I’ve written a lot about failure. I don’t write much about success. I have trouble with success because I am always on edge, waiting for the other show to drop, but the success to be undercut and undermined someway. somehow, by someone. Sometimes that someone is me, more often than not, it is someone else….
Category: Gendered Expectation
Getting Organized
I organized the apps on my phone the other day. And then I organized my dresser. And then, I organized my calendar. Now, I should note, I was also procrastinating about doing other, more pressing, but less interesting thing. I didn’t want this to be another hot take on Marie Kondo and her Konmari method…
Pulled Together
“You always look so pulled together. How do you do it?” I’ve been doing a little project this semester on my instagram account, taking a picture of myself every day wearing a different dress to work. I did this in part because I wanted to wear all the dresses I have in my closet, but…
Giving Birth
This post originally appeared on my tinyletter, Where is my Mind? No, not a metaphor. This is literally going to be about my experience giving birth to my two kids. So, TMI.Why? This post from Harvard explaining that women today are twice as likely to die in childbirth than their mothers. Mother’s almost dying, especially…
Fat
This post originally appeared on my tinyletter, Where is my Mind? My daughter has wanted to do ballet since she was old enough to know what ballet was. When she was five and about to start kindergarten, a ballet studio opened up in the tiny town we lived in. We drove past the window front…
Mob Rule
This post originally appeared on my tinyletter, Where is my Mind? Last night, I guest lectured in a graduate-level class about social media. There was a lot of anxiety around the utility, viability, and benefits of social media, and understandably so. As a walking, talking social media success story, I wanted to counter some of…
Moving Up
I’m sitting in my new office overlooking the Potomac, at my new job, at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Nine years ago, I was getting ready to move across the country, having given up my tenure-track job that I had held for only a year. This isn’t new or news; it’s…
Messy History
From I Tried Leaving Facebook…But I Couldn’t: Facebook had replaced much of the emotional labor of social networking that consumed previous generations. We have forgotten (or perhaps never noticed) how many hours our parents spent keeping their address books up to date, knocking on doors to make sure everyone in the neighborhood was invited to…
30lbs and a Two-Piece
Last summer, I finally relented and agreed to buy my daughter, then 8 years old, a two-piece swimsuit. She had been begging for one since she was old enough to express an opinion, which means since she could talk. That’s not exactly true. When she was younger, she wants the ruffliest, most blinged-out swimsuits she…
#YesAllWomen – A Response to Rape Culture
*This post first appeared on Educating Modern Learners, and I’m finally republishing it here in reaction to the recent light sentencing of convicted rapist Brock Turner. The intended audience for this piece was K-9 teachers, but I share it here because it needs to be said, over and over, we still have far to go. * When…
