ooookkkk lemme do this for real. i prefer bulleting, and so...
- i think in movie quotes and song lyrics.
- i ran my first marathon because the interest meeting for team in training was at the 40/40 club.
- teaching middle school is a strength, a passion, an occasional headache, and a privilege.
- BALTIMORE is in my blood, but i'm ok to love it from a distance for now.
- NEW YORK is also in my blood, and i miss it viscerally.
- i believe in an individual's ability to change neuron paths/mindsets, and have been pretty successful with new year's resolutions because of this.
- saran wrap is my worst skill.
- i do not like typing in capital letters. in journalism school, had i ever typed an article like this, i would have received an automatic zero.
- i am incredibly thankful for people in my life who ask the tough questions and make me think critically about my choices (although not always incredibly thankful right in that moment... :) )
- i had parent-teacher meetings from 1st-6th grade because i talked too much in class.
- now i have parent-teacher meetings with kids in my class who talk too much. it feels more full-circle than hypocritical.
- my professional life mantra is, "if it's beyond my skillset, it's not beyond my capability."
- i think wit and smart humor are the most attractive elements in anyone.
- i think empathy, compassion, honesty and courage are also hot.
- one of my middle school kids in the bronx and i were talking about ambrose bierce's civil-war-era short story "an occurrence at owl creek bridge" which i'd read to my class without knowing how it would go over. i reminded him of a genius inference he'd made. he responded, "oh yeah that story was wavy." wavy means awesome. this anecdote means if you sell it right and make it worth it, all kids, regardless of their background or zip code, will be passionate about and successful in learning anything you throw at them.
- i am spending a lot of my life learning how to be less decisive, less dichotomous, less black-and-white. i seek more information, kind of always. if you graphed my absolute certainty about things, it would have a downward slope since high school graduation.
- i am pretty good with an on-the-spot analogy.
- i really like to expand horizons. i paint in the park (i am terrible), will go to pretty much any musical event, and have this idyllic vision in my head of what it would be like to go apple picking in the inland empire.
- i want a partner in crime in all this. maybe one who's good at saran wrap for complementary purposes.
