“You’re too young to wear sunglasses.” I’m having a conversation with a good friend, lamenting the currently unbearable distance is between where I am and where I want to be. She looks at me, smiles, and says, “You don’t really want to be famous yet. You’re too young to wear sunglasses.” Remember those movies about the small-town singer who becomes a superstar or the little obscure…
Eating cooked vegetables at three years old. Me: It looks gross! I hate the smell. Mom: Just try it. Me: WAAAH! Mom: One bite. You only have to try one bite. Elise takes a bite and, years later, learns that she likes vegetables. Learning to dive backwards in high school. Me: Oh my gosh. I'm so scared I think I'm going to be sick. Instructor:…
I love to make everyone happy. Now I reread that sentence and mentally insert “which is impossible” to the end of it. That’s the only way the sentence can be consistently true. I strive for the impossible. I love my family and friends passionately. I am an active member of my communities. And yet it’s delusional to tell myself that I can satisfy every social expectation…
Fairy tales are more than stories. In the best of them, we see ourselves in them and incorporate their truths and magic. I was seven years old when I first saw Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in theaters. To this day, the twirling leaf in the wolf-haunted forest still makes me tingle. My mother encouraged her children to practice and grow comfortable with theater and performing…
I'm astonished I never saw the bias before. I didn't realize how hard it truly is to thrive as an introvert in American society. Reading the book Quiet by Susan Cain has deeply impacted my thoughts on the subject. I wrote about my initial reactions here, as a guest post on my publisher's website. Read my post on Quiet Power.
When I mix up my right and left hands, we all chuckle. When I mix up the brake and gas pedals while parking, someone loses their cool. More accurately, that someone losing their cool is me: I’m pounding my steering wheel with both fists, swearing and half-hissing half-wailing because I’ve hit the gas while trying to hit the brake, and all because I thought my Honda…
A book, an open air market, and a serious discussion with my mother all held equally valid stances as “learning time” in my childhood. I remember hearing from very early on that I was “always learning,” and I believed it. Nevertheless, after completing my undergrad degree, I felt that there was so much stuff I didn’t know, especially when it came to the practical side of…
The downpour struck fast and without warning. The rain streaks looked like steady shoots of water from the sky. On the inside of the house, the rainfall looked like a little 2-year-old who went from happy to distraught in a few minutes. My husband and I were spending the day with my cousin’s family: mommy, daddy, and three kidlets. As parents-to-be, James and I have a…
Like a wise traveler, I plot my course for days before I begin. I make careful plans, with a clear head, and no rushing. I then board my ship, check my charts, and run a finger along the map’s inked path from my port to the island I hope and pray to reach. It will test the limits of my endurance. The first days go smoothly.…
The pile lies before me in a daunting mountain as I sprawl on the carpeted floor of my office. The papers glitter with patterns and textual swirls the decorate years and years worth of notes. I must face the truth: The time has come to part with precious things I've stashed away. I am a pack rat when it comes to preserving pieces of the written…