Finding Refuge in Writing

It has been a roller coaster of a week. While I transitioned roles and institutions almost 3 months ago, this was a week of first as a program chair — first program meeting, first time finding out that an adjunct faculty member was not able to teach the week before classes started with full sections […]

Beauty in the Brokenness

Thank you. Dozens of you, my close friends and family, my colleagues and acquaintances, Twitter folx who have never met me, held me up today. I felt your uplift. I needed every bit of it. The day is over and I have a huge headache. I have a huge heartache. I feel the tears that […]

Dear Mr. Ali

Dear Mr. Ali, Mark, last night when I saw Maria’s tribute post to you, with pictures of her senior English class, saying that she was dedicating this teaching year to you, I didn’t want to believe it. Then I saw Nicole’s tribute post. Then Colleen private messaged me. I posted on social media, but thought […]

Grace and Peace Be With You

My son starts high school on Wednesday. My daughter starts kindergarten on Thursday. When my daughter was a newborn 5 years ago, and I was still on maternity leave, home with her in all of her infant glory, I thought about this time. I anticipated it would be hard, emotional, full of excitement and conflicted […]

Embracing Agency

I am doing a lot of learning and unlearning lately. In my last post, I wrote about the importance of my son being seen and recognized as a leader, something that I worked so hard for all of my life, but which felt so elusive in my youth. Following that post, he received word that […]