All my life, I’ve been curious. My mother tells a story from my early childhood, when she had just put me to bed – a major feat, since I didn’t sleep through the night until I was six years old! She was sneaking out of the room, when suddenly I bolted straight up in bed and asked: “Why …
I used to think I could never learn another language. I studied Spanish in school, and it was always a struggle. I almost gave up. Then, in my second year of college, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Mexico, and everything changed. For seven months, I renounced English and spent all of my time listening, …
I’m a future-oriented person. At any given time, I’m probably using half my energy thinking, dreaming, preparing for what’s coming next. But this year for Lent, I’m trying to give up dreaming for a little while. As much as I’m able, for the next month or so I’ll avoid pondering any possible future, no matter how …
One of my favorite morning rituals is sitting down with breakfast and opening up the newspaper. I understand there aren’t many in my generation that still read the news in print, but for me it’s a comforting ritual. Or, at least, it used to be. For years, I’ve had a rocky relationship with the news. I …
I was one of those kids who was raised to believe I could do anything I set my mind to. I was encouraged to dream big; the only limit was my imagination. When I watched movies or read books, I saw the heroes as people who I could aspire to be. I’ve lived my whole …
Life isn’t simple. Despite all of the ways in which we try to control our path – all the academic, work, and social hoops we jump through to provide order to our lives – the world we live in is fundamentally disorderly. How do you distinguish between the good and the bad? Or, even more challenging, how …
You don’t get these days back. You can’t buy the future with the present, and you can’t escape it by running into the past. It’s now or never. Everything hinges on this moment you’re living, right now. You have no time but this present time. These joys and sorrows, these sights and sounds, these choices you …