New York Italian dads are really weird. Or, at least mine was. My father was proud of me for things that ordinary parents wouldn’t be proud of their daughters for. Like, how sometimes I just know things. I don’t know how I know them, only that I do. The ability likely came from my will to live, as I had to hone my instincts to make it out of my family alive. “Knowing things” probably doesn’t seem like such a strange thing for a dad to be proud of, but maybe it will once you hear the two things my […]

I matter. You Matter. We Matter. When I was little, I was an anxious child. I think it came from my voice going unheard in the family I grew up in. I had an active imagination, and my mother was an extraordinarily frightened woman, and I think bringing my million “why” questions to her terrified her more, so in turn, she terrorized me back just to shut me up. Every once in a while I’d forget and ask her something that my mind had just decided to torture me with. By this time, she had learned to tune me out. […]

I met a leader the other day. Someone who showed a rare confidence. Strength. Bravery. The book launch was ten non-stop days of visiting friends and being interviewed in the media again. I was so tired by the end that I couldn’t even get it up to be afraid on the plane ride back. Just said to myself, “Meh. Who cares if I get claustrophobia and everyone stares at me for screaming at the pilot to let me off the plane. C’mon Universe, get it over with already.” The day after I arrived home I tried chilling out by resuming […]