This post was inspired by a fairly recent interview experience I had for an educational consulting job. It was one of the most intense interviews I had. I articulate a ‘street smarts’ approach to interviewing that is drawn from a ‘coaching session’ with my husband. And this is where the tennis metaphor comes in. I extend insights to help navigate other stressful life situations.

I have decided to stop thinking about writing on my blog—a very active endeavor, indeed!—and start writing. Period. Writing what’s on my mind. Writing to process. Writing to speak. Writing to become. If you can write it, you can become it…

Last fall, in early November, Max and I made a trip from New York City to Breakneck Ridge along the Hudson River per recommendation of a friend. We were beginning to feel a bit burned out from our respective training/education programs and needed to get away. We thought a hiking trip would be a good idea for a change of scenery and a different pace of moving. So, we took an early train out from Grand Central Station…

Today I will write… the days rolled by, folding into weeks, which later became months. The longer I waited in-between writing on this blog, the more distant the idea of writing became. Soon enough, I found myself harboring negative feelings toward writing… This blog post is an experiment with words, images, and feelings. I composed this in a single sitting, taking fragments of texts from different encounters and putting them in conversation (or not). This is my attempt at making sense of this time of the coronavirus (COVID-19), social distancing, and remote learning/teaching.

Here, I share an account of my first-time experience with jury duty service, which happened to take place in New York City. I detail my encounters and thoughts while serving my trial jury duty in Manhattan (111 Centre Street), and record my new learning: what to bring, what to expect, how to be excused, where to eat in Chinatown, etc.

As a second-year education doctoral student at Teachers College, I, Catherine Cheng Stahl, took my first philosophy course with Professor David Hansen. This ‘philosophy of education’ course has transformed me, my thinking with regards to my own education, and my sense of self-trust in my own writing process. Here, I share the very last essay I wrote as part of my own philosophical journey—an essay that I believe provides the foundation for my own philosophy of education to guide me into the new decade.

After many, many weeks post-wedding, I am finally sharing some of my favorite photographs capturing memories from our small wedding at The River Cafe under the Brooklyn Bridge. In this post, I also detail my journey in search for a budget-friendly local New York City (wedding) photographer. I reflect on my experience meeting with and later being photographed by Shelby Phillips on my big day. The end result has been a beautiful collection of photographs that my husband and I will treasure for the years to come. Thank you, Shelby.

Here are 12 of my favorite places (organized by neighborhood, beginning with the one in which I reside) to daydream, read, doodle, and get work done in New York City. I acknowledge that there are likely hundreds of similar blog posts out there with recommendations of places to go in the city for these purposes. What I am offering is the perspective of a 29-year old teacher-turned-student who has lived in the city now for a little over a year, who is a self-identified introvert, an enthusiastic user of public transport, and an avid people-watcher (i.e., ethnographer-in-training).

Drawing inspiration from both Deleuzoguattarian theory of becoming and Kathleen Stewart’s evocation of ordinary affect, this visual entry is an experiment-in-process with the raw materials of flour, eggs (and some water). Here, I share the simultaneous unraveling and entangling of these materials as they become (through manual labor) dough and eventually homemade farfalle. I will be re-turning (in a Baradian sense) and sharing additional insights as I revisit this entry in the near future.

For this first day in March, I’m sharing more reflections regarding my first year at Teachers College as a doctoral student in education. I have recently been reading Deleuze and Guattari’s works, along with that of Erin Manning on the minor gesture and will share some of my sense-making process. And as always, I’m sharing original photographs taken during strolls through New York City…