Category Archives: Personal experience

Telephonophobia

I dread making phone calls. I don’t know why. But of all the tasks I put off, making phone calls is definitely the most common one. I used to enjoy talking on the phone. For example, I gabbed to Greg … Continue reading

Posted in Essay, Personal experience | Tagged | 2 Comments

The Pivot

2014 was a momentous year for me, though not in a happy way. In May, 2014, I resigned from my second teaching career, which had given me joy and purpose for the first five years, and frustration and stress for … Continue reading

Posted in failure, Personal experience | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The House o’ Nuts

(Note: this is not my family’s home movie, although my brother is in possession of the footage my father took, possibly on our second trip to Florida; I don’t remember. Anyhow, this does capture something of the feel of the … Continue reading

Posted in Family Stories, Personal experience | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Miss Goody-Two-Shoes No More

For most of my life, whenever I remembered my childhood, especially my elementary school years, I remembered myself as angelically abiding by the rules. But now that I’m well into the last decades of my life, long-forgotten incidents are emerging … Continue reading

Posted in Memoir, Personal experience | 2 Comments

My Biggest Regret

Sometime in 1978, my mother-in-law (whom I called Mom), a pack-a-day smoker for more than 40 years, discovered she had lung cancer. Whenever we asked her about her prognosis, she said, “I have to see the doctor again in two weeks.” … Continue reading

Posted in Personal experience, Regrets | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lost Memories

Surprise—my memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be. I feel like all my storage capacity has been filled, and it takes longer and longer to access my data, like an old worn out computer. When I was a … Continue reading

Posted in Personal experience | Tagged , | 1 Comment