From boob jobs and going gray to autism and the human mind, here’s a bit of stuff About Me
This being the second time I write about me specifically, I won’t start with my life story, though you’ll learn about that here too.
Instead, I’ll direct you to one of my most personal Medium stories, which also happens to be the one that has earned me the most reads, views, fans and claps over my one year and five months on this platform:
As it happens, my boobs are not my main writing theme, though this other story on the topic of vanity also reveals much about my “roots” and hit a nerve with many readers:
What I do…
Ideas on the running-writing connection, goal-setting, and doing your best
I started to write three essays in my head during a run the other day. One was about cheating in college, another on everything I love about my mom, and a third on why running makes me a better writer.
I’ve already published the first and have a solid draft of the second. As to the third essay, you’ve just read the first 63 words of it. They’re finally making their way out of the space between my ears, where they’d been left to dissolve over time. …
It’s a heck of a journey, this special needs parenting thing
Hi nation!
My son Diego says the craziest things. Here are some ways he confused me and made me laugh and ponder during a recent trip to Wyoming:
I Want to Get Better at Everything
And, with Mother’s Day coming up in a week, here’s a love letter to a Mother of a child with special needs:
You’ve Been a Good Mom and I Have Proof
Thanks so very very much for clicking, reading, forwarding, commenting or clapping. You have made my day.
Daniella
Understanding what it means to be wrong
I recently finished a book that blew me away, and that I wish everyone would read: Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, by journalist Kathryn Schulz.
What’s so exciting and mind-blowing about Being Wrong, both the book and the condition? Simply put, the fact that erring is not only human (as everyone knows), but also makes us better humans. The following takeaways explain how. (Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from Being Wrong.)
Why We’re Prone to Error
1. The feeling of “knowing” is powerfully seductive
“It fills us with the conviction of rightness whether we’re right or not.”
We just love the feeling of being right. We don't flatly say…
Not today at least.
A person I love very much (infinitely, you could say) is going through a moment of existential dread. Yeah, I know, it happens to everyone, and sometimes we think we know what the person should do to get over it. But when it’s happening to someone you love deeply, it’s hard to know what to say or do to help.
Driving to work one day this week, it suddenly hit me: a moment of elation that I wanted to transmit to my loved one. Wouldn’t it be great if we could communicate a sensation directly?
Here’s the best I can…
How come higher education leaders are not doing more to prevent and punish contract cheating?
Yesterday, I heard a parent say her son, who’s about to graduate from college this spring, had done pretty well in college, and that he’d cheated “a little bit.”
By “a little bit,” she meant her son had paid people to do assignments for him. I knew this sort of thing happened. I’d just never heard anyone say her own son had done it, much less say it in such a resigned way. Sure, this parent didn’t like it, yet she accepted it, and, in a way excused it. …
For those who have unhealthily shifted too much of their sleeping and reading time to writing
Where to carve out time for writing when essential activities take precedence and consume over 14 hours of your day? By “essential” I mean my 9-hour a day job (which pays the bills), showering, spending time with my husband and sons (just enough so they don’t feel downright neglected), visiting my mom, and shopping for groceries, just to name some.
I don’t know about you, but I steal time for writing from the nonessential, including my reading, sleeping, exercising, TV watching, cooking, MasterClass taking, and podcast listening time. My reading and sleeping blocks have suffered the most.
At first, I…
Wise words from my autistic son
Three years ago, we bid on a trip to South Africa at a fundraiser for Abilis, the agency that assists Diego, our 27-year-old autistic son. Since the deadline to use the trip voucher was about to expire and South Africa was no longer on the table (you know, COVID), the travel company offered us various trips in the US and we selected the one to Teton Village, Wyoming, right by Grand Teton National Park and an hour drive from Yellowstone.
So, though our travel package no longer included an African safari and seeing all the animals Diego’s obsessed with, we…
And other memorable moments (so far) from a trip with my autistic son
Diego, my 27-year-old autistic son, has posture issues. He tends to look down, which compounds the problem. So on our long hike yesterday, my husband (Cesar) kept trying to find ways to motivate him to lift his head and look up.
“What’s that over there?” he’d say, pointing at something in the distance. Other times, he’d remind Diego to be on the look out for wild animals, which our son loves to “summon,” just like Aquaman, his favorite Superhero, summons sea creatures. Cesar would wonder out loud: “Where are all the animals?”, “Where did the animals go?” …
Redshirting, state guidelines, and equity
Do you believe starting kindergarten as one of the oldest in the class confers children an advantage?
Otherwise put, do you feel your child would be at a disadvantage if she was among the youngest students in her kindergarten class?
Many parents have strong opinions about this, largely based on very small samples that include their own children, and their relatives’ or friends' children.
These examples are meaningless in that no general conclusion can be drawn from such small numbers or without controlling for other variables that might have affected the outcomes — or our views on such outcomes.
Let’s…
