Summer camp was an annual adventure when I was growing up. Something about a week in a cabin full of girls my age was so enchanting. Like most of us who’ve had this experience, I always left with a set of newfound best friends who promised to stay in touch. Inevitably, we didn’t, but those…
I was on the phone with a friend the other night for two hours. I was facing a big deadline—800 words to be exact—but I also knew that my friend needed me. Her situation is probably not unlike yours in some way or another. She’s facing family struggles, a relative’s death, indecision about her future,…
My phone made the familiar ding, letting me know I had a Facebook notification. Thinking it was probably a comment on a post, I stopped what I was doing to check it out. Instead, it was a friend request from a woman I hadn’t seen or spoken to since high school. Excited to reconnect, I…
I had a perm in kindergarten. Every morning my mother diligently primped my hair with her curling iron to perfect it before school. (Never mind that she also had my two-year-old brother to care for at the time.) One morning, probably in a rush to do all the things, my mother accidentally singed the top…
“How are you?” “I’m fine.” Why do we answer that question with “I’m fine”? Are we really? “Fine” is rarely a truthful answer to the question for me. I’m either great, or I’m really not. Sometimes a stranger is asking the question, and it might not make sense to alarm that person by going into…
“I’m standing on your balcony.” That’s what Ms. Beverly used to say to me. To be honest, I never figured out when she coined that phrase or why, but I knew exactly what she meant. She had my back. She was praying for me. She’d be cheering for me. She was in my corner. I’m…