Tag: kids

  • The Things We Believed (Before Coffee)

    As I sit here drinking my coffee, convinced that caffeine is somehow going to help me defeat my lifelong nemesis—Sleep—and maybe keep up with whatever my ADHD has planned for today, I can’t help but think about all the things I believed as a kid. Back then, life ran on confidence… not facts. The right…

  • No Schedule, Just Sunlight and Shortcuts to Nowhere

    I grew up in the 70s and 80s, in a city that felt like it was still learning its own edges. Streets weren’t lined with development yet, and blank spaces—lots of dirt, weeds, and sun-baked patches of ground—were waiting for someone to claim them. We claimed them. We ran through them. We made trails, shortcuts,…

  • Scraped Knees and Torn Jeans

    There was a time when play was king—not the quiet, sit-down kind, but the loud, dusty, borderline-dangerous kind that required sunscreen you never used and rules you barely followed.  It was the kind of play that guaranteed you’d come home a different person than when you left… mostly because parts of you were now missing…

  • Bring Me Back a Rock

    Being a teacher comes with certain perks. Among the best of them are the relationships you build with your students. Getting to know those little humans in progress can be a real blessing. Sure, some of them behave like crazed monkeys recently escaped from the zoo, but for the most part, it’s a positive experience.…

  • Holy Smokes

    Kids have a natural talent for doing risky things. Sometimes those things are brilliant.Sometimes they’re creative.Sometimes they’re hilarious. …and sometimes they are just plain stupid. Me? I had a special knack for doing things that somehow managed to be all four at the same time. Growing up, one of my more “unique” skills involved fire.…