Mariano Velez

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  • The Algorithm Knows I’m Hungry

    As much as I hate to admit it, I—like countless others of my kind—spend more time scrolling the socials than I care to say out loud. But I’m admitting it here today. The time spent scrolling is considerable. It’s not an addiction (and I know some self-anointed social media experts will roll their eyes at…

  • Before the Day Notices Me

    I’ve written about the morning quiet a few times, and usually that quiet is accompanied by coffee. And so here I am, writing about that morning quiet while enjoying said quiet…and coffee. There’s a particular kind of peace that comes from alone time and coffee just for coffee’s sake. Not a meeting. Not a reward.…

  • Standards, Grades, and Other Things We Pretend We All Agree On

    I sat through an administrator’s “clinic” the other day—one of those gatherings where the coffee is strong, the chairs are unforgiving, and the words learning standards are spoken with near-religious reverence. The agenda was precise. The slides were aligned. Everything, apparently, was measurable. My mind, however, was not. This is usually the part where one…

  • Coffee First. Then People.

    Coffee first. Then people. This isn’t a lifestyle choice. It’s a safety protocol.  Somewhere between waking up, getting ready for work, unlocking the classroom door, and logging into email, caffeine must be introduced into the system. Without it, words come out wrong, patience becomes theoretical, and facial expressions betray thoughts better left unspoken. Teachers aren’t…

  • Not quite famous. And still mostly unknown.

    So yeah—I wrote a book. If you’ve been following me, you’ve heard this a few times already; this’ll be one more. (Don’t blame me. That guy in the mirror made me do it.) The book went live a little over two months ago. And yes, it’s sold a bunch of copies. Not bestseller-list, airport-bookstore, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it…

  • Caffeinated, Distracted, and Somehow Not Famous

    I was pondering the life of an influencer over the holiday break—because why think about taxes, family, or existential dread when you can overanalyze people yelling at a tiny lens? And it hit me: these people, these camera-talking wizards, have an insane cocktail of confidence, courage, and apparently a complete disregard for the crushing humiliation…

  • I’m in No Hurry

    The day has come.We all knew it was coming.Nothing we could do to stop it. It was… inevitable. No amount of coffee was going to make a difference. Returning to work after a long break is a lot like waking up in a foreign country where you technically speak the language, but everything feels aggressive…

  • Not Typical, But It Works

    I was asked recently about my experience writing a book. It was one of those casual questions that slowly opens a door you didn’t expect. As the conversation unfolded, it inevitably turned to students—specifically, what it takes to get kids to write. That question lingered with me longer than I expected, probably because it pulled…

  • Shelved Dreams

    Writing a book was a long-held dream of mine—one I carried quietly for years. Not the kind of dream I announced out loud or chased with urgency, but one that lived in the background, tucked away between lesson plans, staff meetings, and stacks of papers waiting to be graded. It was always there, patient and…

  • Experimental Build: Human Edition

    A self-reflective observation made under the supervision of that Guy in the Mirror. There are days when the world goes sideways—days when it feels like the gods themselves are pacing around upstairs, knocking over furniture, arguing about whose turn it is to touch the big red button. Days when everything teeters on the edge of…

  • Me, My Thoughts, and That Morning Cup of Joe

    As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate the morning quite a whole lot more. Not the dramatic, cinematic kind—the kind you see in a travel magazine with the sunlight spilling over mountains—but the ordinary, quiet of a house that hasn’t fully woken up yet. The kind of quiet where the world hasn’t started asking…

  • Author in the Wild: My First Book Signing 

    There’s something a little magical about seeing a dream take shape in front of your eyes. Today, I got to do just that. My very first book signing and meet-and-greet wasn’t just an event—it was a moment I’ll remember for a long time. I feel like I should have one of those “First Time Author”…

  • On Being a Writer (Ay, Sí… Mira Qué Chingón)

    As a writer—ay, sí, mira qué chingón—I’ve discovered something both humbling and infuriating: I find myself completely at a loss for words far more often than I care to admit. It’s not for lack of ideas. Oh no. I have tons of ideas. I keep notes. I keep too many notes. I’m like a hoarder…

  • Home Alone (Yeah, not that one…)

    Every now and then—usually when I’m sitting around minding my own business, sipping something cold, letting the world drift by—I’ll get hit with one of those memories from way back. No warning. No reason.Just… poof. A moment from my past rolls in like a lazy tumbleweed, makes itself comfortable, and says, “Remember this, dummy?” And…

  • Where Baseball Loved Us Back: Memories Filtered Through a Child’s Eyes

    There’s a certain magic to baseball that no other sport has ever quite managed to touch. Football thunders, basketball dazzles, soccer never stops moving—but baseball? Baseball breathes. It invites you in, lets you linger, gives you space to fall in love with it slowly, inning by inning, summer after summer. It’s the only sport where…