I’ve graded thousands of high school essays, and I bet you’re making the same mistakes. — As a twenty-year high school writing teacher, I’ve been asked, “Would you look over this essay?” by more adolescents than I can count. However, they’re not the only ones who request my help. When family members in college need help on an essay that’s thirty percent of their grade, they…

I wonder a lot what “I” I would be without them. — You name the mental health condition. I’ve got it. Anxiety. (check) Depression. (check) Obsessive-compulsive disorder. (Unfortunately, very unfortunately, check) As a result, I take more pills than a seventy-year-old with twelve different medical conditions. You probably have the same bursting medicine cabinet I do if you’re reading this. These pills have helped me in wonderful ways.

Contrary to past beliefs, there’s much more to giftedness than a high IQ. — Psychotherapist P. Susan Jackson states: “In their innermost core — at their best — the gifted adult is a passionate, deeply curious, sensitive and intense person, with a vast appetite for learning, for profound experience, for deepest understanding, for creating anew, and for contributing and participating wholly in the world.”

Mine is, and she’s refusing medication. — If you know anything about poker, you’ll be very familiar with the phrases “running hot” or “running cold.” Human speak? Running hot? You’ve been lucky. You’ve been “rolling in the dough.” The gambling gods are smiling down on you and your cards. On the other hand, “running cold” means the…

“Behind every beautiful thing, there’s some kind of pain.” — Let’s give her freckles, they said. Let’s put her out on the playground with the other children so they can tease her. Let’s make her stand in front of the mirror and slather on a pound of concealer, and let’s make her attempts fail miserably. That way, she’ll know the…

The great thing is they’ll make you love yourself too. — My husband doesn’t make my coffee anymore. Every night for years, he put the grounds in the coffee machine and set it on auto-brew, so it would be steaming and ready when I woke up. …

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” — I’ve been writing for three years, and I’m nowhere near the writer I want to be. And if you’ve been writing only a few months and wondering why your goals as a writer haven’t been met, let me reassure you. You’re in the majority. Writing is a metamorphosis, and the…

The sad truth about women like me who wreck our lives trying to accomplish the impossible. — I don’t know precisely where my desire to be “Little Miss Perfect” came from. I think it was born sometime around seven when someone called me “freckle face.” The name hurt deeply, so I scrubbed my face with lemon juice every day in hopes the spots my mother lovingly called…

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, so let me tell you what you have to be grateful for. — A student of mine is struggling to pass my sophomore English class. I’ve sat down and done the math with him, and he knows he’s got to move mountains if he’s going to become a junior. Now the reason he’s in this dire situation is primarily his fault. It comes…