I write this as sunshine shines brightly onto the snow outside, and the coal stove hums next to me. Indigo is reading with their morning coffee beside them and Pippin is snoozing in his bed. I have been drafting this post for a few weeks now, trying to finish it before the end of January! This year has been really, really tough. It has been lonely, and stressful, and dark. I think in many ways it was the most difficult of the pandemic yet, which is saying a lot given how rough 2020 and 2021 were. Still, at least in 2020 there was a sense that we were all collectively having a tough time. This Fall, Indigo and I felt very isolated, and were mentally exhausted from moving and starting over. We are still taking a lot of covid-precautions, and many others are not, which is also difficult to navigate.
Still, as always, amidst the tough things in life, there is much to celebrate, and good memories to share. So here is my recap of the highlights of 2022!
[Note: I recapped some of this year already in my post about leaving DePauw, which you can read here. And if you are interested in previous year reviews, you can find them here: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2013, 2012]
Spring:
As I noted in my last blog post, I applied to a TON of jobs last Spring, something like 40 jobs in January-March, and I had SO many interviews, which was a good moral boost, and provided me with several opportunities to explore different career paths. It was also EXHAUSTING. There is the physical labor of applying to jobs: crafting job materials, prepping for job interviews, and traveling to different places. And then there is the imaginative and emotional labor of envisioning a new future: considering what it would be like to move to new place, convincing the search committee and oneself that you could step into this new role, and dreaming about a new community.
On top of job applications, I taught three classes, was on the committee for two honors thesis students, and guided an independent study. I also did a lot of care work in the Spring, as many of my students navigated grief from losing a close friend, a fellow DePauw senior who died suddenly. (For a more detailed Spring recap, see this post here).
Indigo and I managed to survive the stress of those few months by spending a lot of time in the outdoors, walking Pippin in our neighborhood and visiting local state parks. We also did a lot of arts and crafts. I made miniature fairy homes out of sculpey clay, and I completed several collage art pieces. Two of my favorite pieces include one with the words “gay, gay, gay” all over a rainbow background, as a response to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, targeting K-3rd grade curriculum, and one that says “Let Trans Kids Play” over a background in the colors of the trans flag, as a response to the many sports bills targeting trans athletes.
Summer:
In June, we moved out of our rental house (which was being put on the market) into our friends’ side apartment so that I could teach in DePauw’s summer term. (Thank-you again, Rose and Maggie!) I co-taught a 3 week course called Queering Nature With EcoFeminisms with Christy Holmes. (You can find the syllabus on my teaching page). It was an intense experience to teach every day of the week, and we also had a lot of fun! It was my first time co-teaching a class, and I learned a lot from Christy. Working in collaboration with another professor taught me about my own pedagogical investments, and added new activities (like collaborative chalkboard work) to my teaching tool box.
My favorite part of the class was having the opportunity to get outside with my students, and go on fieldtrips; we visited the Indigenous museum in Indianapolis, went hiking in Shades State Park, crawled through the cave in McCormick Creek Park (well some of the students did! I did not!), volunteered on the campus farm, got a guided botany tour of DePauw Nature Park (thank-you, Dana!), and learned about edible plants and herbs at Hobbit Gardens Herb Farm. One of my favorite memories is the trip to Shades, watching students encourage each other on the ravine trail. They did a fantastic job of emotionally supporting each other down the high ladders, as they conquered their fear of heights and fear of slipping in the mud along the creek.
Indigo and I also organized a trip with students to Indiana Sand Dunes (it was unofficial/not required for class given that it was a 3 hour drive one-way), which was so much fun, despite the rain in the morning. My favorite part was building a sand-castle and a dragon with the students. One of them had never built a sandcastle and kept saying “is this the right way to do it? am I doing this right?” and I kept saying “are you having fun? that is the right way!”
In July, we moved to Maryland and stayed with my parents while trying to find housing in New York. I was completely spent, and also officially unemployed (my gig at DePauw ended in June, and my contract with Wells didn’t start till August). So I took a break, and read a book a day! As in summers past, I also spent a lot of time in and on the river, swimming almost every day, and paddle-boarding.
In August, I worked at Camp Beyond Binary, a new camp for LGBTQ kids in upstate NY. It was wonderful to be back at summer camp after not being able to go because of covid. I appreciate the safety precautions that were put in place around virus mitigation (vaccine requirements, testing, masks, air filters in cabins), and I loved watching the young people connect with each other and with the other counselors. One thing that was different about this camp than others that I have worked at was that all of the campers were in community circles that met every morning and afternoon, which provided them with a close knit group of people to share their experiences with. My campers were initially quite shy, but slowly opened up to each other over the course of the week. I loved watching their trust and bonds grow. I am now on the planning committee for summer 2023 and I am excited that camp is going to be held at a site near Ithaca this summer!
