Volunteer Explorer

I’ve been in this apartment for almost a year now. I’ve had a lot of firsts here: the first utilities in my name, my first renter’s insurance policy, the first new mattress I’ve ever owned alone, my first time hanging artwork on the walls without input from anyone else. And that’s on top of my first birthday, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween and Thanksgiving in this apartment. I thought maybe all my firsts were done, but then my mom brought a big cardboard box and a large plastic container tied with string to Thanksgiving dinner at my brother’s house. I had almost forgotten about those. It’s the first time I’ve decorated this apartment for Christmas. I’m not a huge advocate of Christmas. I don’t mind the holiday, but I do detest the over-commercialization of it, the emphasis on consumerism, the six solid weeks of aggressive advertisements and repetitive music. What I love about this time of year is the feeling of magic. For me, that feeling comes from pretty lights an...

I have such abundance in my life. One thing I am especially grateful for is the multitude of awesome women around me. This weekend, I reconnected with three excellent friends from grad school, and our non-stop conversation and laughter was like a balm. We talked about a lot of things on our road trip and during short Uber rides in Pittsburgh and at bars and walking down sidewalks and on the sofa and at the table. My favorite part was when our conversation turned to the idea of the four of us starting a business together. This was not pie-in-the-sky daydream talk, but realistic comparisons between our ideas and other start-ups, and meaningful explorations of how we could do it. It was exhilarating. I felt the way I used to in grad school: like I was surrounded by some of the smartest people ever discussing the most important topics ever. So much of my time and energy this past year has been focused on men. Whether it’s my soon-to-be-ex-husband, one of the guys I’m dating, or on...

It seems like the universe is pushing me in a particular direction. I say this with full acknowledgement that I have admonished others for personifying this cold, lifeless universe. I appreciate the irony. Still, though, the whole ‘one door closes and a window opens’ metaphor is rather apt right now. Another apt analogy is ‘leap and the net will appear.’ I hate both of these clichés so much that it pains me to acknowledge that they might actually have substance. Not so long ago, yet in that period of languid summery heat that feels like a lifetime ago, an acquaintance made the distinction between ‘having a job’ and ‘generating income.’ I was dazzled by this acquaintance for reasons outside of his business philosophy, but our short-lived liaison has left little more than this residue on me. I, too, want to generate income without the constraints of ‘having a job.’ Thus my decision to leap into the vast and uncertain world of freelance work. To that end, I gave notice in...

When I conduct interviews, one of my favorite questions to ask is, “If you were a superhero, what would your super power be?” Most people want to fly or be invisible or time travel. I would choose the ability to speak any language fluently upon hearing just a bit of it. If that plug-in gadget from The Matrix was a real thing, I would upload so many languages that I’m sure I’d crash my system or have to start forgetting childhood memories or something.   Last week I attended a meet-up at my local coffee shop for Francophiles. It’s called “Café Français.” We were about seven people covering a wide age range, all attempting to carry on small talk about ourselves, the weather, politics in our somewhat rusty French. It’s been probably three years since I seriously tried to have a conversation in French. I still think in French sometimes; I count reps when I work out in les chiffres fran çais . This weekend while I was running at the park, I found myself working through some voc...