If there’s one thing I’ve learned about life, it’s that it’s unpredictable. Every time I think I have things figured out, the road curves in an entirely new direction. I’ve mentioned before that I was at one time convinced I didn’t want to go into teaching. Upon returning home after four years of teaching (and…
This past decade was the first of my adult life, and as such was characterized by change and growth. If you had asked the Kristine of 2010 what she expected her life to be like in 2020, she could not have even imagined many of the turns that these ten years have taken. During that…
Most people who know me would probably describe me as a generally positive person. As a general rule, I don’t like to dwell on negativity. Someone once even decided that my catchphrase was “it’s okay.” But I would argue that my inclination towards positivity is a self-trained response, a way of comforting myself. More often…
Home is a word we use a lot this time of year. So many are going “home for the Holidays” or missing the home they can’t spend the Holidays at. Home is something universal yet personal: for each one of us it looks, smells, sounds, tastes, and feels distinctly different. For me, the concept of…
As I head into the next stage of my professional life, I decided to take some time to reflect on the past four years I spent living in China. Although I was there as a teacher, I was also constantly learning — so much so that I often felt like I was still a student…