SELF-MASTERY
Actually, there was another reason I'd decided to go to Spain, as important to me as becoming fluent in Spanish. I worried about being a burden to Britte—I had so much emotional baggage—and figured that striking out on my own was the fastest way I could grow the rest...
BREAKING FREE
I don’t have much writing from the year I was in Spain because, after the first month or two, I got too busy to keep a diary. I didn’t take the time to write rough drafts of my letters or copy them, either—so I don’t have much to jog my memory except for a few letters...
HOPE
Joe Biden is our new president and Kamala Harris our vice president! Like many others, for the last four years I’ve lived in mounting anguish as I watched the machinations of a leader who lives in an alternate reality of his own invention, in which black is white…
MAN-HANDLED
On the Aurelia I’d befriended Ella and Dale in a T-group—an encounter group for the students in our program—led by the ship’s recreation director, Jane. The idea was to give us an opportunity to share our feelings about the adventure we were embarked on. The...
HALLOWEEN DEJA-VU
The image above is from last year's Halloween post. A couple of weeks ago, I had a brainstorm about how to promote my book, The Poof! Academy, which was published last spring: Have education specialist Jane Ashley dress up as a witch and read one of my stories about...
GAMBIT
Going to Spain to study my junior year, as glamorous as it might sound, was for me a desperate gambit. For one thing, my mother was violently opposed the idea and screamed at me in arguments about it that I couldn’t go because we didn’t have the money. For another,...