At the end of August, we closed on our new house only a few days before classes started, which as you can imagine was quite stressful! I was excited about being able to buy a house, and grateful to have the means to do so, AND also stressed about the amount of work it will require. In the first week, we had to rip out carpets and junk sofas filled with mouse poop and pee, and do a lot of cleaning to make it more livable. We have also spackled, primed, and painted a room, and have lots of work to do this coming summer. We also had the exciting experience of removing a small snake from the house, twice! (Or maybe removing two snakes on two separate occasions?!) One was found curled up in a plant pot when I went to water my plants, and another day we came home to find a snake making its way across our bathroom counter. Thankfully both times, the snake was amenable to being moved outside.
One thing I am particularly excited about our new house is the fact that we have a large yard, so I am hoping to put in a vegetable and herb garden in the Spring. (And this winter I have enjoyed watching Pippin sniff all of the animal tracks left in the snow overnight).
Fall:
Soon after classes started, my friend A. visited in September with her little one. They live in Austria and I hadn’t seen either of them in four years. Her kiddo has grown a lot! It was wonderful to catch up and also show them around Lake Cayuga.
I taught two classes this Fall, with a much needed course release. Wells College usually has a 3/3 load. I taught Intro to WTQS, following the format that I used at DePauw. The big change I made was to the assignments–instead of having a media analysis paper, I used an assignment that has been successful in other classes: writing a feminist letter. I also created a new assignment–a zine project, which was a huge success! I also taught a new class–Gender, Sexuality, and Health. I maybe should have just used my LGBTQ Life Trajectories as the scaffold, but I wanted to try and design a new class, and to organize it around a disability justice framework. It was a bit of a rough run, but I learned a lot about Wells students, especially those in the Health Studies major, and will be able to redesign it to be much better for the next iteration.
Overall, teaching was hard this Fall. Students were exhausted; I was exhausted. The pandemic is ongoing, and has had a huge effect on student preparation and student mental health. I was also very burnt-out from two and half years of pandemic teaching, and from three consecutive visiting professor positions before getting this Wells job. I got through it day by day, and I am looking forward to a new start with the new Spring semester.
In regards to my scholarship, one of the things that has brought me a lot of joy this past year, is a collaborative relationship with a fellow scholar of trans childhood studies, E. We met at summer camp years ago, and then another scholar reintroduced us, and pointing out that we both do work on trans childhoods. I have enjoyed our regular zoom catch-ups, and we hope to do some writing on lgbtq summer camps together in the future. I also went to a Trans Thinking, Thinking Trans Conference in Baltimore; the keynote by Jules Gil-Peterson on global trans misogyny was fantastic.
On the personal side of things, this Fall, Indigo and I went to two weddings, went camping (in the rain!), explored local state parks like Long Point State Park, and played a lot of Wingspan! We also started attending the Quaker Meetings at The Quaker House which is just across the street from us, and took lots of walks in the woods by the K-12 school near us.
I also started learning more about mushroom foraging in the Fall, and a very wet September meant that I had plenty of mushrooms to observe. I found Indigo Milky Caps (Lactarius Indigo) on campus, which are beautiful (and edible), Inky Caps (Coprinopsis atramentaria) in our backyard, and Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus) in a local park. I also think I found Meadow Mushrooms (Agaricus Campestri) on campus, but wasn’t confident in my ID enough to eat them, given that there are white mushrooms that can kill you. We also spotted an edible puffball, but it was on private property so I couldn’t forage it. Hopefully next Fall I will find one that I can pick and eat! I also looked for but didn’t find any Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), which was disappointing as they are delicious!
Winter:
Two of the most common things we were told when someone learned we were moving to upstate New York was, “Get ready for the cold!” and “It’s beautiful, but the winters are brutal!” It certainly has been cold, and I think this is the greyest place I have ever lived, and certainly the snowiest. During Snowstorm Elliott–the big freeze at the end of December–we had temperatures around 5 degrees Fahrenheit, with wind-chill temps of -15. COLD. Still, both Indigo and I love winter. It’s my favorite season: snow is beautiful, there are no bugs, and I love spending time outside and then returning to a cozy house. It has actually been a milder winter than usual, and I groan every time the temperatures warm up because it means everything is a wet, soggy, muddy mess. I wish it would just stay below zero!
In early December we went home to visit my family, and my little sister initiated Indigo and I into the practice of cold water swimming, which she does year round in the UK. We went into the freezing river three days in a row, and WOW, is that an intense bodily experience! For my birthday, Emily gave me the book “Chill: The Cold-Water Swim Cure” by Mark Harper which explains the psychological and physiological benefits and made me excited to try it out more. That said, since Storm Elliott hit right as we returned to New York we haven’t gone in Lake Cayuga yet, and will probably wait until the spring.
