Bounce Back Blog
Lessons Learned When Life Implodes
There are very few among us who would volunteer for struggles and hardships in life. We may talk a good game, waving away difficulties as an expected part of life and insisting that everyone faces challenges at some time or other, but secretly we hope we will be the...
If At First You Don’t Succeed, REtry, REtry Again!
The first two months of 2016 are gone and maybe you already need a do-over on your resolutions. I'm bringing this post back to REmind you that second chances are there for the taking! One of the hats I wear in my professional life is that of an English as a Second...
The Stairway of Life–Some Pivoting Required
Surely everyone runs behind schedule at some time or other. It may be a few minutes or even a few days, but I seem to have a habit of running two decades behind. In the ‘90s, I missed the ‘70s so much I virtually recreated them by wearing out my VHS set of The Mary...
Musical Memories–Thank You, Maurice White
The first six weeks of 2016 have been hard ones for music lovers, particularly for us Boomers as we have seen so many of the musical icons of our youth pass away. The death of Maurice White last week especially saddened me. The music of Earth, Wind & Fire...
Life Lessons from the ESL Classroom
I have been teaching English as a Second Language classes to adults for fifteen years. In that time, I have met and made friends with hundreds of people, from Afghanistan to Zanzibar and just about everywhere in between. I’ve learned how to say “Happy Birthday” in...
Hitting the Button (Putting Depression on Notice)
To most teachers the phrase “hit the button” has a very specific meaning, referring to the button in every classroom used to call the office if assistance is required. Teachers routinely manage all kinds of issues that arise from having roughly 120 young people—each...
No Tickets to Paradise
Well, apparently I‘m going to have to wait a little longer to be a billionaire. I bought two Powerball tickets for the historic $1.5 billion drawing and didn’t match so much as one stinking number on either ticket. I suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t quit my job...
Home Alone
Let me state right off the bat that I love my husband. I love spending time with him, whether in a romantic little café or the office supplies aisle at Walmart. I love his voice, his touch, his smell. I love that after ten years of marriage he still calls me every day...
Recycled Resolutions
At 11:02 last night, it dawned on me that I only had 58 minutes to make good on all of my 2015 resolutions. I often do perform best under pressure, but even so it was not easy losing fifteen pounds, learning two new languages, and publishing a book in that amount of...