Snuffing the Small Light — a field guide to staying lit when people try to dim you

 I’ve been thinking about joy the way you think about a match in wind. A tiny flame, imperfect and stubborn, doing its best impression of a sunrise on a stick. You cup your hand around it, lean your body to block the gust, and for a second it works. Then someone walks up—someone close, usually—and does the emotional equivalent of licking their fingers and taking a victory pinch. Sizzle.

Frustration: A Field Guide For When Your Brain Wants To Throw Furniture

 Frustration is the body’s “are you kidding me?” alarm. It’s the feeling that the world should be more bendable than it is. It’s human. It’s honest. And if we don’t steward it, it grows teeth—stress, anxiety, panic—the whole domino line. I’ve learned this the slow way. By breaking things I cared about (and a few I didn’t) and then having to clean up in the quiet afterward.

The Art of Failing Forward

 We don’t always sabotage ourselves on purpose. Sometimes we do it with good intentions—white-knuckling the steering wheel of “don’t mess this up,” which, ironically, is a great way to drive straight into the guardrail. The mind is funny like that. You say “don’t fall,” and suddenly you’re studying the floorboards.

When Brilliance Isn’t Welcome at Home

 Some relationships teach you how to think.

Others teach you when not to speak.

This is a story about growing up adjacent to intelligence — not starved of it, not denied its presence — but never fully welcomed into it.