My friend and I, we had this thing, it was called “The Code.” So the initial reason the code was developed is because my middle school had made a rule that we were going to do 10 minutes of silent reflection at the end of lunch. And our lunch was only 20 minutes long. So having to do 10 minutes of silent reflection during lunch to like, reflect on how the class had been misbehaving for the entirety of the Lenten Church season was a big ask. So, we wanted to develop our own sign language, and we didn't want to speak in normal sign language because that would be way too easy for the lunch staff to decipher what we were doing. And we also wanted to be able to talk without any of our friends knowing what we were saying, so we created this thing called the code. So I don't remember all of the hand symbols of the code, but essentially, we had written out everything on a small sheet of paper, but we needed a place to like hide our code like decipher key. So, we thought that it would be really funny to hide it like obviously somewhere that looks like it could be inconspicuous like in a piece of school supplies. And what we determined was the best was a glue stick, so we like used up the glue in the glue stick, and we took off the top, put the code in and then like, would put the like mostly empty glue stick top back on. So it looks like it was a normal glue stick. The other thing is, we would often have issues with the code getting stuck inside the glue stick. And I remember the only way to actually get the decipher key out of said glue stick is you had to like throw it at the wall a couple of times and then it would pop up. And there was our code. But yeah, honestly, we didn't really speak in it that much, but it became a whole game of our other friends trying to like, guess where we had hidden the code because they were aware of its existence but didn't know like where the decipher key was. So that was pretty fun.

In Tennessee, there are signs all over that said, "Beware of Bears." And then it would tell you not to leave food around and things, to avoid the bears. Well, there was -- we were on a car trail. You -- it was like a hiking trail, but you stayed in your car for eleven miles and saw really cool stuff. Well, up above us there was heavy traffic, foot traffic as well as car traffic. So we stopped to see what was going on. And we got out of the car, me and my mom. And there was a mama bear and three triplets, playing in the field. But there was a little wire, and it's like the bear knew where that wire was and totally ignored us taking pictures of them, of her and her babies. Until this one man saw the bears, saw the wire, picked his three-year-old up, and put him over the wire and then joined him. Now there's nothing between him and the bear, and the bear got interested. Everybody was screaming at him to get his child out of there. This is a mama bear with three babies, and he’s putting his child in there like it's a stuffed animal. Everybody's screaming for him to get out of there. Finally, his mother, screaming to get his grandch- -- get her grandchild out of there did it for him, and he left there. "I just wanted to get a picture with the bears," he said. I never saw such stupidity in all my life.

In my first, like serious full-time job after college, I was working in the admissions office. And a – my -- I  guess was I still dating him then? A friend, or boyfriend, or whatever came to visit me, and I took the day off or afternoon off and we went to a movie in the middle of the day. And the reason that stands out to me is that it felt -- really thrilling? And really, um, sort of like countercultural. You know kind of like I was doing something wrong. Which made it really exciting, and it was very atypical for me. I mean, I'm, I'm very -- I don't always stay on task, but I do tend to like show up, you know, I tend to be responsible and, um, and I thought about that like since even since then, it is really rare for me to take a day off just because. I feel like it's ingrained in people, in my generation, that, you know, if you're taking a day off from work, even if you -- even if there's a policy at your workplace that makes it completely okay to do this, like, there has to be a good reason. You know, like it's a sick day, you're feeling sick or you're going on vacation, you know, or somebody's coming to work on the house and you have to let them in or, you know, whatever. But just to take the day off, because you felt like it? Or you wanted to go do something fun or frivolous? Just seemed like, you know, you're breaking some kind of rule.