Life on the Runn...

While I compiled a list of interview questions for my Acadec team as part of their interview practice, one of the 10+ events at the State competition, I was asked to be interviewed by a group of seniors, some of whom were once my beloved sophomores (I absolutely adore this class). So the interviewer became the interviewee. One of my favorite aspects of the English classroom, and thereby my job, is cultivating communication, be it discussions and debates or drafting writing that explores students’ unique, and often complex, thoughts on the workings of the world. This is what I told the students (I think?! I hope!) when asked why I teach.  I also told them about who I am. At my core, I am a perfectionist and a people pleaser. I told 30-odd students that I scrutinize all I say and do, that I’m likely to replay an interaction - even a positive one - over in my mind, wondering if I said enough, too much, the right thing, the wrong thing, if people respect me for my thoughts o...

I set an alarm for 6am each Saturday morning so that I can make my way to my yoga class. I've been out-of-sorts lately, but yoga has been serving its purpose, and I find that it is one of the few things I desperately need and refuse to miss. Today, our instructor closed our morning practice with a particularly powerful (and, for me, timely) quote from Brene Brown. I thought I would share: “Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor - the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant "To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart." Over time, this definition has changed, and today, we typically associate courage with heroic and brave deeds. But in my opinion, this definition fails to recognize the inner strength and level of commitment required for us to actually speak honestly and openly about who we are and about our experiences -- good and bad. Speaking from our hearts is what I think of as "ordinary ...

Somehow, in the chaos of a Monday morning, I found myself doing a bit of math.  In the middle of the 5 o'clock hour, I added it all up and determined that I have now officially spent half of my life - one whole half of it - as one part of the AR-BR duo.  That fact got me thinking, really thinking, about what partnership means.  When we were first dating, and even when we were newly married, I know I didn't fully know.  Life is funny like that.  You think you've got it all squared away, all figured out, and then life actually  happens, and you realize you are utterly oblivious.   You get your first jobs.  Your car is obliterated on a Kentucky highway. You walk into work one day and are told you won't have a job at the end of the school year - oh, and you just bought your first home. You love the mountains, but you can't find a job in what would be your new hometown. Your tiny human will only sleep while you hold her - thus, you don't ...