We had a quiet Winter Solstice and Christmas here in Aurora, just Indigo, Pippin, and me. We do have big news: Indigo proposed to me (via a book advent calendar–it was so cute!!) and we are now officially engaged. It feels big, and also not big–it just puts a name on what we already are doing, planning a life together. We spent most of the break, reading, playing the video games Unravel 2, and Never Alone (a beautiful Indigenous story-based game), unpacking the last of our things, and reorganizing the house. For New Year, we went back down to Maryland to visit with Indigo’s family which was also lovely.
So, that’s our year! I am sure there are things that I am forgetting, but those are the highlights. I wish you all the best as we move into 2023!
BOOKS READ THIS YEAR:
90 BOOKS! I read mostly YA, mostly LGBTQ-focused books. It is amazing how many more LGBTQ books there are out there than when I was younger. I also read a lot of graphic novels, and several books of poetry. Some of my favorites include: Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Collected Journals of Alice Walker, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall, Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff, and Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo.
- Hope is a Verb by Emily Ehlers
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (reread)
- Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
- How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic by Bill Hayes
- Teaching When the World is on Fire by Lisa Delpit
- Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner (reread)
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (one of my favorite books of the year!)
- Special Topics in Being Human by S. Bear Bergman
- What the Ice Gets: Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition by Melinda Mueller (poetry)
- Wake: the Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall (this was amazing!)
- Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce (reread)
- 30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani
- Teaching with Tenderness: Toward an Embodied Practice by Becky Thompson (reread)
- Stonebutch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (reread, for class)
- How to be Ace: A Memoir of Growing up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess
- I’m a Wild Seed by Sharon Lee Cruz
- The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
- Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy (hilarious graphic novel!)
- Tomboy: A graphic Memoir by Liz Prince
- Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce
- Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki with Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
- The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood by Krys Malcolm Bec
- Half Promised Land by Thomas Lux
- The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
- Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney
- The Ledge by Michael Collier
- Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson with Emily Carroll
- Both Sides Now: by Peyton Thomas
- Other People’s Children by R. J Hoffman
- All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
- Lose Soul, Be at Peace by Maggie Thrash
- Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir by Nicole J. Georges
- Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar
- The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health, edited by Zena Sharman
- Cemetary Boys by Aiden Thomas
- Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff (another favorite of the year!)
- Trashlands by Alison Stine (at the time of reading, I was meh about this book but can’t stop thinking about it!)
- The Witch King by H.E Edgmon
- The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean (ooph, so good, but painful!)
- Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas
- Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories by Joyce Lankester Brisley (reread)
- Extraordinary Birds by Sandy Stark-McGinnis
- The Best at It by Maulik Pancholy
- Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally by Emily Ladau
- Root Magic by Eden Royce
- A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (another fav.)
- Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake (new fav. author!)
- Five Had Plenty of Fun by Enid Blyton (reread)
- A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger
- Five Have a Mystery to Solve by Enid Blyton (reread)
- The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne with Veronica Fish
- The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Mellby
- How to Become a Planet by Nicole Mellby
- A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
- The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright (reread)
- Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
- This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
- The Last Panther by Todd Mitchell
- Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love (1850s-1950s)
- The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James by Ashley Herring Blake
- Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
- Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
- Five Go Off to Camp by Enid Blyton (reread)
- Five Get Into a Fix by Enid Blyton (reread)
- Bitter by Awaeke Emezi (I love this prequel to Pet)
- Red, White, and Royal Blue by CAsey McQuiston (such a fun read)
- Please Send Help by Allison Raskin and Gabe Dunn
- Born Behind Bars by Padma Venkatraman
- Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom
- Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and A Reconciliation by Maud Newton
- Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker (another fav!)
- The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
- I Hope we Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom (reread)
- Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker
- The River by Gary Paulsen (reread)
- Skim by Mariko Tamaki with Jillian Tamaki
- Chill: The Cold Water Swimming Cure by Mark Harper
- Because I said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings
- Season of Love by Helena Greer (cute rom-com)
- Small Town Pride by Phil Stamper
- Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood after A Lifetime of Ambivalence by Rebecca Walker
- Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake
- The Secrets of Stone Creek by Briana McDonald
- A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian
- The Lucky List by Rachael Lippincott
- When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
- On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
- Watership Down by Richard Adams (reread)
- Juliet Takes a Breath: The Graphic Novel by Gabby Rivera with Celia Moscote
- Girl Haven by Lilah Sturges with Meaghan Carter
The Spaces In Between 