Being House Hunters
I can’t imagine what my coworkers think about me. Since moving to Chicago in June, I have adopted a dog, begun a new job, gotten engaged, started planning a wedding, signed a contract for my first condo and am now applying to business school. To them, I must look like a complete maniac. But if you took a proactive, adventurous woman, put her in an unmarried military relationship for three years (by experience, three years without marriage in... Read More
(super)human rights
Recently, the following video has been running rampant all over the Internet: I’m going to start by acknowledging how important what Mr. Wahls did is. Speaking up for your family in an articulate manner, especially to a legislative body that is considering whether or not to recognize your family at all, is a challenging thing to do. It takes courage and the belief that what you’re doing is more important than how nervous or afraid... Read More
Parenting: It is a Privilege, Not a Right
As this article goes to press, another toddler has passed away, a tragic victim of domestic violence. Here in New Zealand, an average of 10 children a year are killed as a result of domestic violence. So many babies and young children are the victims of brutal physical abuse, paedophilia and neglect, inflicted upon them by the very people they love, trust and depend on most – their own family. These innocent and defenceless children are being injured... Read More
Turkey Din Din with all the Trimmings
You will have to forgive my total admittance of ignorance when I say that up until a couple of years ago there were a couple of things I didn’t know about Thanksgiving in Canada. 1-They even had a Thanksgiving, and 2-what they were thankful for. Having grown up always hearing about American Thanksgiving and the traditions and events surrounding it, and knowing that back in England we never had one, I had assumed that it was only America who celebrated... Read More
Reflections on Home
Home is a funny thing. For the first 18 years of my life, home was the one bedroom apartment I shared with my mother, father, and sister in Manhattan. And that was it. I never went to summer camp, and my parents didn’t have a “country house” like some of the other families. We didn’t spend vacations with a grandparent or rent a cottage somewhere every August. In those 18 years, we never moved. My parents have lived in the same apartment for... Read More
Escaping City Boundaries
City or country?! Lying back in the sun, eyes closed with the breeze from the lake cooling me and listening to the band of crickets and cicadas, it’s hard to believe that I’m in the centre of Canada’s capital city. Living in Ottawa, we are spoilt for choice of where to escape the noises and heat of the city. Parks, lakes, rivers and beaches spread all over, waiting to be enjoyed and discovered. I love exploring these places, which makes... Read More
Facebook: A Reluctant Love Story
I held out for a long time. Years, even. I resisted MySpace, scoffed at Friendster and was stalwart in my conviction that Facebook was not something I needed in my life. “Why do I need Facebook to tell me what my friends are up to,” I reasoned, “when I talk to them all the time?” Even though my loved ones were scattered around the country, we did a pretty good job of staying in touch. Facebook just seemed like a burden, another thing to keep... Read More
The Road Less Traveled
http://www.joondalup.wa.gov.au/explore/libraries.aspx Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. -“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (1874–1963) We’ve all heard this famous Robert Frost poem a thousand times, or at least at every school convocation and graduation we attend. Over the last century, this poem has been used symbolically... Read More
Where Were You When…?
Two weeks ago I was in Berkeley visiting a friend when I saw news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It’s amazing, the change that takes place in the two seconds which transfer you from ignorance to knowledge—or to try and say this more clearly: when I woke up that Friday morning, Japan was already experiencing the aftershocks that follow catastrophic natural disaster. Had I turned on the news on the car radio, or checked BBC news... Read More
Past, Present, Future
Four generations gathered for lunch. Two weeks before my seventeenth birthday, my Nana, aunt, and uncle took me on a ten-day trip to Paris. An enthusiastic French student, I was beyond thrilled to have the chance to visit the city’s famous landmarks for the first time, tour the Louvre and see the paintings that we’d studied in my classes, and spend some time abroad. I was also thrilled, of course, to spend some time with my family and... Read More
