When I was a gawky kid, whenever I brought home my report card, if I had a B, I immediately wanted a A. If I had a A, I wanted an A-plus. When I ran cross country in high school, if I cut 15 seconds off my 5k time, I wanted to run the exact... Continue Reading →
The artist dying to come out
When I was 20, I took a drawing class. I believed in the Liberal Arts tradition that college should be about more than just checking off a list of required classes. I believed that college should help you to become a better person. You should learn a career or trade, but also learn about yourself... Continue Reading →
Better together
I met them by accident. She was an older African-American woman with a permanent hunch caused by years of hard work as a housekeeper and hours slouched over a needle and thread. She couldn't see real well anymore, but her hearing was still pinpoint accurate. She could read a room without ever seeing it. In... Continue Reading →
Honey, can you help me find my keys?
I’ve worn glasses since I was in fifth grade. I hated them at first, because they made me stand out and, trust me, no one in elementary school wants to be called "four eyes." In time, though, I got used to them, they're just a fact of life. I’ve had big ones, small ones, rectangular... Continue Reading →
A frank look at white privilege
I remember the first time I heard the term “white privilege.” Oh, the African American student who yelled it at me, didn’t use the actual term white privilege, it wasn’t a word that you heard all that much back then, but his point was still the same. It was a chilly spring day, but the... Continue Reading →
My brother’s keeper
In the weeks prior to the Coronavirus bringing everything to a halt in the United States, I had been working in a large city near where I live. I would take the train into the city and during my lunch break, I would go for a long walk. I started the walks to try to... Continue Reading →
Predicting the Future: The Jetson’s robotic maid
When I went to college, I had a Mass Communications Course where the professor came into class one day and asked everyone to come back in two weeks with our predictions for the future. He wanted to know our thoughts on how the world of television, media, and social sciences would change. To get us... Continue Reading →
A letter to a former teacher: Pulling me back from the ledge
When I was 11, my basketball coach, who wasn’t much older than my teammates and I, walked the sideline of the small town community hall where we played, yelling and throwing his hands up in the air when we made a mistake or he disagreed with the referee's call. A few years later when I... Continue Reading →
Thank you Mom!
When Mother's Day rolls around each year, I often find myself thinking of my mother, not as a grown women caring for my brothers and me or, even now, loving life as a grandmother, but instead, I find myself thinking of her as a young girl. In fact, I'm ultimately drawn back to a piece... Continue Reading →

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