I’ve been thinking a little bit obsessively about my last post, wondering if it’s weird to be thinking so much about something I wrote. But it really bothers me that I came off sounding like I care so much about salary and prestige. That is definitely not how I started out as a young person. […]
Author: elisabethel
impacts
I heard a piece on the radio yesterday about how experiencing depression as a young adult can have a profound impact on a person’s career outcomes. The story, on NPR’s Marketplace, talks about how the National Institutes of Health estimate that there are 58 million of us in the United States who experience some form […]
transitions
One of the wonderful things about raising exceptional children is that you don’t know what sorts of challenges you’re going to face until you come right up to them. I read somewhere when Martin was very young that there’s no use planning for your child’s future more than six months in advance, because the entire […]
The Holiday Letter
the letter that I can’t send
truths
Well, a long hiatus there while I was pondering the idea that I should change the name on my blog. My boyfriend had feelings about it, and I spent the last four months honoring those feelings, but, in the end, it’s my name to choose. I was going to write, “we’re not even married,” which […]
writing about mental illness
I’ve been participating in NaNoWriMo all through November; for those of you who might not have run across this thing, that’s National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to try to write 50,000 words in a month, or roughly 1,667 words per day. I had a very specific goal in mind, which ran a […]
San Francisco on Black Friday
I didn’t mean to go shopping on Friday; I had thought that I might go out and get a few fresh vegetables, but my main plans were to write for a few hours and then to do a bunch of cleaning. Between work and writing and the basic rounds of parenting, including Martin’s visits to […]
how to write your christmas letter
With Thanksgiving rushing down upon us, it’s time to fire up the computer, drag out the camera and get everyone dressed up for the photo to go with the holiday letter for friends and family. The imagery around the idea sounds stale, and I think the last time I sat for one of those photos […]
it starts at home
I’ve been reading yet another story about some women finally speaking out about their sexual harassment and abuse. It seems to be a moment when we all feel empowered to speak about our experiences without worrying about the repercussions quite so much. The focus, however, is on famous men who have taken advantage of their […]
happy holidays
We’re coming up on the holidays now, and I’ve been reading in a number of blogs that people are already feeling some trepidation and making plans not to have the awful times they’ve experienced in the past. I’ve had really good holidays and really, really bad ones, both due to my own mental health issues […]