Olivia
Keynote Storyteller
Spirit Animal
Fox
Favorite Season:
Winter
Inspirational Quote:
"Oh Pete. That's later. Maybe we'll be dead by then." - Liz Lemon
My Six-Year Self:
I have no problem telling the guy working on my driveway exactly what I want without feeling bad.
A Bit About Olivia
Olivia is quiet and often sees herself as a fox, a cat, or a cricket. She loves spending time in nature and with the creatures that inhabit the areas around the hiking trail.
The rest of the profile will be updated soon. I hope. :)
three
short
stories
1990 (7 years old)
2012 (29 years old)
November 2022 (39 years old)
I was playing a game with my friend Ben, and I cheated. He told on me, and his father lectured me about fairness. A few days later, we were playing the same game and Ben cheated. I told on him, and his father lectured me about tattling.
I was earning my Master's in English. In an Argumentation class, a professor gave my essay an F, claiming "good arguments split the room." I countered that good arguments win the room. He let me revise the paper. I rewrote it, arguing that his understanding of argumentation was stupid. When I defended this to the disciplinary board, I informed them that I had followed his instructions exactly, and pointed to the result: both papers had evidently split the room! They didn't expel me, but they assigned me a new professor.
I hired two life coaches because I was beaten, exhausted, and resigned. I wasn't suicidal, but I thought about it a lot. Together, they helped me delineate me from my thoughts, emotions, and history, and they helped me build new habits for changing my relationship to reality. Did my life magically get better? No. It got better one painfully slow step at a time. Is my life perfect? Absolutely not. But I laugh a lot more, I smile a lot more, and I eat food and converse with people that makes my mind, body, and spirit feel infused with a humbling dance alongside the agonies and ecstasies of being human.