I learned about a new way of doings things, and I have to say, I'm pretty intrigued...
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When I was young and my family took one of our only long distance vacations to Hawaii, my dad coined a term for my mom that stuck on a long-term level, extending into other people’s vocabularies, as well...
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A Q&A session with two veterans of both.
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A long time ago, I was out to dinner with some of my friends, and I posed a question that I had read about in a blog earlier that week and found quite thought provoking.
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I’ve truly grown up with the inward and outward sentiment that my parents’ divorce didn’t really hurt me. I don’t remember it tearing my life apart, yearning for my parents to get back together, or not understanding it. Rather, I’ve always felt like it made sense to me, and that it was unique to them—not something that was bound to spoil my own relationships someday or color and shape my views of my own marriage.
And by now you might be rolling your eyes, or at least raising an eyebrow...
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Happy (early) Mother's Day to my favorite person on earth...
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Do you know about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? It’s a theory in psychology about motivational needs experienced by humans, starting with the most basic physiological needs such as food, and leading up to the more intangible level of self-actualization that a person only yearns for or seeks to fulfill if the other levels of need are already satisfied...
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Jon and I recently tackled the task of babysitting Jon’s nephew for the first time at our apartment...
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How much does it blow you away, bowl you over, knock your socks off when someone does something incredibly generous or thoughtful for you? Being on the receiving end of unexpected kindness is a feeling unlike any other, and one that I look forward to experiencing throughout my life, even if just a few times. Part of what makes this kind of thing so special is that it’s rare and unexpected, and it’s a total day changer.
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During our recent trip to Mexico, 90% of our awake time was spent outdoors: laying poolside, playing on the beach, hiking, exploring the town, eating at local street meat and taco stands, dining al fresco. Even our hotel room had an entire wall of sliding doors that were open to an outside balcony. Everything about this scenario day in and day out was divine. Needless to say, the transition back into real life has been difficult (understatement of the century)...
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Sharing a personal story today.
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One of my very favorite things is hearing about other people's traditions, especially those related to Christmas. I love hearing how other people do things for the holidays with the hope that I'll be inspired in different ways to incorporate some ideas into my own family's traditions someday.
I asked all of my friends to share some of their favorite holiday traditions with me, and just as I suspected would happen, there is such a fantastic range of sweet/unique/funny ideas and events and memories.
May your Christmas be merry and bright and full of joy, and may these stories get you in the Christmas spirit and help drum up some of your own warm and cheery Christmas memories!
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I am someone who, with too much time on my hands, can quite easily fall into what is most accurately described as a funk. A day can start off with a lot of promise, and yet it seems if I don’t attack it with enough purpose or direction, I begin “bumbling” aimlessly and my mood can spiral downward pretty quickly. And I find myself so envious of those who love to lounge all day, never leaving the house, etc. I WANT to love it, and I crave it and look forward to it when I’m busy or after a week full of work, but when it actually comes around to it, I go a little bit insane doing it. And with enough sitting or lounging, I get into a kind of funk that can be difficult to pull myself out of. Do you relate at all to this?...
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How wonderful are good memories? And I don't mean the specific details of your memories, but just how wonderful it is that we're able to feel nostalgic. There's nothing quite as rose-tinted as a good memory. Much like looking forward to things in anticipation, memories are also painted in the best light—an unsullied, unadulterated light. It is easy to be critical in the current moment, or to be distracted, or to wish things were slightly different. But when you look back fondly or you look ahead with excitement, everything seems to be painted in the most flawless light.
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The one thing about holidays that can be slightly more stressful than enjoyable: the splitting of family time. It’s a wonderful thing to have enough family members for this to even be an issue, but it can feel like an issue nonetheless. Christmas, although seemingly a more important holiday to many, is actually the less difficult one, I think, compared to Thanksgiving—given that it’s really a two-full-day celebration at minimum. Therefore, most people I know don’t have too much trouble splitting it someway between Christmas Eve day and night, as well as Christmas morning and night. However, Thanksgiving can feel like the trickier one due to its meal-centric nature. It’s hard to have an early meal at one location and then move to the next place to endure your food coma and not partake in that meal. It’s ok, of course, because company is still enjoyed, but there’s something about not being able to partake in the meal that just doesn’t feel right.
A good friend of mine (Hi Julia!) has a tradition in her family that I think is an absolutely brilliant alternative to splitting time...
Read MoreIf you’re at all like me, you’re cringing right now at that title alone. Maybe you even avoid articles of this nature because of the discomfort they cause you. I promise you, I get it, and I've been there, and I know I will be there again sometime. But without further ado, I thought about some concepts that have helped me and pushed me to be brave over the past several months, as difficult as they were to embrace. I think these truths are really relevant for anyone who might be in the same boat and is subconsciously looking for that boat to be rocked a little.
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This is a topic that feels so relevant to people our age, and I've been asked to write about it. Many of us know all too well the struggle of making friends for the first time in several years, and now with the added difficulty of it being out there in the real world as opposed to at school. I've given a lot of thought and reflection to what has helped me, as well as other people I know, make friends in post grad life.
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I've talked with several of my friends about how we believe our twenties are a very tumultuous time, and not purely because of the stresses or the responsibilities or the pressures that are so commonly associated with other life stages. It's more that our twenties are proving to be a strange dichotomy of sorts. We constantly jockey between trying to figure out what we want to do and telling ourselves we have plenty of time to figure it out. We can be convinced we're still so young, and the next moment be convinced we are in full blown real-human-being adulthood. We feel pressure to find love and get engaged and have a picture-perfect wedding, but find temporary comfort in reading that statistically, people are getting married and having children older in life than ever before, in many cases due to career aspirations. We've experienced the freedom and independence that college provided, but we're learning that college was another kind of bubble all on its own. We're seeking stability just as often as we're running the other way from it. And we run the gamut of married with kids to going back to grad school and relocating after working for three years to suddenly single after a six year relationship to living for the weekends and struggling to find purpose at work.
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I’m frequently asked for restaurant and bar recommendations from my friends, and in my own travels, I’m always the (self-designated) person in charge of finding all the good spots to eat and drink.
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Be kind
Be a leader
Be interested
Tell the truth
These came to me after hearing Coach K (Duke University's famed men's basketball coach) speak at a conference I attended for work. He was an incredible speaker. He is honest, he’s humble, he’s experienced, and beyond anything else— he’s motivational. He makes you want to trust him, because he’s authentic. He makes you believe in yourself. He’s a winner, at heart, from within. He’s funny. And man, is his track record impressive. Check out this.