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On Rest

This school year has been, for lack of a better word, intense. We are obviously back into the swing of things from an instructional and extra-curricular perspective, but the transtion from full-blown Covid teaching to something that feels more ‘normal’ has been a lot. I’m not new at this but it felt like the most difficult start to a year I’d ever had. Then one of my students died. I’ve never…

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On Faith

For as long as I can remember I’ve had a complicated relationship with the notion of faith. I wasn’t raised in a religious household and have continued to live a non-religious life through adulthood. When I was in university, l was in a relationship with someone whose family was religious. It didn’t really affect anything until a weekend visiting family out of town. At church before we left…

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On Small Things

On Small Things: It's been a long year.

It’s been a long year. We’re now over a year into the pandemic restrictions, and while there’s hope on the horizon it’s still quite clear that this isn’t over just yet. I’ve written before about how I feel about work, about being alone, about the passage of time, about connections. Writing has always been a release for me but I’ve found that lately I’m struggling to find the headspace to write,…

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On Love, and Connections

Over the last 9 months I’ve spent a lot of time alone.

It’s never really been a problem for me to be alone, as most of the things I enjoy don’t require other people to be around. I like to read, write, take photos, bake–all things that I can do quite happily in solitude.

But as the months wear on I’m starting to realize that the reason I was pretty okay with being alone is that I had the…

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Thoughts on a Sunday

I just spent some time in France with my dad, and we traveled around the Normandy coast and saw a bunch of monuments and memorials to the soldiers, airmen, seamen and special forces who died in the liberation of France in 1944. We also traveled into Belgium and saw cemeteries from the Great War, where men were sent like lambs or the slaughter to protect the democratic ideals we hold so dear. It…

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230 Days

New Post: 230 Days

It’s been 230 days since things have felt anything close to normal.

Regular classes were cancelled on March 15, and the following months were a huge adjustment for me and for everyone. I got into a rhythm, and really felt like I was doing okay. I’d see my students regularly, and I spent a lot of time at my mom & dad’s house, reading in their backyard and having dinner with them on a pretty…

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Two Months In...

Two Months In…

I’ve been back at work for 2 months, and things are both exactly as I remembered and nothing like what I’d expected. I’ve already written about some of the things I was worried about with respect to this school year, and I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how frustrating everything is, but I don’t think I’ve been able to adequately articulate how I really feel.

I hate this.

Intellectua…

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The Space Between

New Post: The Space Between

I go back to work tomorrow. I’ll be back in the building full time for the first time since March, and I’m feeling all kinds of ways about it.

Since the government informed us that we’d be teaching in-person in near-normal circumstances, I’ve had a really hard time wrapping my mind around what that might look like.

I finally went in the other day to clean up some stuff that I’d left out…

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Back to School: I’m Already Exhausted

As we all know, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and nothing is the way it should be, save for one inalienable truth: In three weeks, I’ll be back to work full time.

I haven’t been in my school regularly since March 13, before in-person classes were cancelled due to COVID-19. I went in periodically from April to June, but I did the bulk of my teaching and other work from my home office.

I…

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On Toxicity

By now you’ve probably seen Gillette’s short film about men being the best they can be. If not, here it is.

It’s a good ad, one that hits the right notes about an issue that has become fairly significant in the media, and will continue to be relevant until it doesn’t need to be.

See, here’s the thing: the ad isn’t…

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On Feeling

Sometimes, when I’m very tired, I feel like I’m going to cry at the drop of a hat. Every emotion I have manifests in tears, and I can’t really control my reactions to anything without risking becoming an absolute blubbering mess in front of anyone and everyone.

This week has been one of those weeks.

I’ve always thrown myself into my work, and this year is no different. I’m coaching swimming…

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F U C K

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« You alright ? - Yeah »

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You're stranded on a deserted island with the person on your lockscreen. How screwed are you?

[over-themountains]

once the edmonton oilers learn to score powerplay goals, kill penalties at home, score on other teams’ backups, win coaches challenges, actually score on the empty net, stop letting their goaltender out to dry, play a full 60 minutes of consistent hockey, and bury connor mcdavid’s multiple gift passes, it’s O V E R for you hoes !

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On Talking, and Listening

Today is Bell Let’s Talk day, where Bell Canada has agreed to donate 5 cents from every call or text on their network, plus every Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter post featuring their hashtag. Over the years, they’ve donated more than $86 million to mental health initiatives in Canada, and have provided support to mental health organizations across the country. It’s not perfect but it’s…

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