"Friend me." "Like my status." "Write on my wall." I'd be willing to bet that most of you reading this article are more than a little familiar with those phrases. Since about 2005, I've been hearing them with more and more regularity from a wider variety of sources. In the morning, I check Facebook and email before I even get out of bed. We live in a world of hyper communication where you can make your thoughts known to as many friends as you can add before you've even had breakfast. The question is, is anyone really listening? And just what are we putting out there? Although I may not …
My fondest memory of Physical Education (PE) involves dodging flying red rubber balls. And even then, some of them inevitably whacked me on the head (probably knocking out any other memories of that class). My point is, I was not a fan. I spent my first year of high school in Ohio where we were required to take at least one year of PE. I decided to get it out of the way as a freshman, but then we moved to a country where I had to take it there, too. That's just how my luck runs, I suppose. So why the ruminations on the finer points of my time in gym class? At the moment, there is …
Even though I'm no longer a student, my morning routine is still much the same (although it takes place several hours, okay many hours, earlier). I slap the snooze button a few times, complain and whine to no one in particular (cats, husband, whoever has ears is subject to my morning grumpiness) about being up too early as I shuffle to the shower, spend far too long examining my closet and then have to rush to gather my things and get out of the house by 7 a.m. I'm not saying I'm proud of this routine. Just that it hasn't changed much in the last few years. Or decades. Sorry, Mom! Because…
In the last year, it seems like there has been a lot of talk about what makes a great instructor, a great student, a great school. Or maybe that’s just because after being a teacher, I actually pay attention to education news. Whatever the cause, I have noticed quite a few articles about what’s going on in the public school system. I even contributed a few here at Patch on FCPS’s plans to deal with overcrowding. The fact is that schools are growing by thousands of students. There is not enough money to update the buildings, keep up with technology or add more teachers to deal with the …
After three weeks at a new job, I can tell you one thing I'm sick of: brake lights. Last year, I lived about two miles away from the school where I taught. Sure, the drive still took about 20 minutes, but that was easily attributed to the 11 stoplights between my residence and my school. When I started job-hunting this year, I scoffed at the idea of needing to look close to home. How hard could it be to drive 10-15 miles twice a day? Well, my friends, I understand all of your mocking and laughter now. My drive to work takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, and the truly frustrating thing …
When she was 8 years old, my sister made a list of the ways she could get into Harvard University. Become an oboe player, excel at crew, write fascinating and witty stories that would attract the attention of the Crimson, do scientific research and get published are just some of the items on her list. In addition to the perfect SAT score and a 4.0 GPA, of course. I have never been quite as ambitious as my sister; the college admissions panic didn't hit me until I started high school. All of the sudden, I was being signed up for the PSAT and prep courses for the ACT. I started learning …
I was not the most popular kid in high school. Actually, saying I was popular at all would be an overstatement (and by that I mean a big fat lie). I was that girl who hung out in the economics classroom during break and ate lunch with the history teacher. In my case, it wasn’t because my classmates were mean to me or ostracized me in any way. I just didn’t try hard enough. When you don’t always respond favorably, eventually the invitations to go away and you are left discussing Stalin’s Russia over PB&J sandwiches. This didn’t really upset me at the time (I was upset about so many other …
The first time I got an electric bill, it was a rude awakening. Previously, I had always taken my time (read: many, many hours) on the computer for granted. Then the nice folks over at wherever that bill came from laid out exactly how much each of those hours cost me, and I nearly had a heart attack. I promptly shut down the computer (and the TV, and all the lights…it was a dark 2 minutes before I came to my senses). This was only the first of many shocks I received as I began my adult life. My water bill was also a revelation—and the end of 45-minute showers. My parents attempted to …
Snowpocalypse. If you were living in Chantilly (or really anywhere in the DC metro area) last winter, you're familiar with the fluffy white stuff. It looks so lovely and when it sticks it can make even the ugliest location a winter wonderland. Who among us has not experienced the wonder of standing out in the first snow of the season, waiting to catch flakes on our tongues? One of my best memories from my childhood is building a snow dog (because a snow man is just too common). Yet only a year ago, this beautiful frosting of white shut down businesses and schools, caused many homes to lose …
The SAT. No other three letters can conjure such loathing (unless you're an adult—then IRS might do it). From the day you enter the ninth grade, or perhaps even before then, you can expect to hear those letters regularly for the next four years. The perfect score is the Holy Grail of high school. You're taught that if you practice long enough, work hard enough, it might be within your grasp—and with it, the top tier of elite colleges. There is even an entire movie devoted to the idea that doing well on the SAT can help counteract less-than-stellar grades. However, sometimes the opposite …
My husband has a bone to pick with me. Since November, I've been playing Christmas music nonstop. I watch ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas marathon every evening. I bake gingerbread and sugar cookies, burn candles that claim to smell like pine and mistletoe (who knew mistletoe even had a scent?) and whenever I'm sitting at my computer working, you can bet I'm humming along with my Christmas Classics playlist. I have replayed the scene in Elf about 30 times where Zooey and Will belt out "Baby It's Cold Outside" (while joining in of course—Christmas music brings out my inner diva). Husband…
Every Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in my house there is a set of rules to be followed. No phone calls. No questions about my day or what's for dinner. My husband is relegated to the study if he cannot keep his mouth closed. Basically, it all comes down to one specific directive: no interruptions. You will find me on my blue couch in my cozy family room with a glass of wine and the TV turned to FOX. The DVR is set to start recording at 7:55 p.m. lest I miss one precious note of an opening tune. That's right. This 20-something is addicted to "Glee," a depiction in song, dance, and oh-so-much …
In college, I stopped regularly attending my statistics class about halfway through the semester. I had the best intentions in the beginning—I would go to class armed with my laptop for note-taking, a notebook and pencil for calculations, and a caffeinated beverage to keep me awake for both activities. After about a month, even Starbucks' best offering and my professor's lovely Italian accent could not keep me focused on MatLab or ANOVAs. This reckless attitude towards my education is embarrassing to admit today, especially since I spent the last year as an elementary school teacher here …
