One Little Word 2017

Hello teacher friends. It's been a while.

Back in 2015 I was introduced to the concept of the One Little Word and ever since then, instead of New Year's resolutions, I have decided to use one word to be my theme for the year and my source of motivation and meditation.

My word for 2015 was BRAVE.
Last year my word was DO.

My word for 2017 has proven to be more of a challenge.

In many ways 2016 was a great year for me personally. My husband and I bought a new house in a town we love as the community here very much aligns with our values, we started running over the summer and completed our first 5K in October, in August, I started a new position at my school as the K-8 librarian and am loving every second of spending my day with kids and books,  I presented with some amazing authors like Laurie Halse Anderson, Matt de la Pena and Brendan Kiely at NCTE in November, AND on top of all that, I got to see Hamilton in Chicago.

But 2016 has also been a hard year for reasons I probably don't have to elucidate. That difficulty turned to outright grief when we all woke up on November 9th to a reality that many of us could have never imagined. To realize that we now live in a country that will be led by a man who is not only grossly unqualified for the job, but who is basically a danger to our liberty, values, civil rights, and peace means it's time for many of us to really WAKE UP and SPEAK UP.

So I considered choosing a word like RESIST or PROTEST as my word for 2017, but I didn't want the theme for my year to be about anger and outrage. I also considered SPEAK as my word as reminder that I should not and cannot remain silent as people's rights are violated and lives are put at risk. And while I was on the right track, that too didn't feel right.

And then I was reminded of some very powerful words said by Jason Reynolds at the ALAN workshop in November. He said that if you really want to have hope, you have to go out and DO SOMETHING. We all have to earn our hope. We can't just sit around and wait for our hope to sprout wings and get to work. WE have to do the work.

And with those words still ringing in my ears, I found my word for 2017:

with the reminder that I have to earn it each and every day.

And so when I grab my purse and keys every morning and leave the house, I am reminded every day of what I need to do. I HOPE if you're reading this you will DO SOMETHING to earn yours too.

Celebrate One Little Word

I've never been a fan of New Year's resolutions. I get the importance and symbolism of new beginnings and setting goals, but I think resolutions fizzle out more often than not. So I was excited last year when I learned about One Little Word from Ruth Ayres. Rather than make a new year’s resolution I would likely break in a month, I decided to follow in others' footsteps and choose One Little Word to be my focus, motivation, and source of meditation throughout the year. For 2015 my word was Brave. That word served me well and was a nagging reminder to “dare disturb the universe” when it was easier to just stay safely silent.

This year, as I watched many in the public eye hide behind their “thoughts and prayers” while standing idly by, I have decided my One Little Word for 2016 will be Do.

Do what scares you.
Do what inspires you.
Do what you know is right.
Do YOU dare disturb the universe?

Wearing my hope and struggle on my sleeve

I've had a tattoo for over ten years now. It's on my lower back and hidden from sight. I had no intention of ever getting a tattoo that was regularly visible to the world.

But as the years have gone on, I have entertained the thought of getting another, more visible tattoo. Something small, dainty, and literary. Something to show the world that I am a reader and a teacher.

But out of all the books and poems and lines I love from literature, how could I possibly choose a defining one?

For a while I considered getting the line:
My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations
from The Fault in Our Stars because it was my favorite book for a few years. But then it became a pop culture phenomenon with the release of the movie and that gave the book a shelf life for me and the line quickly lost its luster.

Then I considered getting:
I go to seek a great perhaps
on my foot as a way to remind myself that there are so many great perhapses in life for us to go out and seek and I need to be the one to make things happen rather than waiting for them to happen. But... it's sort of like a bad omen that those were someone's last words. So I decided maybe that wasn't the best idea after all.

Then my most recent idea was to get in very small, dainty font on my wrist
Do I dare disturb the universe?
for a couple reasons. 1) Because a student wrote in her final essay last year that I made her think about how she could "disrupt the universe" and that really touched me. 2) As a reminder that there are things in life worth fighting for and that while it might make me and other people uncomfortable, I need to be brave and speak up.What was holding me back about getting this one though is that besides that one line, I'm actually not a huge fan of the poem or of T.S. Eliot. (I'm still traumatized from studying The Waste Land in a grad school class a few years ago.)

But then a few things happened this summer that cemented my decision as to what tattoo to get.

1) Thanks to some of my brave friends who have shared their struggles as well as the teachers sharing their stories on #semicolonEDU, I realized that I have been struggling with anxiety for many years and am just finally starting to give it a name.
2) A former student of mine took his own life last month and it shook my very soul.
3) I started reading up on Project Semicolon and love its message and mission.

So yesterday, before my husband and I went out to dinner for our regular Friday date night, I went to a tattoo place in Ann Arbor and got this:

Now I want to make something very clear. I am not, nor have I ever been suicidal. My semicolon has a slightly different symbolic meaning to me than its original intention. Actually, truth be told, it has several symbolic meanings, which is why I decided it was the perfect tattoo for me. Here is what the semicolon means to me:

1) A semicolon is sophisticated punctuation. There is a great deal of nuance that I didn't really understand until I was well out of college. So it symbolizes my growth as a writer, reader, and teacher.
2) A semicolon is a difficult and complicated piece of punctuation to understand. And I am a difficult and complicated person to try to understand. I need to be more forgiving of myself when I'm having a hard time articulating my feelings.
3) A semicolon is a reminder to stop and pause when my anxiety is getting the best of me. That things might seem bad to me at that moment, but that the only way out is through. And I will get through it.
4) A semicolon on my wrist is a conversation starter. A way to talk about mental health in a safe, non-threatening way with anyone who feels alone and like they can't talk about it.


Social media, and our real-life public personas for that matter, is often a place where we only share our joys and triumphs. We filter our photos, posts, and conversations through rose colored lenses. But let's also be brave enough to share our struggles and our sorrows. Humans are three-dimensional beings. We have emotions that go far beyond happiness and excitement. Let's stop sweeping those less flattering emotions under the rug – because we all have them; we're often just really good at hiding them. But at what cost?


So in the words of the Semicolon Project:
Stay strong; Love endlessly; Change lives.

I do dare disturb the universe.

Celebrate This Week was established by Ruth Ayres

My One Little Word for 2015 - My First Word

Celebrate This Week was established by Ruth Ayres

Happy New Year to all! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that 2015 brings you many blessings.

I've never been one for New Year's resolutions. They're just a way to disappoint yourself and for places like gyms and sporting goods stores to feed on our lofty goals and make money. Still, I do like the idea and symbolism of a new year being about new beginnings. So I've been thinking a lot lately about  how I can improve myself without setting unrealistic goals that I will never fulfill.

As a result, Ruth Ayres got me thinking about the One Little Word challenge and that has been swimming around in my head lately. If you've never heard of the challenge before, the idea is to pick a word and live with it for an entire year.

The word I have chosen for 2015 has actually been a word I've been living with in my classroom with my students since September, but I feel the need to make a formal declaration and continue living with it for another 12 months.

Brave was my mantra as I returned to the piano after over a decade away from playing.

Brave was my mantra as I entered the classroom again after a year away from students.

Brave was my mantra as I challenged myself to come out of my turtle shell, stick my neck out and do things for the good of my students, consequences be damned.

So I will continue living with brave for the next 12 months and do so with more intention. I'm excited to see where Brave will take me.