family of no pets. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. I grew up in a family with a few fish, some that lasted and others fated for the fast flush. We never had the kind of pet a person can cuddle. My husband always wanted a Bernese Mountain Dog, but for…
6. Why I Send Snail Mail
I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love getting real mail. When I lived with my parents, I would sort through the pile of bills and catalogues that came through the front door’s slot every day to see if an envelope had my name on it. While I rarely received anything, I never lost the kind…
5. Why I Knit
When I was eight, one of my mom’s friends taught me how to knit. Then, when we were both nine, my friend Sophia taught me how to purl. Middle school afternoons and weekends, I used to hang out at this yarn store near my school, picking up tips from the elderly, chain-smoking (It was a…
4. Why I Play Ice Hockey
As a little kid, I took figure-skating lessons. While I never mastered the triple lutz, I could own a toe loop. I got to be a sugar plum fairy (one of twenty) in Nutcracker on Ice. Mostly, the lessons provided my parents a night off after they dropped my sister and me off at my…
3. Why I Started #Hotchkiss365
I didn’t love the fall of 2014. Nothing horrible happened to me that fall, but the bad odor of unhappy changes floated in the air. My school kept coming up with new policies that didn’t strike me as good for the students, the staff, or the faculty. (We’re in a totally different, better place now,…