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…
“Why”…Wednesdays
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,…
2. Why I Don’t Judge
When the holidays roll around, some students’ parents give their kids’ teachers gifts. I genuinely appreciate some of these gifts (caramel popcorn, coffee cake, giant diamonds wrapped in hundred-dollar bills, non-chocolate candy). Others make me cringe. One lovely student’s kind mother gave me a mug with “I’m silently correcting your grammar” imprinted on its side….
1. Why I Write Nonfiction Posts
I’ve been making this website to help me develop a writer’s platform, which is something I’m learning about for an online class I’m taking. Pretty much every part of this class falls far outside of my wheelhouse, but I’m loving stretching myself in this way. Having an author’s platform, I now understand, will help me…