I spent the first few months of 2013 in Tanzania. For months beforehand, I’d been on a search for overseas volunteer opportunities that felt ethical. It was harder than I thought to do good things! I was mostly against being a teacher, since I had no teacher training or qualifications of any kind. I didn’t …
It’s quite something, isn’t it? To think that just recently, I was procrastinating the writing of a blog about inflation because it seemed too grim. And now. What to say about now? Let’s start with the big picture. In and beyond my circles, a great many people celebrate their good fortune to live in a democracy. …
I do not like donating blood. I would even go so far as to say I strongly dislike donating blood. And guess what? I do not have a good reason. As a kid, I didn’t know that a person’s body made blood regularly; I thought we just had the one supply our whole lives. I was amazed …
I’ve had an angry week. Some of the anger is directed at parts of day-to-day life that don’t matter much in the bigger picture. Some of the anger is resentment that’s resurfaced from situations I thought I’d already dealt with. And then there’s the outrage I’ve been feeling about bigger issues. Depending how you’re feeling these days, …
I once stayed a few months in a Tanzanian city called Mwanza. I’d spent most of a year trying to find ethical volunteer opportunities overseas. In the process, I’d learned that was a mostly-impossible task, at least for someone without relevant training/skills. That conclusion was one of the reasons I eventually pursued a master’s degree …
Without any ado, here are some examples of times I’ve been involved with police: I was pulled over for speeding and tried to joke with the officer about his last name being the same as mine. He smiled politely, wrote me a ticket, and wished me a nice day.My friends and I dressed up as …
I don’t know all of what you did, but I know you’ve done a lot. Today marks one year since I started working from home – or living at work, as I’ve come to call it. I don’t have the energy or interest to write about all of the last year, but I do find …
I’m unsure about ghosts. Do they exist? Maybe. Do they not exist? Maybe. But I do romanticize connections — or what some people might call coincidences. A couple of years ago, for example, I was meant to be on vacation but was instead overthinking and over-worrying a work problem. While I was fussing, I set …
Throughout elementary school in the small town where I grew up, I was in Brownies and Girl Guides. Every November, we sold poppies to support the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. Selling poppies meant going door to door in northern Alberta, freezing our butts off. This was still when dresses were a mandatory …
When we told our grandpa we planned to get married one day, we weren’t much older than in the above photo. Grandpa responded that cousins aren’t allowed to get married, and I remember feeling perplexed. Why wouldn’t I be allowed to marry this boy, when playing together was one of the best parts of my …
Maybe There's More 