I thought being engaged would be really romantic. Sure, there are plans to arrange, decisions to be made, but I thought that mostly, it would just feel like a fairytale. Then, I got engaged. Before my fiancé proposed, I spent weeks and months — honestly, years — picturing how it…

The start of a new year always feels significant. January 1st rolls around and suddenly people feel a deeper sense of agency in how they live their lives. …

Saying “thank you” is something we all learned as babies. One of the first phrases we memorized long before we could even pronounce it correctly. Like parrots, we were trained by our parents and teachers to spit out those words any time something was given to us. …

I spent a lot of time during my senior year of college interviewing for jobs. Sometimes, I’d apply for a position simply because I fit the prerequisites. Sometimes for more meaningful reasons. …

Adults have been telling us for years — “the world is your oyster!”. They get very excited to say this to young people, like it’s some precious gift or prophecy. I’ve been hearing it since before I knew what an oyster was, and after I grew too cynical to believe…