I remember the first time I watched Kerri Strug’s one-leg vault, I felt sick to my stomach. The conversations around me were centered on how “brave” she had been. As a fellow teenager, I was terrified that she was encouraged to injure herself for the sake of Olympic gold. Why would her coach, who I… Read More What We Should Learn from Simone Biles: Redefining the “Gold Standard”
While it seems that things these days are pretty terrible, in many ways, they are not. There were protests in the 1960s and the 1990s, and I feel like each time, the topic of the elimination of racism was pushed, with great difficulty, at the forefront of people’s minds. There are again protests in 2020,… Read More The Simple Yet Arduous Work of an Anti-Racist
We made it! My husband, baby, and I have survived our little one’s first 24 months, “despite” being new parents! I say “survive” and “despite”, because according to most parents who gave us unsolicited advice when they found out we were pregnant, having a child marks the end of everything good in our lives. Seriously.… Read More Bringing New Parents Up Rather Than Bringing Them Down: Achieving the “Unachievable”
The #metoo movement was quite intense, to say the least. I knew that the prevalence of harassment was high, but some unexpected people in my circle of friends came out with their own #metoo stories that had me shook. It has also been very hard on the men in my circle of friends, who have… Read More A Four Step Action Plan So That #metoo Can Become #neveragain
{ This guest post was written by a beloved friend of mine, Nelli. } There are so many poignant things happening all around the world these days. Within just a few minutes of scrolling through my news feed, I can feel completely devastated, then blissfully hopeful, then utterly disgusted, then surprisingly intrigued… Images, videos, shocking… Read More Going Back to Basics: What Walking in Little Shoes Can Teach You { Guest Post }
When I sprained my ankle back in 2008, I started feeling quite lonely even while standing in a crowd. It was because the teaming mass of people was buzzing by me, unaware of my struggle opening a difficult door while juggling my bag and my crutches (more on that here). There is one particular moment… Read More Fighting Urban Loneliness, One Day at a Time
This week’s posts were written with the victims of school shootings in mind—from those who died to their families, including those who survived and will carry the trauma with them for a long time. I started off the week with a list of immediately actionable things that each one of us can do. I then… Read More It’s Not Just About School Shootings: The Broader Picture, and What We Can Do
Yesterday’s post was all about personal action that can be taken to eradicate gun violence. And while personal action is an essential part of the solution, so is engaging in the overall conversation about guns. None of us, as individuals, has the solution to this problem; but each one of us holds an important insight… Read More Barriers to Help The Weakest Links in our Communities
We all saw the news last week of yet another school shooting. I have to say that I am fed up that so many children and teenagers in the United States could, one day, be faced with a shooter in their own school. It shouldn’t happen, and yet it does. I remember going through safety… Read More Little Things We Can All Do to Create a Safe World (aka No More School Shootings)
There is a lot of blame going around nowadays. I’m not sure if this is something that has always been a part of our collective discourse—have humans always focused so much of their energy on finding someone to blame for anything they weren’t happy with? As someone who is very religious, I have found myself… Read More Don’t Blame Math; Blame the Mathematician