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Though her family sometimes received food stamps and occasionally had their utilities cut off, Marcie Alvis Walker’s parents led her to believe that they were an average middle-class Black family. They encouraged her to pursue her dreams and told her that if she worked hard enough, she’d achieve them. The small catch was that Walker’s dream was an elusive one for any cash-strapped and undereducated Black woman: being a New York Times–bestselling author.
WHAT TO INCLUDE:
Mystical Language
You want to make sure the overall vibe meets expectations. The tone cannot be contemporary, because that is not what the audience paid to read. Motherlands and fatherlands should be referenced lyrically as if they are fantasy worlds. Anything that emphasizes that this isn’t a real, living person’s story; it’s an AAPI story—the Perfect AAPI Story.
There’s a lot of talk about what should be done to fix education in America, like increasing federal funding, decreasing class sizes, increasing teacher salaries, and investing in better teacher preparation. These are all nice ideas, but they’re totally abstract and conceptual. They’re not things any modern country could actually do.1
If we really want to fix American schools, we need more Learning Outcomes. Learning Outcomes are the things that captivate children. Learning Outcomes help children to identify, comprehend, and synthesize their dreams.
“Gen Z has been mocking millennial style with so much glee in the last few years that doing so has become its own TikTok trend.” — New York Times
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I’m a millennial, and the media has been talking about how young and cool I am for over twenty years. Then, seemingly overnight, I’m old?
No, sweetheart. Don’t worry. They’re just pretend.
Oh dear. I left my laptop open, and you read a LinkedIn post from an “Entrepreneur, Change Agent, Futurist, Success Enabler, Innovator & Investor.” And now you can’t sleep. Let me see if I can explain this in a way that makes sense.
1. Hypothetical Health Badge. When you resolve to start flossing every day. You don’t, of course, but even thinking about doing this is pretty impressive.
2. Reluctantly Pretentious Badge. When you start calling your significant other “partner” because no other label really fits.
Yes, fine, kaadu egg on my face—I unwittingly designed a planet-destroying, fully armed, and operational battle station. But put yourself in my shoes: you’re a mid-tier, ambitious architect, and you get singled out of your whole firm, Coruscant Skyline Legacy, to design the biggest, baddest, bestest galactic RESORT FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL ever conceived… I don’t think you’d be asking too many questions either. Soldiers deserve respite!
Mai Tran began catsitting in 2021 while Tran was on pandemic unemployment, often staying overnight in people’s homes. Tran has now cared for twenty-two cats and traveled to ten apartments all over New York City, observing the interior lives of cat owners and appeasing their neuroses. From home vet visits to black eyes to refugee cats, Chronicles of a Catsitter documents the most memorable days on the job.
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They should have a German word that describes the feeling you get when you’re speaking English, and you experience something that you’re sure Germans have a very specific word for but for which there is no direct English translation.
Germans, I’m sure, could create a word that roughly translates to that feeling when you drop your phone, and it feels like your life has ended, but then you pick it up, and it’s fine.