Dear Community, Recently, I had the chance to be a guest on Just Jared, a podcast produced by the college where I work and hosted by our dean, Jared Auclair. The conversation centered on a question I think about a whole lot: how do we build academic careers, pathways, and support systems that actually fit human lives, rather than asking people to shrink themselves to fit rigid institutional structures? I shared something personal in that conversation. My own life, I said, is

Dear Community, In every job interview I've had, I've been asked some form of the question, "What is your biggest weakness?" We all know the expected response is to mention a harmless, relatable flaw (like "I'm a perfectionist") and then share a story of overcoming it (such as "Now I'm a perfectionist who laughs more! Yay!"). But do we truly know our biggest weakness? Deep down, for real? For my last job interview (for the position I currently hold), I decided to answer that

Dear Community, I think most academic deans will tell you their jobs can be frustrating. We are in charge of a lot, but we are also pawns in other people's plans. We don't get to decide our budgets, but we get to deliver the news of other people's decisions. We can create programs that transform the future of higher education, but we also get to work for years on proposals that come to nothing. The other morning I was riding the train into Boston and feeling beat down about t

Dear Community, A few weeks ago, I took a red-eye flight from Boston to Memphis to meet my family and visit Graceland. Why Graceland? Well, a number of years ago, when I was just starting in academic administration, a colleague invited me to a conference at the hotel next to Graceland. I decided to take the tour of the house while I was there...and it has haunted me ever since. Y'all, I was not prepared for Graceland back then. I didn't know much about it, other than it was E

Dear Community, I am a yoga teacher, a meditation teacher, a researcher of happiness, an academic dean, a professor of English, and a respected member of my communities. I am also a human being with anxieties, worries, doubts, and insecurities. But because of all of the above, people become rather uncomfortable if I display any of these emotions in a noticeable way. When confronted with difficult situations, I need to remain the calmest in the room for the people who work fo

Dear Community, When discussing happiness with people, one of the misconceptions I come across the most is that happiness to elusive. People feel like it exists somewhere--as if happiness is Where's Waldo--and they just haven't had the good luck to find it yet. That's not how happiness works, though. Happiness is a set of practices that we choose to engage in. These practices are not always easy, though. In fact, they often feel difficult to do, especially when life is hard a

Dear Community, Whenever I teach any music-based yoga class, I listen to the playlist multiple times in the hours before class to mentally go over what I want to teach. This morning, in preparation to teach a Sunday reggae power yoga class (because it was going to be 57 degrees in Boston, which is basically Jamaica for New Englanders), I was jamming out in the shower to Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry." How could one not? I remember growing up my mom would sing that song at

Dear Community, Have you ever stopped to consider what a miracle it is you came to be? You are the product of generations and generations of human beings who loved, cried, laughed, and lived. What an incredible thing that you are here--right now--today. Not a single moment has ever better than now, no matter what your brain tries to tell you. I promise you this is so, and that it is within your hands to make today the best of your life. You don't even have to do anything spec