I’ve wanted to leave teaching and go into health and wellness (which really is just another kind of teaching) for years. At the advice of my trainer at the time, I went and got my personal trainer certification because it has a nutrition component and that would be good enough credential to do weight loss … Read more
I noticed an interesting juxtaposition of defense mechanisms. A few people I know don’t laugh or joke with people they don’t know, or people they don’t feel comfortable with. Laughing is vulnerable, and they’re not comfortable with that level of intimacy without a corresponding level of trust. Quite a few of my students laugh and … Read more
I have heard people say that they can’t retire, or their spouse can’t retire, because they’d be bored. They’d have nothing to do. I can’t imagine. There are so many things I want to do and learn and try that I suspect that if I retired immediately and lived 50 more years, I would have … Read more
If you’ve been following my story with regards to bouldering, you know that in December, I gained the skill necessary to complete a route and competed in my first competition, and in January, I participated in my second competition. Both of these were driven by desire to climb in this year’s big competition in April. … Read more
This is something that makes me crazy. We have been told that if someone repeatedly declines invitations, is always “busy,” and so on, that we should take the hint, read the subtext, know that they’re just not interested, and move on. We have also been told that people are busy, have a lot going on, … Read more
I have had so many conversations with colleagues near and far recently, and there have been two themes with regards to deficiencies in many of our students (though I wish I could say the problem was limited to just students…). One is attention to detail. How do you teach attention to detail? A student in … Read more
On this day in 1912, Arizona became a state. Here are some fun facts about the Grand Canyon State: It is the 48th state, followed only by Hawaii and Alaska. It is also called the Copper State, leading the nation in copper production. The southernmost border was drawn that way to intentionally prevent a seaport. … Read more
From my Facebook memories: “Lots of sirens in the distance. I am snuggled in my bed. Every now and then, I am struck by just how different everyone’s experiences are right in this moment.” I wrote something similar at some other point as well, while a few close friends were going through drastically different things … Read more
My biggest question is: how do we fix it? People’s past experiences predict how they’ll treat people currently. People who treat others badly have a history that leaves them with wounds that prevent them from behaving in pro-social ways. All of these anti-social people (ASPs for ease in the rest of this post)—from sexual predators … Read more
The Kid is doing track. He’s with a team that, so far, seems very invested in doing right by kids. That’s important, especially in sports. Saturday was our first track meet. The email they sent gave us the location, what the athletes should wear (no uniforms until later in February), that we should arrive no … Read more