I got a lot of good advice while I was a post-bacc student. Some of it took a while to settle in, either because I needed to overcome some initial resistance in order to see its truth, or because I couldn’t grasp what had been offered without hindsight to help me. Some if it hit me immediately and changed how I saw things. An example of the latter is something my friend Erin said to me one day over coffee. I’d just wrapped…

In the last few months, I’ve been reminded of why we use expressions like “heartache” or “broken heart.” It’s something you forget once your heart has been patched up and healed from whatever its last injury was, but the loss of love can be physically painful. It’s a heaviness, an ache in the chest. We read and hear about this all the time, but somehow it’s always surprising to experience it firsthand. I was thinking about this when I read Brian Doyle’s 2004 essay on the capacity…

Good morning, all, and happy Saturday to you. After what feels like a really long week, I’m happy to enjoying a morning at home, catching up on articles and recipes, even if I’ll soon be cracking the books open to prepare for my final exams. I’ve got my human development exam on Tuesday, which is actually fun to prepare for, as this particular chunk of material is fascinating to me. It includes adolescent nutrient needs and deficiencies, inborn errors of metabolism, food allergies…

Happy Sunday, everyone. When this post goes up I’ll likely be at, or soon on my way to, the wedding of a good friend in Albuquerque, NM. It’s a really quick trip for us–there and back in two days–but I’m so glad that I can be there to help my friend celebrate her marriage. There are some nerves, too. This summer I’ve indulged my introvert tendencies quite a bit more than usual. This is one of my responses to depression and anxiety, and…