I needed a blanket not for warmth but comfort. Hurricane Matthew took a thousand lives, the presidential debate felt like another storm, and under all our distractions—football games, festivals, forty flavors of chips—something isn't right. Teddy Roosevelt said character is indispensable. When we finally stop and feel the chill, that's where character gets built.
Personal Growth
Teaching Plot Structure While My Biological Clock Screams—How Sophomores Saved My Story
Babies surrounded us at church, and I cried through the sermon. But teaching short story elements to sophomores, I found my climax on the chalkboard: dozens of notes saying 'I love you' from last year's kids. Sometimes your students teach you how your own story resolves.
Catching Pokémon in Dark Parks at Midnight—Why This Teacher ‘Gets’ Her Students
I sat behind Rapunzel and Snow White at the football game, camera in one hand, Pokémon Go in the other. At midnight, I was creeping into empty playgrounds to battle gyms. I finally understood: teenagers and I share the same quest—we're all trying to level up without knowing the endgame.
Pokémon Go Taught This Teacher More Than Her Students: How to See Who’s Really There
I resisted until Charming showed me lures by the Alexandria waterfront. Suddenly I was talking to strangers, finding connections everywhere. Now facing 60 new sophomores, I realize: my classroom needs to be the best PokéStop ever—where kids catch exactly what they need to evolve.
When Love Asks You to Wait: A Year in Photos and Hard Questions
I created a photo album of our entire relationship to answer one question: Was he worth waiting for? Sometimes the hardest conversations happen with ourselves first.
Why I Never Graduated from the College I Loved
Thirteen years later, I finally returned to Wheaton with the man I'd met there as strangers. Here's what I learned about the scars that build character and the dreams we bury too soon.
The Evening Glories Need Untangling—But First I Have to Learn to Stop Fixing Everything
In twilight's storm, I resist untangling vines that double over themselves. My need to fix things—phones, weddings, people—is almost palpable. I couldn't sit in church service; I had to be in the AV booth with control. Sometimes facing worry means not taking action. Sometimes you sit still with tangled vines and wait for inspiration.
My AWANA Leader’s Daughter Told Me to End the Volume—Well, I’m Renaming It
Deb saw me at five with her picture on my kindergarten poster. Now, decades later, she's reading my blog and suggests I close this volume. But when your vegetable garden finally starts yielding bounty, you don't stop tending it—you just change what you call it from "I Used to Be" to "I Am."
The Old Maid’s Golf Lesson: What My Student Taught Me About Self-Love
A brilliant student's blog post about wanting to be seen as beautiful and smart made me face my own fear: what if people see me for who I really am? Then a golf game with family taught me to remember only the good hits.
Second Chances and Fresh Canvases: Painting a New Life After Divorce
A paint-and-sip date night became an unexpected metaphor for marriage, failure, and the grace of starting over. Sometimes you need to paint an entirely different picture.
Writer's Growth 