I recently made a TikTok to encourage people to read a blog post written by the founding director of the organization I work for. It was about reconsidering spending time on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day projects in the classroom and instead leaving that up to families. I’m sure most, if not all, teachers can […]
{This is a short one since I don’t have time, but I want to keep the streak going!} Last August my sister turned 40. She wanted, or at least thought she wanted, to run the Sea Wheeze half marathon in Vancouver to celebrate. Her friends, our other sister, and I, all dutiful followed whatever directions […]
While many have written essays, created art, recorded documentaries, et cetera, answering this question, I’ve never really tried to answer it myself. This weekend I was asked that question after a heated discussion about whether or not it’s divisive for grads to wear sashes that represent different racial/cultural/ethnic identities like the one below: (For the […]
It was recently the 25th anniversary of No Doubt’s song “Don’t Speak” and in it’s honor a TikToker posted a series of videos calling out Gwen Stefani for her long history of cultural appropriation. In the video for this song and at other times, she can be seen wearing a bindi, a decorative mark with […]
My early childhood years were the opposite of overscheduled. My brother, cousins, and I were left to our own devices to play and entertain ourselves more often than not. Sometimes there was adult supervision…and sometimes there wasn’t. There was a brief stint at weekly piano lessons, but they didn’t last too long. But when I […]
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Phew! Made it to the last day of the Slice of Life Story Challenge. I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up with writing each day nor would I even know what to write about for 31 days. It turns out I had too many things to write about. I really empathized with my […]
If you haven’t read part 1 or part 2, what you need to know is that my brother and I were separated when we were 7 and 13. We didn’t get to see each other for another eight years. This last installment starts at the first time we saw each other again. My cousins, Nan […]
My brother and I were separated when we were 7 and 13 years old. My mom and stepdad were planning on moving from Houston, a city we’d just arrived in less than 6 months ago, to Japan. As a middle schooler I couldn’t see the kind of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would be. All I could […]
For my 40th birthday (ten years ago), my sister and husband threw me a party at our house. Forty was a big one, so everyone was invited. One of my dear friends I’ve know since 8th grade, Tammy, came in and struck up a conversation with my brother. “How do you know Viv?” she asked. […]
