SKipnees

So as a teacher, there are maybe a million ways I've started to feel old, but my favorite might be that I regularly fall asleep at 9 p.m. and can't make it up past maybe 10...college me could be up to the wee hours of the morning, no sweat.

I'm a teacher and I work with elementary school kids (1st and 3rd, but my oldest students are in 5th grade now). It's been so hard, especially with the little ones, to not hug, especially when they seek out and need their comfort. After I was fully vaccinated, I gave many many many… Read More

The Unabomber sent a package that killed a person back in 1994 in my hometown of North Caldwell, NJ. I only found this out years later (I was 2 at the time) when I saw an exhibit on the case at a museum in DC.

The Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin. I heard it first in sixth grade and couldn't stop bawling. The dad has no time for his son while his son is growing up and who desperately wants to spend time with his son and then halfway through it starts changing. Suddenly, his son is mostly… Read More

So funny story re LoveGame. I was a teenage camp counselor around the time this song was popular and a bunch of elementary aged kids were like what's a disco stick...and I was like nope not disco stick it's disco ship...you know where Mommy and Daddy go to relive their youth...

Also, forgot about "The Hollow Men" by TS Eliot. My dad wouldn't let me quote him in my senior yearbook because he was "an anti-Semite" and I went to a Jewish day school, but I'll never forget the ending of it. "This is the way the world ends/this is the way the world ends/this is… Read More

English major here, so beware, this could be long. 1. Barter by Sara Teasdale "Life has loveliness to sell..." (I love how sweet and bright this poem is) 2. The Tyger by William Blake "Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright..." (Read this in a book when I was 14. Promptly decided to memorize… Read More

Sugar, We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy. How did the boy end up with antlers? How did he fall in love with the girl? What's the deal with her dad? It seems like a perfect teen movie.

I make sure to walk on very lit streets if I need to come home after dark, and I always have my keys on me just in case. I also never go out without a cell phone in case I need to call in an emergency. I tend to avoid eye contact with strangers, pull my hood over my head, and never… Read More

I was in Penn Station in NYC after a weekend with my family in NJ when my eldest brother called and told me my dad died unexpectedly. It was the dead of winter, right as the first night of Hanukkah was beginning, and I was bawling my eyes out and dragging around my suitcase. I was… Read More