Dividing Lines
It must explain everything or it explains nothing.
Katie is a doctoral student in English and education at the University of Michigan. She loves the New York Times crossword puzzle, advice columns, oceans, and dogs of all kinds.
Dorothy and Me
Was she ever deterred?
The Not-So-Great Outdoorswoman
I dislike going down hills (it’s too fast) and up them (it’s too hard), and also, biking makes my butt hurt.
What’s At Stake
I wish I could care less—it feels like a luxury.
5 Mantras and 2 Gifs for Managing Perfectionism
You are not helping by pretending you can do it if you can’t, Katie.
Do We Change?
“That’s who you’ve always been. You were always into that stuff.”
Leave Women Alone: Some Opinions on Pregnancy
If you’re really interested in other people having babies, you could channel your energies into advocating for affordable childcare.
Today is Christmas, and We Are Tired
I don’t have Christmas cheer to offer.
Fantastical, Flammable Gas
Like everything magical, though, the airship project was riddled with realities.
The Peace of Christ Be with Me
But writing about my anger also moved me to remember that there are no clean lines to be drawn here between villains and heroes.
Does It Matter?
Does it matter that this particular person voting for a corrupt, anti-democratic, avowedly racist and misogynist leader is also a “prayer warrior” and a “champion of the faith”?
I Think About This Once a Week
On good days, I think about John and that chalkboard and the dog under the lectern and I remember the joy of learning new things and the inexhaustible opportunities the world presents for just that.
There Is No Safety
The very hard thing I am learning right now—about race, and about myself—is that the rules I have been living by are not very good ones.
Ten Astonishing Books by Black Writers
This is not an anti-racist reading list, per se.
Curiosity and Moral Courage, or, a Commencement Address for Uncertain Times
Moral courage and curiosity means listening to yourself: where did this idea come from? Why am I moved to defend it?
My Best Friend Lives in New York
But I will say that—for me—being confined to my home has sometimes felt liberating in a small and quiet way.
“Trying Experience,” 6 Letters –
It’s tempting, as the writer, to make a trite connection here to challenges I have previously risen to (a potentially boring speech about crossword puzzles).
Seeing Red
I feel like I was sold a story of America, and a story of my people and who we were, and it turns out that it was mostly a lie,
Prayers of the People
Each week during the prayers of the people I make a mental inventory: do I know anyone who is ill? Anyone who is grieving? Anyone job-searching, traveling, celebrating?
Holiday Fluff
It’s hardly the holidays without it.
Morning Poems
I was tired. I was also tired of myself. So I started class with a poem.
W is for Work
But I am not paid for caring about my job.
My Best Advice
I spend a fair bit of time with first year college students. I am sometimes envious of them.
Blessed Because
I suspect that we sometimes use the language of blessing as a neat way to sidestep the questions those things raise.
Nothing But Cheese
We got a dog.
Behold, I am an American
Perhaps it was outside of Ottawa, where yet another AirBNB featured a drip coffee maker but no filters or beans.
What’s Coming
Why would I give up my dog?
Katie and Brenna’s Not-So-Definitive, Entirely Anecdotal Guide to Online Dating
It is so hard, in the midst of it, to see online dating as anything other than a means to an end—but it became much more palatable for me once I began to understand it as a life stage in its own right.
On Having “Guy Friends”
It’s unclear to me, still, how much of this was based in an adolescent desire for male approval.
Putting My Underwear on Backwards
Perhaps my first mistake was expecting that I would ever entirely grow out of it.
