Month: October 2012

  • Spain, then and now

    Seven years ago, I was falling in love with a boy. I thought he was falling in love with me too, but then he abruptly called things off. Naturally, I was devastated. So when an opportunity for escape came up, I snatched it. Two weeks in Spain didn’t heal my broken heart, but it sure…

  • Sticks and stones

    In honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, Natalie Whipple recently blogged about a hurtful incident from her childhood. It’s a brave, honest, and insightful post — as Natalie’s usually are — and I connected with it deeply. Unfortunately, what I identified with was not Natalie’s perspective, but that of her young bullies. As I hope…

  • How to be a “willpower machine” (part 2)

    Part 1 discussed the importance of sleep and self-forgiveness. 3. Get to know your future self This section of McGonigal’s talk was really interesting to me, because I hadn’t thought about it in these terms before. Essentially, the more you feel like you know your future self, the more likely you are to make good long-term…

  • How to be a “willpower machine” (part 1)

    Thanks to the INTERN (aka Hilary T. Smith) I recently saw this great talk on willpower, given by Kelly McGonigal, PhD. The video is long, but I think it’s well worth your time. (Tip: Listen to it while folding laundry, doing dishes, etc.) Now, I don’t want to re-hash the entire thing — you should just watch it!…

  • TV Talk: “You’re my person” (or: The real love story of Grey’s Anatomy)

    Spoiler level: Low. For a few years, the writers of Grey’s Anatomy maintained a blog, and every Friday after a new episode aired, the writer of that episode would post about it. I loved that blog, and all the extra insight/entertainment it offered. I also — surprise surprise — loved to leave comments, telling the…