They build each other up, mindful that the world will try to tear them down
The show doesn’t start for another hour, but the line to get into the 9:30 Club already stretches around the corner. It’s cold, and my 14-year-old daughter is restless, her blood pumping with the nervous excitement that accompanies a first-time experience. We thread our way along the sidewalk, following the line of fired-up ticket holders around the corner, down the block, past the alley, almost to the next corner.
We are here to see Billie Eilish, the 16-year-old American singer-songwriter who got her start as an internet sensation. I have been to countless shows at this club over the past…
Dress the part.
As children, we know this intuitively. We know that a cape or our mother’s high heels or a rainbow clown wig has the power to transform us. What we wear is how we signal to others who we are. See? See my red cape? I’m a superhero, I can do anything!
When we grow older, our costumes change. In adolescence, we learn to use our clothing choices to communicate our moods and our interests; a beacon to help us find like-minded others. …
If forced proximity has you drained, you’re not alone
On a typical weekday morning a year ago, my husband would wake before dawn to try to get ahead of the morning commute, my son would sneak in a few minutes of Minecraft before hastily getting ready for school, and my daughter would be finishing homework at the breakfast table while lobbying for a ride to avoid the dreaded school bus. …
We are, quite literally, begging you.
How will your child commemorate this truly one-of-a-kind school year?
This is going to be one for the history books, that’s for sure. Think of all the unique experiences your student has had! The hilarious Zoom-bombings, the breakout room cyberbullying, the science teacher who never did learn how to mute his mic! Surely you want to make sure your child has a permanent reminder of the zany misadventures of virtual learning in the 2020–2021 school year.
How better to preserve those precious memories than a high-quality printed and bound book full of pictures of a building your child never once…
As if 16-year-old me would have listened to advice.
1. Process matters more than results. You’ll learn more in the classes you struggle with than in the ones that come easily. Lean into the struggle; that’s where growth happens. Don’t be afraid to be bad at stuff.
2. Stop trying to get to the next thing and enjoy the moment you’re in. There are going to be times in your life where you feel like you’re stuck in a holding pattern. You may be, literally or metaphorically, waiting in an interminable line at the DMV or stuck on the runway waiting to take off. But if you’re always focused…
The key to thriving in uncertainty: improvisation.
My kids’ schedules are nearly entirely virtual these days. School is online, they play with friends over Discord servers, and Zoom with relatives on holidays. The one thing my 12-year-old son still does in person (masked, socially distant, safe, but in person) is his weekly theater class. Once a week, he dons his favorite Strange Planet mask, and heads off to a place where his mind and body can experiment and play.
The kids learn skits, do character work, and practice physical comedy. But my son’s favorite part is what he calls “the games;” aka. improv. The basic principle is…
The pandemic is teaching me to love where I live
I’m a city girl at heart, I like to say. I grew up in DC — not Washington, not the suburbs surrounding the city, but DC proper. I have scars on my knees from learning to roller skate in alleys, and I started riding the city bus by myself at age 10. I can parallel park on either side of the street with mere inches to spare.
I still feel at home in cities. I love the vibrancy, the people watching, the constantly changing streetscape. As an introvert, I enjoy being surrounded by a crowd into which I can disappear…
Fiction
Newton County, Mississippi, 1874
She’d been daydreaming again, that was the trouble. Mama always said someday her future would pass her by while she was lollygagging, and Exah hated it when Mama was right. She knew her brother J. J. was coming home today, and just possibly bringing his friend Jesse Smith to stay, and she’d planned to be scrubbed and changed into her clean dress and greeting them in the front hall, fresh as a peach.
It was hard being the last child left at home. Not that she was a child anymore. She was nineteen — perfectly old…
The accident compounded the difficulty of quarantine, and it was all my fault.
I took my first yoga class 17 years ago, and it’s been an on-again off-again part of my life ever since. Yoga helped me through two pregnancies, and it’s been something I’ve returned to repeatedly when my mind or body needed a reset. But I’ve never been able to muster the discipline to make it a daily habit. That is, until I shattered my wrist in the midst of a global pandemic.
Let me explain.
It was April, one month into lockdown, and my family was taking an evening walk. It was one of the many improvised entertainments we’d created…
How to plan when the future is murky? A blank notebook.
It’s December, which means it’s my traditional time of year for browsing through office supply stores and websites in search of the perfect planner. Maybe one with stickers, or inspirational quotes? Maybe one that would lay flat on my desk, or with a rubber band to hold it closed in my bag? Maybe a weekly layout would work best, or maybe I needed more space for each day? Maybe if I had a budget section, or a place for lists?
The reality is, I never found the mystical, elusive planner that would do everything I needed it to do. I…
