Working and College Like any American, I have my consumerist bent on worldly things, and while my time and focus was on college, I wanted to work a life sustaining job while surrounded with things I had a kinship with: books and computers. And like an idealistic ninny, I chose to work at a bookstore,…
Category: Nonfiction
Midwesterners in an Arizona Blizzard
Driving Opinions People really like to declare a city of drivers terrible. You’ve heard it, “People drive like [insert parts of speech here] around here.” The metric always changes. And I guess I can see a sort of difference in New York City drivers versus Cincinnati drivers, but Nashville versus Cincinnati? St. Louis versus Houston?…
Lions and Lions and Lions
“There,” our tour guide said. I skimmed my eyes through the yellow grass, long and swirling still even with the absence of wind. We plodded closer and in looking so close, I could see how this could resemble American prairie, the lighter color of autumn covering much vastness. Then blotches of what was flattened grass…
The Wolf Sanctuary and Empathy
“You must be asking yourself why I’m not in the enclosure with the wolves like the other conservationists,” the gentleman, an elder in age, said into the microphone. “It’s quite simple. I might not make it out.” You wouldn’t think West Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University and many, many cornfields, would be a place…
Let’s Say Slideshows Are Bad for Teaching and See What We Have
I. The Good Of Slideshows I’m in essay grading mode. That means I’m living and breathing essays. I’m reading and reading and commenting and commenting. It’s a lot: like 151 essays a lot. In this mode, my planning bell where I have been given time to “plan” is now my “grading” bell. My sleep patterns…
Subversion Versus Dramatic Irony: An English Teacher’s Opinion on the Hubbub Concerning Season 8, Episode 5 of Game of Thrones
The internet is abuzz with Game of Thrones and whether or not Season 8’s fifth episode works. It’s getting quite vehement out there with digital-finger pointing and much crayness times a good and solid number upwards of two. I get it. We love stories, and when our stories are under assault, we respond. So, here…
Ads and My Shifting Baseline Syndrome
Context: The Times A couple weekends ago, I deactivated my Facebook account. It was tough. Kind of. I was there in the beginning, so there was some nostalgic reckoning there. Like in the old days when you have to get a new phone number and are faced with so many unhinged connections. But the “why”…
Story Versus the Internet
The first time I voted, I researched candidates, trying to get down to the nitty gritty. Soaking in the issues and what was at stake. Reaffirming or discarding suppositions of the world. That kind of stuff. You know, democracy stuff. I very much remember that getting past the public relations simplification aspect of policy was…
The English Teacher Black Hole
I hope I’m not alone in thinking, basically all the time, that I’m just not very good at what I do. I am speaking of a very special imposter syndrome: I’m a high school English teacher. When I was young, I was lackluster in reading the classics or writing essays. I excelled in trying to…
The Writing Tick Psychoanalysis
I have a tick in my writing that has followed me for years. Maybe writing about it will be like when people who fear snakes do that process where they slowly acclimatize themselves to snake nearness and, baring no tragedy, lose the fear. When I write for my students, I hear murmurs. Someone will eventually…