“She has a skin like me” - these were the words of my three-year-old niece as she described a friend she made at her new school. Children her age make friends quite quickly but for some reason, she was overjoyed about this one.Her statement got me thinking a lot about how much impact inclusion…
"If I had the necessary requirements to carry and birth children myself, I would have probably done that too" - Mike said. This was over three years ago during an interview for my thesis on gender roles. But those words still live rent-free in my mind. This month, my family marked 12 years of my dad's…
“Now, it’s my turn to tell you stories,” Molly said as she settled into the empty train seat beside me. For over an hour, the seat was occupied by Fred, a tourist who shared more information about Dresden with me than I’ve learned in over three years of living there. “Fred tells me you’ve…
I once worked on a project that needed major inputs from many department heads within the company. Contributing to and reviewing the project would take several hours of their time. Time they needed to do their real job. I explained how important the project was for marketing and how it was impossible for me…
“The checkout operator at Zara had such beautiful hair!” I said in a conversation with my husband after my day-long shopping on Black Friday. “Her hair was so long and full, I couldn’t stop staring at it.” I continued. “That’s nice” he responded. “Did you tell her?” he proceeded to ask. “Tell her what?”…
I recently read “Deep Work” by Cal Newport. Although the message of the book was clear and actionable, I struggled to get past certain pages. I spent weeks avoiding the “quit social media” chapter because frankly, I believed that was an unnecessary piece of advice. Thousands of people make a living from social media…
I found myself in what seemed to be an empty room. There was a small bed on which I sat but nothing else besides the really high walls stood out to me. I should have been trying to figure out where I was, but my mind was consumed with intense anger and frustration and…
“So, how are you doing?” - he asked at the beginning of our thirty-minute video call. “All good here!” I responded. “The sun is out today and I can’t wait to take a walk” - I continued, in an attempt to prolong the small talk and get a bit more comfortable. “Oh, that’s nice.…
Tam's Story: Sometime last year, someone snuck into the compound I live in. I live in a relatively safe area and I’ve lived there all my life with nothing to be worried about with respect to safety. One night, after I had gotten back from work, I was doing some work in my room…
“If we hadn’t performed the surgery so quickly, you would have probably died” - the doctor said to me as I laid numb in the intensive care unit of a hospital I couldn’t remember visiting. I had arrived in an ambulance, completely unconscious. “Please call my husband and tell him I’m okay” - I…
