Imagine you are a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. You are made of cardboard and have crisp edges that fit alongside your fellow puzzle pieces. Together, you make a beautiful picture and the picture isn’t whole without you. Now, imagine that you are mixed in with other puzzle pieces. In the testing of all of the […]
Necessary disclaimer: I understand and acknowledge that not every school in Sweden does things the same way. This is simply a little peek into what we have experienced. “What does your typical school day look like? What do you do?” I asked my six-year-old son. He took me over to the whiteboard where laminated words with […]
How many kids do you have?” the dental technician asked me while her latex-gloved hands were working inside my mouth. I could feel her knuckles against the inside of my lips, expertly moving the mirror and probe from tooth to tooth. Now really isn’t the right time to be having a conversation, I thought, but […]
In a recent New Yorker article, How to Eat Candy Like a Swedish Person, the general public learned about Sweden’s (limited) obsession with lördagsgodis or “Saturday candy.” Messages about this article flooded my inbox with questions like, “Is this true?” and “Do you really only eat candy once a week?” I’ll admit that this has […]
Kids recreate the world how they see it through dramatic play. Shouting is emanating from behind the closed door of my daughter’s room. “No, Mama, don’t go!” “I have to go to work. You have to stay here.” My three-year-old is playing in her room by herself. I slowly open the door. Her back is […]
“Money in the bank. Braces are money in the bank,” my Nana told me at her kitchen table in upstate New York. I was 15 years old; my mouth was sore and full of twisted metal. I didn’t feel like having a mouth full of braces was such a wise investment. Her words were […]
I’ve been there for every moment. Every smile, every laugh, every wobbly step—every everything—and yet it feels like I am still missing out on so much. How is it not enough? I look back at baby pictures taken years ago, and I see that squishy face. I can see hints of who you will […]
When we first moved to Sweden (five years ago, ahh!), the newness of everything was overwhelming. Every day we jumped into the unknown with glee. It was thrilling to have a clean slate. We could be whoever we wanted to be in this new place. I spent the first few weeks converting everything into measurements that […]
A few weeks ago, I packed my suitcase and headed out of town for a week in Amsterdam to facilitate a data analysis and management workshop—switching my crisp and clean editor/publisher hat for my worn-in public health hat. It was refreshing to step back into comfortable shoes and play a role that was familiar and […]
For the past few days, I’ve been discussing, reading, processing all that has happened and what it might mean and I have left every conversation muttering, “I don’t know…” And that’s just it. I don’t know a lot of things. I don’t know what will happen to children of immigrants. I don’t know what people […]