Anxiety Blankets

My friend Mike hates giving presentations. He doesn’t enjoy being the center of attention in a group of people. He’d also be the last to volunteer to do role plays at work. Despite this, nobody I know would hesitate to call Mike a leader. In his own words, he just “leads from behind.” Mike has […]

In 2010, Derek Sivers gave a short-and-sweet TED talk that changed my understanding of leadership forever. Showing a short clip of a shirtless guy dancing by himself at a music festival, Derek explains: “First, a leader needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed.” Well, that part I knew. It’s the part every movie, […]

The first train connection from my parents’ house to a larger city where I transfer runs through the middle of nowhere. The second stop is a town with a school. Often, many kids get on the tiny, two-wagon train. So for the next 40 minutes, I’ll sit there, tucked away quietly between three dozen high […]

When the Pokémon hype gets real, trying to buy new card sets throws me right back to the 90s. Except instead of driving to a store on release day, hoping to get some product, I’m checking various Discord servers and online shops ten times a day. “Is it live yet?” Naturally, I often end up […]

Before she can finally save her siblings from their shared, haunted past that is Hill House, Eleanor “Nell” Crain pays the ultimate price—but it does allow her to send a message, and, sometimes, a message is enough. Having realized that the house constantly played tricks on not just their minds but time itself, Nell explains: […]