When should you give up on who you said you wanted to be? | Lonnae O’Neal, Washington Post
We have only a finite amount of time to be the people we always said we wanted to be. Sometimes we let that version of ourselves slip away, then we just say that we’ve moved on in a different direction. Sometimes we lie about what we want because we don’t know whether we have what it takes to get it.
I’ve said since high school that I wanted to work for NASA…and I do. Which is awesome! And overall I am happy and therefore don’t have any intentions of leaving, at least not anytime soon. But before high school, I wanted to be an art teacher, or an animator, or an architect, or a musician — in other words, I wanted to be something a bit more creative. I think this long-held interest in more creative pursuits is a big reason why I got a degree in digital media, why I was into photography for a while, why I’m so interested in quilting right now…and why I often end up trying to turn those interests into job-like side projects (like designing pageant programs, freelancing as a race photographer, and self-publishing quilt patterns).
Friends at Work? Not So Much | Adam Grant, New York Times
This was an interesting article about how people don’t tend to value workplace relationships as much as they did in the past. It made me think about my own job and friendships — because basically ALL of my friends here also work at NASA.
Now, NASA is big enough that most of them don’t actually work in my area and I don’t see them daily or even weekly, but nonetheless, they do work for the same company. Most of them can be traced back to either 1) someone I met as a coop, since cooping provided a built-in social group or 2) my first full-time position in the 2002-2005 time frame, when my group was mostly 20-somethings and we had a lot in common. My current group is similar — we are mostly 30-somethings, again with a lot in common. In both cases, I would say that I have a lot of work friends…and many are outside-of-work friends too.
The Dad Who Wrote a Check Using “Common Core” Math Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About | Patheos
I don’t know a lot about Common Core math other than it seems to be universally ridiculed. But a friend of mine posted a link to this blog post on Facebook, and I really appreciated the alternative point of view. Just because math is taught differently now than it was when I was in school doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. I don’t know if Common Core is truly better, as implied in this post, but it made me realize I should probably at least give it a chance. (Or, at least, I should in a few years when Emma hits elementary age!)
Wednesday Evening series | Mommy Shorts
I’ve really been enjoying this blog series documenting a random Wednesday evening in the life of several different families in different cities. The appeal is similar to “day in the life” posts that I always love — there’s something about seeing how other families go about their daily life that is just really interesting.
I really like that post about “Common Core” math – I’d never even heard about such a thing, but that article has me intrigued. There’s a great passage in a book (I think it’s a Malcolm Gladwell book – maybe Outliers??) about how asian children are strong than north american children with numbers because of how asian languages are structured. For example, rather than “eleven”, the direct translation is “ten-one” which makes adding double digits much easier (eleven plus eleven is harder to conceptualise than ten-one plus ten-one). It’s definitely worth a read if you haven’t already!
I “read” (via audiobook) that one several years ago and vaguely remember this now that you mention it! I also thought it was interesting that the way that article describes doing mental multiplication (i.e. 12×11 is the same as 12×10 + 12×1) is the way I already do it. I remember my dad teaching me that way.
The first article and your thoughts really resonate with me! On the one hand I have a college degree and graduate degree in the hard sciences, but I’ve found my way into writing as a career (although it’s science writing, so a bit science, a bit creative). But then I do have these creative passions that I’m more recently giving more attention and time to (creative and reflective writing through blogging, podcasting). Sometimes I feel pulled to try to fully focus on one or the other but I enjoy both types of work for different reasons.