As 2025 comes to a close, I’m realizing I remember far less about what I checked off and far more about what I felt. The quiet moments. The clunky ones. The days where nothing dramatic happened but something small shifted anyway. This year reminded me that growth doesn’t always arrive with fireworks or a LinkedIn announcement. Sometimes it shows up as a pause. A boundary. A deep breath taken five seconds sooner than last time. None of these lessons arrived fully formed. They

Ever feel stuck when given a storytelling prompt? You hear something like “out on a limb”  and your mind immediately jumps to the obvious or literal ideas. Maybe you think of climbing a tree, taking a risky bet, or doing something crazy. The method I use to generate multiple story ideas from a single prompt is called “Exploding the Prompt.” Step 1: Start with the Obvious Begin by writing down the first few ideas that pop into your head, even if they seem boring, cliché, or “b

Last week, I sat in a small, warm Spanish restaurant in New York City with my parents, who are in their 80s, and my brothers, who are in their 40s and 50s. The table was covered in dishes of paella, two and a half empty pitchers of sangria, and the kind of laughter that only rises when a family has gathered after too much time apart. We told stories for hours. One story led to another, which led to another, spiraling outward like rings on water. What struck me most was not th