I’m a teacher. I’ve been a teacher for so long that I can get perfect scores on the vocabulary and grammar quizzes I give without having to study. I’ve been grading essays so long that I can read a student’s introduction and see exactly what’s wrong with it. I’ve told so many students where to…
“Why”…Wednesdays
18. Why I Love Spring
When we moved into this house thirteen years ago, we planted this peach tree in our front yard. (We also planted a cherry tree at the side of our house, but alas, it didn’t survive until its second year.) Within a couple years, we had a few peaches. I don’t love the peaches (though I…
17. Why I Watch Shows
I started this website because I want to be a writer. I know that to become a writer, I have to write and read. I have to spend a lot of time, more than I’m spending now writing and reading, yet day after day, I find myself enjoying the guilty pleasure of television shows on Netflix….
16. Why I Love Passover
For years, I’ve organized a Passover Seder at my school. Because Hotchkiss has a global population, many of the students here can’t go celebrate holidays with their families. The School generously supports my efforts both to provide a Seder for the Jewish students here and to open the Seder to non-Jewish students, faculty, and staff…
15. Why I Cry at Movies (and books and TV commercials and…)
The short answer is, I don’t know. But creating a blog isn’t about giving the short answer to anything, so I’ll go on. I find romance novels, movies, and tv shows addictive. I can get totally immersed in the story in seconds, more eager to find out what happens–and by “what happens,” I mean “how…
14. Why I Love Main Building Duty
I’ve worked in boarding schools for my entire adult life. At my first school post-college, I lived in a dorm of eleven girls. My apartment (with two bathrooms, one with a shower and sink, the other with a toilet and sink) made up half of the small building and offered a stunning view of the…
13. Why I Love Our Old Neighbors
Okay, so the photo has NOTHING to do with the post, but how does somebody take a photo of so many great people in my neighborhood? Impossible, I think, and Tuukka always looks good in a photo, so enjoy a photo of Tuukka with a post about why I love my neighbors. And now that…
12. Why I Love Our New Neighbors
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…
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…