“If you do one thing for others this holiday, just lead with grace and try your best not to add unnecessary stress on someone else’s plate.”
- Love What Matters
- Trauma & Healing
“If you do one thing for others this holiday, just lead with grace and try your best not to add unnecessary stress on someone else’s plate.”
“We all fall on hard times but there’s always hope, sometimes all you need is a little love and support.”
“‘I told him to stop! He pushed him again. So I punched him, hard.’ It is my job as his parent not to stomp out his fire, but to teach him to use it for good.”
“I tried to make a big deal out of Christmas in a very middle-American-ignorant-white-girl kind of way. ‘Let’s decorate the tree! Let’s make Christmas cookies! Kids need presents!’ To my WASPY surprise, this wasn’t well received. Confused, I asked him about it. ‘Is this another one of my white girl questions you guys tease me about?’”
“Someone judged me for not being at the same job for years like they have been. Another judged me for not getting a 4-year degree when I was supposed to, before 25. I’ve been judged for being overweight. They made me feel so pathetic that I couldn’t find one reason to like myself. I didn’t meet that person’s standards, let alone the world’s standards.”
“Walking in the courtroom, there were 12 other families waiting with the same excitement. Some with matching shirts, letterboards, signs, all to commemorate their special day. The judge, dressed as Woody from Toy Story, walks in to officially kick off the festivities. ‘You understand this is a permanent proceeding. He would be yours as if he were born to you?,’ he asked. I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.”
“John was my Uber driver to the airport yesterday. ‘My daughter died unexpectedly. She left behind a 4-year-old son,’ he said. ‘You remind me of her. You share the same kind heart.’ He couldn’t resuscitate her. He tried to breathe life into his daughter’s lifeless body, but he found her far too late. My heart melted into my stomach. We talked like we’d known each other our whole lives on our 25-minute drive.”
“We’ve gotten: ‘Why didn’t you adopt a black child when so many black children need good homes?’ ‘You stole that baby!’ ‘Why didn’t you let that baby stay with his kind?’ Not once in my mind or in my heart did I feel as if Princeton didn’t belong to me.”
“‘Oh God no. Please no…’ I whispered that night, my legs numb from sitting motionless. I stared straight into the eyes of the young doctor, trying to digest the news I’d just heard. Brain cancer. Earlier that evening, within 5 seconds of pulling into the driveway, I received a frantic call from my husband. ‘No, no, no,’ the only coherent thought I was able to form.”
“Sometimes, my husband goes to bed before me. He turns off the big lights, and then turns on a lamp for me. It should be literally no big deal, right? Just a nice thing for him to do on his way to bed, in all reality. It has always annoyed me to my absolute core.”