Reflections at the end of the year

Kate Boo--one of my favorite living writers--says that she sometimes needs to remind herself that what gets her fired up isn't being behind a desk but getting out and reporting. She wrote Behind the Beautiful Forevers, one of the greatest non-fiction books I've read.

As the days get shorter and colder the instinct to stay in can be fierce. But every time I venture out and go to the Bronx or Staten Island to talk with people and walk the streets, it feels like such a gift. I learn so much from the Latina immigrants I follow. 

I have to remember that when a warm office beckons: get back out on the street.

On Developing Routines

I just started a fellowship at the Russell Sage Foundation, which I am so grateful for. I've been spending a lot of time reporting in the Bronx on Honduran immigrants. The fellowship gives me the time to reflect on what I've learned and find the narrative in it.

It also, I realize, gives the chance to redevelop routines, in a way that can be hard when you are working on your own. There is something about coming into an office, grabbing a cup of coffee, saying hello to a colleague (and there are amazing ones here), and then sitting down to write. 

I feel hopeful. A productive fall awaits.

Kate DiCamillo's Remembrance of Thanksgiving

The author Kate DiCamillo posted about her Thanksgiving many years ago, when she realized that she needed to change her life, and realize her potential: https://www.facebook.com/KateDiCamillo

This is my favorite part of her post: "And after awhile, I did. Change. I started writing, and the writing opened me up."

Testimonies to the Power of Not Giving Up

One of the things I am most grateful for in my work is that it provides the opportunity to spend time with people whom generally I would never meet. I've learned what it's like to live in this country without documents and speaking no English. I've spoken with Holocaust survivors who somehow managed to piece their lives back together after losing virtually everything as teenagers. And I've been able to meet heroes of mine--like the writer Kate DiCamillo, who writes enchanting young adult novels.

Something that surfaces again and again in their stories is resilience. When it seemed all was lost, they didn't give up. And they made their way to a better place.

I am so grateful for their example. It reminds me, day in and out, why we should always hold on to a sense of hope.