If I stop now, I’m a quitter. I started teaching in 2017, right after I graduated college with a degree in something I didn’t know how to apply. I thought moving to a rural area of the country with a handful of other twenty-something-year-olds who all wanted to “make a difference” would be an adventure. …
Tag: mental health
Reality Check: The Afterlives of Indie Musicians
Zane Stroud and I used to be bandmates; we left the band and started new lives, and Zane is now heading in my direction–to become an academic. Zane and his wife Bessie drove Zoe and me to Clearwater Bay to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. We took this double date quite seriously, because it was our first…
The Wedding (An Archaic Concept of Me, Delivery 9)
We began in Delivery 1 with a vignette. A vignette of lingering kisses, stillness and soft murmurings, bountiful cushions on a big, round mahogany bed, privilege taken for granted, and lithe young minds congratulating each other on their own manifestations of abundance. A vignette delivered to us by a much older version of a young man…
Writing about Writer’s Block
There are times when I don’t feel like writing a weekly column. This is one of those times. So let’s talk about that. I’ve had a bunch of writing students over the years, and I’ve found that teaching writing makes me a better writer. For one thing, when you’re helping people out of their writer’s…
Not Just a Phase?
I’ve written about the first time I kissed a girl. I’ve written about how much it would have meant to me to have queer role models. And I’ve written about why it was really important for me to have access to queer books as a teenager. I’ve never really talked about the “not just a…
Thank you for your Support
Dear 2 Rules Readers, Friends, and Followers: As you know, we make a big deal about self-care here. It’s so important to our work as writers and teachers, but also to being ourselves, and being able to be the best versions of us that we can. And a number of weeks back, some things happened that…
Falling in Love with Long Reads Again
An uneventful day at the office. “Let’s go for lunch. I’ve got something for you,” said Wen, calling from her windowless cubicle to mine. “I double-subscribed it for twelve months,” she handed me a stack of The New Yorker, packed in clear plastic bags. “Hope you don’t mind – they’re all previous issues.” I clearly…
Neurodivergent Storytellers… Unite
When I write an essay about writing, I try to be transparent about the issues at stake. I am neurodivergent. And being neurodivergent leads to some difficulties, but also some opportunities that other writers might or might not have. But there are a lot of issues. Partly because I am a complex person and partly…
The Self-Care Collision
We talk a lot about self-care here. We’re all aware of how important it is, and as we’ve developed our policies and worked with writers, we’ve emphasized that every one of us needs to take the time for self-care. To set boundaries. To be honest about how they’re feeling. And perhaps most of all, to…
The Beauty of Rough Edges
Little Cat was rooting around in some old pile of things today, and what he found surprised him. Lately, Little Cat is used to being the co-star of a bunch of three-cell comics with thought bubbles and a little signature in the corner. But what he uncovered was something older. A series of one-cell memes…