As an enabler, if the work isn’t done or isn’t good enough, I just do it — Most of the time, I think my bosses really appreciate me. I do what they ask. I get results. I make them look good to their bosses. Work gets done, and mistakes are a lot less frequent than they used to be. We are getting a lot of accolades from…

There could be a million reasons — When it comes to an exchange or written conversation I really care about, there has always been one response that frustrated me more than any else: the ghosting and non-response. …

We got a second chance and we lived — At night, we drive by cars with all their airbags blown all over the front seats. There are no passengers in sight. Sometimes there is a tow truck. Most of the time, there are cops blocking off the lane or the side of the road the car is on. Of…

How are you going to get back to the start? — There’s a point in every bad marathon where the unspeakable taboo possibility starts to dominate my thoughts: dropping out. It usually comes when my body is breaking down when I have to run significantly harder just to run slower. Everything is pain. The whole race feels like a complete failure…

On the deeply ambivalent emotions of aiming higher than education — A couple of years ago, I could have told you I did my absolute best to be a good Christian person who put relationships first, and everything else second. I tried my very best to be someone who could love my friends, love my partner, and love my family. I…

How incentives and mandates can do students with disabilities a disservice — As someone who works in special education as an IEP chair (someone who oversees the special education process at my school), I have facilitated more than a hundred IEP meetings over the past year. It’s my second year in the position, but I have earned a reputation as someone who…

This is where I’m supposed to be, no matter the outcome. — The past week or so, I’ve felt lost. I’ve felt really lost. I ran a marathon that was my worst in years. I ran more than twenty minutes off my personal best, and I felt like dropping out half the race. To me, running a 3-hour marathon and dropping out…

Any innocent civilian death is one too many — Three days ago, President Joe Biden questioned the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s report of casualties in the Israel-Hamas War, saying he had “no confidence in the numbers that the Palestinians are using,” echoing the statement of John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson. …

To some of us, yes — Over my lifetime, I would say I’ve spent around $3,000 on running shoes. I have been a competitive runner for 13 years, and with inflation, it seems like running shoes just keep getting more and more expensive. A general rule is to replace your training shoes every 300–500 miles, and…