L is For Lacie

Recently, a friend sent me a text message that read "I've just accepted I won't be as prepared for class tomorrow and going to bed. I'm prioritizing my health over my academics." And I was shocked. You're putting the needs of your body over being prepared for class?? What!? That is not what we do. We must work first and be healthy second. But then, I realized how ridiculous that sounded. Do you realize that as a whole group we think that we should study instead of sleep, exercise or eat? I can't tell you the number of conversations I've had that revolve around people putting their health at risk simply because we have school to do? And we start this young! On average an elementary student is given 15 minutes to eat lunch; but 20-40 minutes a day on standardized test prep.  When budget cuts come around we cut PE first; the only time of the day we teach tiny humans to be active. We consistently, from age 5, tell students that their school work i...

This is my family. My people. My support system. My friends. My everything. And lately, I have been missing the crap out of them.  When you get ready to go to college, and you will not be driving distance from your family, you assume that you will miss them. You assume that you will miss your high school friends. You assume you will miss your favorite restaurant in your home town. But no one ever told you that things will never be the same again. You will never return home to the same family dynamic. You never get to be a child again. Your friendships will never be the same. You will never again be in a place where everyone you love is close to you.  But they also don't tell you how these new relationships, these new dynamics, will be so great. How now that you're an adult, you will get to have adult relationships with your parents. How your phone calls with your mom will become phone calls with your best friend. How much you'll miss your dad when your ...

"What I'm saying is--and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form--is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way."-Harry from "When Harry Met Sally" Growing up, I heard Harry say this, and I just kind of accepted it. After all, when had I ever seen anything different? I was probably about 13 and in that awkward middle school age; where no one had friends of the opposite sex. In fact; I was pretty sure all boys had cooties (except maybe Zack Efron and Taylor Lautner but they were men...). I had no interest in talking to them; even platonically, and neither did my friends. I certainly didn't have any fictional examples to prove Harry wrong, Chandler and Monica got married; George and Izzy slept together (even after George was married); Spongebob and Patrick were dating (yeah, even non-traditional relationships didn't work); Lorelai screwed up every relationship she had because of Luke...The list ...