Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 415

Mom to Son: I’ll Be There For You (Life Lessons From ‘Friends’)

“Hey, Mom,” my 15-year-old son says from the kitchen table where he’s finishing up his homework for the night, “what do you say to a couple of episodes of Friends?” He sits beside me on the couch, places his laptop between us, and logs into his grandmother’s Netflix account—a bit of piracy I overlook in the interest of choosing my battles—and we check in on what’s going on in Monica and Rachel’s apartment tonight.

[More on the Best Movies to Watch With Your Teens here.]

I was a latecomer to...

Reluctant Roomies: Life With My Millennial Son

Bottles of Thai red curry sauce, cans of coconut milk, and bags of gluten-free bean pasta. These are some of the woefully unfamiliar foods that are currently crowding out the usual—and admittedly boring and bland—Greek yogurt, rice cakes, and mozzarella string cheese in our refrigerator and pantry.

My son is home. And as we moms are fond of saying about our college student-and-beyond kids after school breaks and vacations: “I love when they come home but I also love when they leave.” The dif...

The Magic of Clutter: An Apology to Marie Kondo

Full disclosure, I have not read Marie Kondo’s bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing[image error].As a teacher with only two weeks off for winter break, I knew I had to jump right in and get to work if I wanted to have my house de-cluttered by Christmas.

I did, however, downloaded a summary of Kondo’s book, so I think I get the gist of her method. No, I can’t truly say I have KonMaried my life. But I did spend the better part of a week getting r...

This Mom’s SOS From Christmas Break Is Perfectly Hilarious

Dear Diary,

This may be my last entry. I’m on Day Eleventy-Billion of my captivity, otherwise known as “Christmas Break.”

My DH, who normally travels for work, has been home for 32 consecutive days. He has filled his days with hogging the TV to watch news and sports.

All. Day. Long.

While watching sports and news, he yells at the TV as if that SEC football ref or newscaster can hear him and desires his counsel. TV time also includes eating PBJ’s or Ham and American Cheese on White. Yuck. By...

How to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed as a College Freshman

In high school, I learned and lived my college application story enough times to convince myself that it was what I really wanted; as a first-generation Turkish-American who spoke three languages, I was ready to tell anyone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life studying comparative literature, preparing for a Ph. D after my undergrad years.

The convenience of a unique, perfectly coiffed application story made it difficult for me to realize that I was boxing myself into a field of study...

Academic Probation: What Should My Son Do Now?

Just before Christmas, my son received his grades for the first semester of college. They were a surprise, to say the least. Merry Christmas – I’m on academic probation!

Our son complained that classes were getting hard in October and that he was beginning to have doubts about staying there. We advised him to keep trying, study his butt off, get help if it’s needed. He certainly wasn’t the first kid to have trouble during his first year of college and he wouldn’t be the last. The campus has m...

Finding My Passion Took Years and It’s Ok If My Kids Take Longer

My daughter has always been a good student. I’ve never had to badger her to do her homework, or remind her about a test. In fact, there have been times when I had to order her to stop studying and do something for fun. I’ve always told her and her younger brother that when it came to her schoolwork, she should do her best. If she knew in her heart that she did her absolute best, even if she got a bad grade, she could be proud.

My advice was to work hard for herself, not for her teachers, or...

Work, Pause, Thrive: An Interview with Lisen Stromberg

There is a point in life when it seems so clear where your career is headed. You are young, maybe single and having a family is still ahead of you. But then, for so many women, life happens. Responsibilities for kids or parents create new demands. Work changes and you or your spouse are required to relocate. The straight path that once seemed so clear, so simple is now anything but.Yet, if we are lucky, life offers us second, and third and even fourth chances and, although the journey may be...

A Letter to the Victims of Cyberbullying: I Promise to Do My Part

I just can’t bear to read it. Another heart-breaking story that didn’t have to happen— a beautiful Texas teenager fatally shoots herself, in front of her own family, after a long-term battle with cyberbullies. Though I can’t possibly understand this tragedy, I want her parents—and others who have lost children to the tyranny of social media—to know that I truly care. And I want to do something to help. So in memory of these precious lives stolen too soon, I promise one thing: that I’ll do my...

7 Ways I Dealt With the Crippling Anxiety That Comes With College

Since I was a young girl, I have dealt with an oscillating mixture of anxiety and depression, a mental illness cocktail, if you will.

When all you know is anxious way of thinking, it is difficult to recognize what is unhealthy and what is “normal” thought patterns. The peak of my anxiety occurred during high school, an accumulation of anxiety attacks and depressive episodes concluding in a dissociating mental breakdown that my mother and I refer to as My Trip To Alaska. The source of my anxie...