When I was little I was a bit of a girly girl. I wanted everything to match. My mom told me I wanted my dress to match my socks, to match my frilly panties, to match my lacy socks. If everything didn’t match I refused to leave the house… I am not sure when this…

Dear Skip Bayless, It is clear you have no clue today is World Suicide Prevention Day, or that you even care. It is also clear you have no clue about mental health or suicide. It is clear you have no regard for the rate of suicide for men is 3.5 times higher than that of…

Tuesday I go back, physically, to the office for the first time since leaving on March 13. This is a day I have been longing for… dreaming off… It is a day that seemed so far out of my reach and yet here it is and the emotions I am feeling surprise me… my heart…

Tonight we were driving down I35 from Keller to Round Rock. As we got to Belton, my mind raced back to 1998… We were driving on I35 from Waco to Killeen. My dad had just picked me and my sister up from Baylor where I was ready to start my sophomore year and she was…

Dear Amy Leigh, In the next three days, there are so many milestones. Tomorrow Keaton starts first grade. Friday you turn 41. Saturday will be 22 years since your mom killed herself. The last two weeks have been filled with sessions you have provided to over a thousand school staff members of self-care. You have…

Dear Public School Parent, I know you are scared, I know you are stressed, I know you want answers… guess what? I do too. While I work for a public school district, I am also a public school parent. I get it. You want your kid back at school. You want to be able to…

Blame it on Baby Boom in 1987 starring Diane Keaton or the struggle of my mom having no identity outside of being a wife and mom, but I knew for years I would be a working mom. This belief was completely reinforced once Keaton was born almost seven years ago. After spending 16 weeks home…

I grew up in a family where both sets of grandparents fished… it is just what we did. My paternal grandparents died much earlier than my maternal grandparents and most of my good memories of them involved fishing… including me getting a hook in my neck. I spent so many hours with my maternal grandparents,…

Each day I am greeted with headlines about the rise of COVID cases in the United States. I am bombarded with posts on social media about how people are stupid for not wearing masks, or about the newest protest from people claiming it is their right to not wear one… yet I sit here and…

As I wrote last week, the AFSP Overnight Walk had to go virtual this year. I was determined to still walk the 16-18 miles on my own. My sister came down to be the leader of the cheering section and to be in charge of our own mini closing ceremony with luminaries. We had started…

I should be packing to travel to New York City for what would be my sixth Overnight Walk… the one thing I do each year that is about honoring my mom… the one thing that has been a focus for my grief. Each year I have said I am not going to do the next…

Tomorrow, Dr. Richard Watts will undergo surgery to remove a large cancerous mass from his brain. Most, if not all of you will ask who is Dr. Richard Watts and why does it matter. For most, the name is not familiar and tomorrow will be yet another day we are in a pandemic, but for…

The first time I can remember noticing the difference in people’s skin color was in second grade… the fact it was not even a thought for me until that time shows the privilege from which I have lived my life. I noticed the difference in skin color when Mark was part of our class. It…

The last few days have been hard… more like really hard. I had a complete meltdown in front of my husband and son…. including lots of crying and saying I didn’t feel special. Looking back I feel like a complete and utter fool. I cried many times yesterday. My eyes just erupted with tears at…

This Saturday will be five years since I experienced my first event with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Although my mom had died 17 years before by suicide, that event was the first time I had done something for her… for her death by suicide. It was the first time I vocally said, my…

There have been many who have talked about how grief is an emotion many of us are experiencing during this pandemic… and it fits. I did a session last week on how to help high school seniors grieve and it was brought up how much the information can be helpful to anyone. Grief is something…

I will admit it. My anxiety has not been bad for the last three weeks and I have not understood it at all. Here is a world-wide crisis and my anxiety has been in check. Honestly, I have felt guilty about feeling this way. The lady with high levels of anxiety should not be okay…

I went to HEB today to pick up our weekly curbside grocery order. I act like this a common thing when in reality, it is only the second time I have utilized the service. I happily support HEB and not only the way they are serving the community, but also the way in which they…

Last night someone I follow on Twitter posed the question of what was our biggest source of hope right now. I replied, “the goodness of humanity is greater than greed.” I continued on with things around the house and later realized someone had retweeted what I said with a comment. The person said it was…

Last semester I was asked to speak during advisory to one of our middle schools about social media use. Advisory is less than thirty minutes. I was going to do the presentation six different times so each grade would be split into two groups. I was excited and terrified at the same. I will admit…