Today I turn 40 years old. And today I will hit submit on an application that has taken six months (or 40 years) of work to complete. I don’t know if I will, or even should, be successful. All I know for certain is that I’m giving myself permission to try. [ Serendipity, literary: luck that takes the form of
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That was before I knew that trolls can say terrible things about you in extremely public ways, that they can go to great lengths to find out intimate details about your life, and finally (and the breaking point for me) that they can involve your family. They will speak about the things most sacred in the world to you. For me, my children.
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They call it the silent sorrow. The unspoken grief that parents go through with pregnancy loss and stillbirth. Silent because nobody speaks it? Or silent because nobody wants to hear it? What should we say, really, to make ourselves louder and somehow more defined? Cry louder? Yell harder? Scream at strangers in parking lots? What should I say when the
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There is perspective to be found while laying on the bathroom floor. You have to squint a little to see it, but right there nestled between three positive pregnancy tests and the layer of grime you’ve been meaning to clean off the counters you can find it. It might take a day or two before you want to acknowledge it, but
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I’ve been reading a lot about the bathroom controversy that is dividing school districts, states, and even our nation itself over the last few months. I’ve also been reading a lot about fear. I’ve learned that our brains can’t fully function—can’t make rational decisions—when we are fearful of something. “Fear prompts retreat. It is the antipode to progress. Just
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If you have a girl who can attend, I urge you to send them. If you know a girl who would attend if it weren’t for the financials, I urge you to nominate them. If you know someone who would like to help send a girl to one of these camps, I urge you to put them in touch with me. This problem of girls in STEM is not going to solve itself, it is waiting for us to act.
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What if we’re actually not ruining anything? Not kids, not their future, and not civilization as we know it. What if we’re actually doing exactly what every generation before us has done– the best we can with an impossible job, just with new surroundings.
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It happens in a second. As quick as I can sharply inhale. Yet it happens quietly, so she doesn’t hear the sound. I glimpse the face in the photo we just snapped and I don’t recognize myself behind some added lines and layers. My finger hovers above the trash icon. Waging war with a battle I can never win. Fueled
Read moreWho else can we reach? But leadership can, and should be, expansive. Constantly growing. Constantly teaching. Constantly asking “who else?” Source: Who else?
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“Why can’t I mark the box for Native American?” I asked my mom for the 100th time while filling out college applications. “Because you aren’t Native American,” she replied, not as patiently as she had the times before. “I am too!” I countered. “I’m 1/16th. I look much more. I should get to mark it.” “It is not the same.”
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Chop Wood, Carry Water 