ArcaMax

I had a meeting with young activists last week. They each had prepared statements and a binder with my name on it, with handwritten tabs for each section. I had at least 10 to 15 years on each of them and had an almost maternal pride watching them. But it wasn't their youth that inspired me; it was the gumption they had to organize. It was the ...Read more

A long time ago, a colleague from several jobs ago took a leap in vulnerability over lunch. She explained that she noticed a shift between her interactions with people when she was younger and now, as an older woman. She spoke about an invisibility that settles over women as they age, as conventional beauty fades.

"I felt that people listened ...Read more

It was a good day at the university. At the start of the day, the masked pro-Palestine student protesters were on bent knees, chalking their requests for a ceasefire on the ground. A military Humvee was parked next to the entrance of the student center, as the Pentagon had come recruiting that day. The university police were already slowly ...Read more

The alert on my phone tells me that my package is seven stops away. Clicking into the app, there's a little outline of a truck, but what pulled up was a white sedan, someone's personal car with a few years and more than a few miles on it.

I'm of two minds. Sure, if you're in a neighborhood where you might question whether your package will ...Read more

I didn't know how much I must have been hated as an apartment dweller. I lived in the same complex, moving into different units for different reasons, for 10 years. However, when you talk about apartments with some people, it's as if the worst of the worst crawl out of them and slink into our streets.

While living in the apartment, I worked at ...Read more

The email didn't address me by name, so I looked at the header to see if I was the only one listed or if it was a mass email blast. It looked like it was just sent to me, demanding I "do something" about the homeless encampments at a park near my house. For a change, I knew what the steps would be in this case, and I happily tip-tapped on the ...Read more

My office is right next to the entrance, with some seasoned and stalwart administrative assistants bearing the weight of navigating employees to their meetings, fending off lost students on campus, and enduring the dad jokes from the mail delivery drivers. Since I keep my door open, I heard the student come in to ask to speak to a hiring manager...Read more

The table had their agenda placed in front of the empty seats. I had been led back to the room and left alone. I picked a seat without an agenda as I wasn't part of their organization, but my name on the paper caught my eye. I was listed as the only item on the agenda, as a special guest speaker. Well, I wish I had known that before I came in to...Read more

I gathered my thoughts in an adjacent room, filled with the light of the sun already mostly set on the horizon. The bodyguard stood as a barrier between me and the throngs of people schmoozing at the mansion. He had tilted his head my way as I sat down against the window to take an introvert breather.

This was the formal living room, with the ...Read more

If there has been a recurring theme that has kept popping up for me in the last few weeks, it's this: We should probably get some adults in this room to get this worked out. And then it dawns on me: Oh, that's me. I'm the person who is going to have a hand in making some of these decisions.

It's similar to the feeling you get when you finally ...Read more

At the beginning of the pandemic, my mom and I had a phrase we kept using: "It's just two weeks." At first, it was earnest, with a tinge of hope. Then it became progressively more sardonic, saying we're up for the next installment of just two more weeks. I suggested that we get matching tattoos at some point. She turned me down.

There was ...Read more