Packet of Wildflower Seeds

Sharing my experience with mental illness has been, at times, quite scary. Sometimes I'm afraid of losing friends. I think people don't want to hear negativity, or I worry that they don't understand and won't want me around. This is perhaps ironic because I work even harder to show my friends how much I care about them. I've also worried that being honest about my condition could somehow lead to losing my job even though I know I work very hard. In some cases, I may work harder to prove myself because I'm always worried I'm not good enough. In any case, my fears have led me to withhold some information or stories in an effort to avoid judgment. I think I'm ready to share one of my biggest stories, however - one that only a few people know. More than ten years ago, I was in a pretty bad place. I was lonely and anxious and felt like I didn't have anyone I could consistently reach out to. In the midst of this, someone did something that hurt me trem...

The beginning of summer can be a difficult time for me. I look forward to warm weather, festivals, extra time with my kids, and a more relaxed atmosphere. It also comes with graduations and the discussion of students' choices of colleges and majors. Given my insecurities, it's hard not to look at what others are doing and wonder if I made the best decisions for myself. In my AP class this week, students were discussing which medical specialty they may want to pursue. There were only seven individuals in the room, but five of them were chatting about their plans for medical school. In my experience, when people find out about my education history, they can't understand why I would have abandoned physical therapy or optometry for a teaching career. Just the other day, though, an interesting memory returned to me. Within the first couple months of optometry school, I was restless. Unlike other students, I wasn't excited by the clinic rotations; I didn't care w...