I learn how to type on my dad’s work laptop, cluttering his hard drive with half-spun stories about fairies and playground adventures.
If a piece of art could describe this time, it’d be the book “Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type” by Doreen Cronin.
In fourth grade I win a nail-biting spelling bee with the word “nutrition,” a word which I’d read every morning on my cereal boxes for years in consulting the nutrition facts of each breakfast.
Bad Words, dir. by Jason Bateman
I publish my first two books, called “Luminous” and “Sports” through our middle school’s QUEST enrichment program. My family still keeps some copies lying around.
Fame, Lady Gaga
Skipping ahead many tumultuous pubescent years, I email a press release I wrote for a student council event to the local paper. The editor replies that she’s impressed by my professionalism and wants to offer me a freelance position on staff. Cue confetti canons. Over the next four years I continue freelancing, eventually representing the paper as a NYPA intern in at age 20 and generating a few articles a week the summer of 2017.
Spotlight, dir. by Tom McCarthy
My budding feminist values assert themselves in my college applications essay, where I write about gender inequality and women’s empowerment. I commit to Canisius College as a journalism major.
Woman, Kesha
As most folks do, I switch my major many times between psychology, education, journalism, English and Spanish. I decide on Spanish with a minor in Creative Writing. I receive a life-altering email which states that I’ve been awarded the Kopenski Scholarship for English excellence that will cover half my tuition bill. Celebratory dinner ensues.
On Top of the World, Imagine Dragons
I travel abroad to Argentina for 3 weeks to take a challenging course, in Spanish, on Argentine literature. I learn, no joke, one million new things in 21 days. (Snails come up after rain in Latin America instead of worms. I can trust myself to travel alone. Do not hang your dresses in a dewy window overnight.) Speaking Spanish becomes one of the great joys of my life.
Adan y Eva, Paulo Londra
I start writing for the school’s newspaper, The Griffin. I take a class on creative nonfiction and memoir and begin a passionate love affair with creative nonfiction, particularly features writing. I write two pieces that I still cherish- a profile on Santiago Masferrer, a Chilean prisoner of war who started a handcrafts store in Buffalo, and an immersive piece on the womxn of Buffalo’s Neoburlesque scene.
On Top of the World, Imagine Dragons
I finish a 75-page Honors thesis entitled “In the Eye of the Patriarchy:
An Exploration of the Origin and Effects of Women’s “Beauty Myth,” Yesterday and Today.” I argue that post-Industrial Revolution America’s commodification and objectification of women’s bodies is a culturally fabricated and frankly ridiculous phenomenon which draws women’s attention away from deeper social justice issues. I graduate with a 3.9 GPA, my family hosts a surprise drive-by graduation, and I receive my diploma in the mail on a drizzly Tuesday in June.
Try, Colbie Caillat
I’m the Marketing Coordinator for a small, women-lead spa in Clarence, The W Spa, where I coordinate our social media accounts and create all marketing content. I do yoga, read a ton, spend time with my family. I’m looking for a full-time copywriting or content creation position in Buffalo with a team of dynamic and vibrant milennials/zoomers and an awesome company culture.
You Do You, Jason Mraz feat. Tiffany Haddish
Sign up to get weekly emails straight to your inbox about digital minimalism, purpose, intention, habits, productivity, and similar badass topics- and you'll get this bitchin' 12-page Digital Minimalism Quickstart Guide in return.
Spam sucks and your inbox is sacred so here's my promise to you- you'll receive an email once a week with the latest blog and that's about it. If I plan to increase that frequency you'll know ASAP. I'll never sell your email because that's lame.