SUM(July2013:July2020)
When I got lonely, I would express that feeling by writing about geography, current events, and my personal life, outlining the ways those forces contributed to that loneliness.
Mary Margaret is a 2013 English, history, and secondary education grad who went rogue and became a Social Worker in Pennsylvania’s Child Welfare system. Specifically, she works as a caseworker in the Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network finding families for children and educating the masses about foster care, adoption, and permanency planning. She made it over the grad-school hurdle with gold stars and warm fuzzies and is on to the next big adventure: the unknown of adulthood. Her major writing dream right now is to finish her science fiction novel that explores the concurrent futures of child welfare and artificial intelligence.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jul 19, 2020 | 4 comments
When I got lonely, I would express that feeling by writing about geography, current events, and my personal life, outlining the ways those forces contributed to that loneliness.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jun 19, 2020 | 2 comments
You’ll likely lose any love you ever had for this beast of a man, and with it will go any unconditional respect you have for the establishment of America as a country.
by Mary Margaret Healy | May 19, 2020 | 2 comments
Now that so much of my social interaction is happening on emoji’s home turf, I’ve started to branch out in the way I use them.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Apr 19, 2020 | 2 comments
Humanity: the once and future success story
by Mary Margaret Healy | Mar 19, 2020 | 1 comment
Will the sting of the adhesive ripping against our tender skin be an experience we can learn and grow from?
by Mary Margaret Healy | Feb 19, 2020 | 3 comments
The visual cortex begins to interpret images and even change them before it even processes fully what they are, meaning that we often see things that aren’t actually there.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jan 19, 2020 | 4 comments
Mana, spell slots, pocket monsters, and midnight showings are all these worlds ever need.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Dec 19, 2019 | 2 comments
There was once a purebred golden retriever who visibly loved everyone and snuggled up to strangers: she was so beautiful I was scared to touch her for fear I’d leave an unsightly smudge.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Nov 19, 2019 | 3 comments
What culture doesn’t have a myth of a turtle who keeps the world, or at least a small forest, on its back.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Oct 19, 2019 | 2 comments
One of the things about moving around a lot is that people start to ask you, “Does it feel like home?”
by Mary Margaret Healy | Sep 19, 2019 | 0 comments
Ambition requires imagination, but it is not satisfied with daydreams.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Aug 19, 2019 | 1 comment
How many other transitions in life are like this: inevitable, beautiful, a blessing, and a pain so deep its aches reverberate through generations.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jul 19, 2019 | 0 comments
As much as you don’t want to admit it, there might be times when you honestly wonder what your life is worth if you don’t have someone to pass it on to.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jun 19, 2019 | 3 comments
I’ve derided this genre for too long. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
by Mary Margaret Healy | May 19, 2019 | 0 comments
So consider this a love letter from your faraway child.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Apr 19, 2019 | 0 comments
Next Wednesday is just a Wednesday. No one has written any songs for Wednesday.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Mar 19, 2019 | 0 comments
You’ll probably have to develop a strong stomach vis-a-vis mouse carnage, but it’s a tough world.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Feb 19, 2019 | 0 comments
Maybe the heating bills could have been lower. Maybe this leak wouldn’t have happened. Maybe my house wouldn’t be sick.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jan 19, 2019 | 0 comments
But for now, all I can think about is how out of place my Christmas trees looked when my neighbors have a cactus naturally growing in their front yard. And I will envy all y’all yanks up there.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Dec 19, 2018 | 0 comments
To have a place on my car, something would need to be meaningful enough that I find value in saying it, but still simple enough that I would stand behind any reasonable interpretation someone would have of it.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Nov 19, 2018 | 0 comments
And as the saxophonist stood to our applause, I silently thanked Mr. Moore for teaching me the language of time, imbuing this Saturday night with more meaning than it could otherwise have had.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Oct 19, 2018 | 0 comments
Isn’t Kelsey on the party planning committee or whatever? I feel like she’s too much of a Try-Hard to pass up something like that. I hope she remembers I’m gluten free so I can eat something other than a fruit cup this year.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Sep 19, 2018 | 0 comments
I rate this millennial trend three out of five stars.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Aug 19, 2018 | 0 comments
What I’ve keyed into is the difference between learning as a victim and learning as a perpetrator.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jul 19, 2018 | 0 comments
The fullness of the characters’ lives and the variety of their responses to such ruthless adversity forced me to think of the victims of history as more than what their oppressors made them.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jun 19, 2018 | 0 comments
There are a few things I thought about (as well as a few things I wish I had thought about) by the time I first had sex. Maybe a conversation about the real definition can start there.
by Mary Margaret Healy | May 19, 2018 | 0 comments
I think you’ll come to appreciate the vibrancy of the human spirit that started living there because someone had to.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Apr 19, 2018 | 0 comments
There are also in-game currencies and prizes, but the real celebration is that “Chicken Dinner,” which, I cannot stress enough, bears no resemblance to any kind of meal.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Mar 19, 2018 | 0 comments
No algorithm is going to teach mandated reporters that white families are just as dangerous as other families.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Feb 19, 2018 | 0 comments
And we waited. I would leave for work, preparing myself for the possibility that it was the last time I would see her alive.