A More Honest Relationship with Reality: Finding New Meaning in My Studies

You can find plenty of common, scholarly reasons to study history in textbook introductions, education philosophy books, or in the classroom on the first day of a history class. However, these were not the reasons that prompted me to declare a history major my freshman year. What motivated me was an idealism which claimed that if we could just understand history and teach it correctly, … Continue reading A More Honest Relationship with Reality: Finding New Meaning in My Studies

Hillsdale ForumApril 14, 2021January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #31 | DEC 2020, LIVING

Measuring Time

There’s this silly, sentimental country song by Tracy Lawrence with the famous chorus, You find out who your friends are somebody’s gonna drop everything, Run out and crank up their car, Hit the gas, get there fast, Never stop to think “what’s in it for me?” or “it’s way too far” They just show on up, with their big old heart, You find out who … Continue reading Measuring Time

Hillsdale ForumJanuary 7, 2021January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #31 | DEC 2020, LIVING

The New Abnormal: On Flourishing in a Pandemic

We live in apparently unprecedented times. If common parlance speaks truly, humanity is encountering uncertainty as never before. A pandemic ravages the globe. Schools close. Quarantines, stay-at-home orders, and lockdowns begin. The economy is shut down, subsequently crashing. Armchair virologists crack open their laptops, taking to Facebook to report the results of their research to the general public. Zoom’s quarterly revenue increases to over $600 … Continue reading The New Abnormal: On Flourishing in a Pandemic

Hillsdale ForumJanuary 7, 2021January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #30 | OCT 2020, LIVING

Searching for Ted

Sitting down to dinner together last year, my friend Jess asked me the same question we had begun to ask one another each time we met: “Where did you see Ted this week?” Anyone listening to our conversation might assume we were talking about a mutual friend, but that assumption would be wrong. Ted isn’t a friend of ours; in fact, the name doesn’t apply … Continue reading Searching for Ted

Hillsdale ForumOctober 27, 2020January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #28 | MAR 2020, LIVING

Summer Beauty

“What did you do this summer?” Every time I arrive back on campus for fall semester, I answer that question more times than I care to count. It is really almost as bad as freshman year (“What’s your name? Where are you from? What do you want to major in?”). This past fall, however, the question didn’t get old, because the answer sounded surreal to … Continue reading Summer Beauty

Hillsdale ForumMarch 11, 2020January 12, 2024

ISSUE #27 | DEC 2019, LIVING

Looking into Schedules: Thoughts on Time, Self-Gift, and the Joy of Boundaries

In Rockford, Illinois, a faded, yellow-brick ranch house sits between a large wood and the helicopter pad at the Emergency Unit of Saint Anthony Medical Center. The house, which boasts more paintings and statues of saints than pieces of furniture, serves as a convent for the three Franciscan sisters who work at Saint Anthony’s—one of whom is my biological sister. While visiting recently, my parents … Continue reading Looking into Schedules: Thoughts on Time, Self-Gift, and the Joy of Boundaries

Hillsdale ForumDecember 11, 2019January 12, 2024

ISSUE #26 | OCT 2019, LIVING

Meditation on Memory

Several old journals sit on my bookshelf here, ranging in age from ten years to a few months, several of them worn and stained, some with small mementos, slips of notepaper, receipts, and sketches, all tucked between the pages or inside their covers. Whenever life seems to be taking a rather unexpected turn, I feel compelled to revisit these old, familiar books. I always wrote … Continue reading Meditation on Memory

Hillsdale ForumOctober 26, 2019January 12, 2024

ISSUE #24 | MAR 2019, LIVING

Empathy in Isolation: Sharing Loneliness with Nick Carraway

In Act IV of Coriolanus, Shakespeare uses a seemingly inconsequential simile about a solitary dragon leaving its swamp. It is in this simile that Shakespeare coined the adverb “lonely.” Similarly, in Act III of Hamlet, Polonius tells Ophelia to sit down and read, so that her “loneliness” would appear natural. It is odd that loneliness—a feeling universally understood today—is a relatively new term, and it … Continue reading Empathy in Isolation: Sharing Loneliness with Nick Carraway

Hillsdale ForumMarch 1, 2019January 12, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #23 | DEC 2018, LIVING

Coming Home and Other Memories: The Heart (or Art) of the Story

“We’ll Meet Again,” Vera Lynn Let’s say goodbye with a smile, dear Just for a while, dear We must part Don’t let this parting upset you I’ll not forget you, sweetheart We’ll meet again Don’t know where Don’t know when But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day Keep smiling through Just like you always do ‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far … Continue reading Coming Home and Other Memories: The Heart (or Art) of the Story

Hillsdale ForumDecember 12, 2018January 12, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #23 | DEC 2018, LIVING

Shut Up and Feast

For fall break this year, one of my best friends invited me to come home with her to stay with her family. They were just getting ready to renovate their new farmhouse, and she wanted to see it before they made changes. I’ve visited her family a couple of times in the past, and feel very comfortable with them. They have a gift for hospitality, … Continue reading Shut Up and Feast