What I Learned When I Lost It on a Mountain Bike Bicycling, Fall 2024
Fear isn’t the enemy with this sport; it’s the beacon. Even though I’ll never attempt feats like the pros or even moderately dangerous things like my husband does, at the bike farm, I’ve come closer to finding the fun in fear.
These Journalism Grads Chose Freelance Over Full-Time Work. Here’s Why Poynter, January 7, 2022
But there appears to be a disconnect between what some of us are teaching students about entrepreneurship and what they want to learn. While gearing instruction to help the industry innovate is important, students want the practical skills necessary to start their own freelancing businesses on their own terms.
From Mom Bike to Road Bike Your Teen, September 3, 2020
As a teenager, my mountain bike was how I explored the world outside the one created by my parents. As a young mother, the mom bike allowed me some mental freedom from my responsibilities without having to leave my daughter. In these times of forced social distancing, the road bike helps me find joy in a solitude I choose. I don’t feel at all like a mom on it. I could be 16 or 31 or 50. The wind feels the same.
The BTS Effect: Making Peace with my Teenager through K-pop The Washington Post, January 28, 2020
My daughter may not want me in her room anymore, but at least she’s sharing this part of her life with me. When BTS is playing, no one is fighting. She enjoys switching roles, being the enlightened one, helping me expand my cultural knowledge and vocabulary.
A Girl’s Youngstown, Voices of the Rust Belt, Picador, 2018
I used to be afraid of the mills, or what was left of them in the late 1970s. Although I grew up in Boardman, my family often went to visit my grandparents on the east side. As soon as we got to the Market Street bridge, my sister and I would hit the floor of our mother’s white Oldsmobile, clasping our hands over our noses and mouths. We would hold our breath until our lungs burned, until the structures we passed turned from smokestacks to skyscrapers.
stu_spivack, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More Essays and Articles
Making a Difference, Cleveland Magazine, November 2022
Praise for the Theaters (and Fields and Studios and Dojos) That Give Our Children a Second Home, The Washington Post, August 20, 2018
What Happened When I Let My Daughter Cross the Finish Line Alone, The Washington Post, July 31, 2017
Essay for Parents.com, 2014
Trail Fix, Cleveland Magazine, January 2014
A Comforting Kind of Shame, Rust Belt Chic (Belt Publishing, 2012)
Why Isn’t One Baby Enough?, Mamazine, June 8, 2008
City Life, Interrupted, River Teeth, June 2007