The Geese Lesson.
I live in a neighborhood right now with a crap ton (*actual number) of geese. Is it because of the river? The lake? I have no idea. But I love watching them fly. I remember a day over a decade ago when I was trying to make a decision on a big career move. I […]
Apparently, wood cabinets are back.
I remember so clearly a couple years ago texting my friend Mariah a picture of someone’s legs while I was at Disneyland. They were wearing longer socks with their leggings — just like we used to do in the 80s. I said something like “Really? We’re doing this again?” Previous to that everyone had been […]
Aztec Cocoa and 13 Spicier Ways to Live.
The ancient Maya lived in the region of Mesoamerica, which today includes southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, parts of Honduras, and El Salvador. By around 500 BC, they were already crafting a bitter, frothy beverage from ground cacao, water, cornmeal, and chili peppers — what we now think of as an early version of “xocolātl” (pronounced show-co-LAH-tul). […]
A public legacy and a private gift.
Robert Redford died this last week at age 89. Here in Utah, that news landed a little closer to home. Literally. All week, the tributes I’ve heard have circled around the same idea: Legacy. And in hearing about that legacy, three things stood out to me. 1) He was a legendary actor.I loved Robert Redford […]
From Word One to Level Eight.
I grew up in a very large family, surrounded by siblings. A LOT of them. There was a gaggle of us – to say the least. Everywhere we went, even in the 60s, 70s and 80s (when it was much more common to have larger families), we caused a bit of a spectacle. My dad […]
Allyson – and “You’re really good at that.”
I will never forget the first day I met my sweet friend Allyson. I was a new (to her) teacher in a new (to me) school at the start of a brand-new school year. After one particularly rough day that first week or so, I went up to the vending machine after using the restroom […]
A little thank you – and something new.
In 2018, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania set out to understand how social norms shift – how real change happens, not just in theory, but in groups of people living real lives. They designed an experiment where participants were asked to label a simple image. But midway through the task, a small group of […]
Elisha Otis and building some safety.
According to Mark Crawford, writing for The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Elisha Graves Otis was born in 1811, the youngest of six children. At age 20, Otis made a rough living as a wagon driver and carpenter – work that proved too demanding for his health to sustain for long. At age 27, he […]
The weird noise or the nail.
Photo by Bernd Dittrich It would usually start the same way. A student would raise their hand, look at me with frustrated eyes, and say those five words every math teacher dreads: “I just don’t get it.” It seriously happened almost daily – every summer, in every summer school math class I ever taught. And […]
Advice for Andrea – at 16.
This week, my nieces Andrea and Claire both turned sixteen! Sixteen is one of those ages that feels like such a big deal, even if it doesn’t come with any clear instructions. It’s a mix of new freedoms, new responsibilities, and honestly, a lot of unknowns. Most of my career was spent with 15- to […]
