gratitude – Are You Finished Yet?

2020 Is (Not) the Worst

Published on November 12, 2020November 12, 2020 by Kelly Suellentrop1 Comment

2020 strikes again. #COVIDSUCKS. It is what it is.

Yeah. I know.

But I’m kind of done with it. Not done with acknowledging that life right now is Hard. Different. Divisive. Heartbreaking. Exhausting. Those things need to be acknowledged. Sweeping problems under the rug is no way to do things. But I am done with staying stuck there. With not putting my big girl pants on and doing something about it. With letting a year plaster its unofficial mottos of negativity and helplessness over every moment that happens to me.

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To My Former Students: Walt Whitman Was Right

Published on May 27, 2020June 3, 2020 by Kelly SuellentropLeave a comment

Dear Former Students,

I talked about you today. It’s funny – I actually bring you up quite a bit in conversations. Our time together was a mere five years before I started a family of my own and never returned to the classroom. But clearly, those five years made an impression on me. You made an impression on me.

Some of you I still know. Maybe we grab lunch every now and again. Maybe we keep in contact on social media. Maybe we cross paths in the small world that is our city. Maybe we run into each other at a bar, and I become embarrassed that I am clearly not sober even though I am no longer your teacher and you are no longer my student and we are both within our legal right to over-indulge. But the thing is, you could be seventy-five years old, and I could be eighty-five years old, yet I would still think of you as one of “my girls.” And I would still feel the same responsibility to be a good example, to hold you to high expectations, and to count your head on a bus to make sure I wasn’t leaving anyone behind on a field trip. Continue reading “To My Former Students: Walt Whitman Was Right” →

The Gratitude Novella

Published on January 6, 2015February 1, 2015 by Kelly Suellentrop45 Comments

I have heard that your level of happiness is directly correlated to how often you show gratitude. Well, I am bound and determined to start off 2015 happy. So much so that this very first post of the year is going to be slathered with gratitude.

I have much to be thankful for in this past year, but I’m guessing you don’t want to read a novella-length post in which I profess my appreciation for everything from Korean-Mexican fusion food to The Monkees finally playing a gig in St. Louis. So I am going to focus on the biggest thing to happen to me in 2014: the release of my first children’s book, Absolute Mayhem. (Sorry, Monkees. You were a big deal, too. Promise.)

I am still giddy over how well-received the book has been, even in its fledgling first month. And while it does feel like a huge payoff for me and all the work I put into it, an incredible and unexpected byproduct of the book’s success became Continue reading “The Gratitude Novella” →

If You Like “Family,” We Recommend This Blog

Published on July 16, 2014July 16, 2014 by Kelly Suellentrop43 Comments

You know how sometimes the Universe gives you a gift, but you are too blind to realize it?

Well in this case, the Universe is WordPress (this here blogging platform I use, for those of you non-bloggy peeps), and you can just call me Captain Oblivious.

Last week, I received a message from my blogging sister-wife, Emily of The Waiting. She was basically apologizing for her tardy congratulations, seeing as how she has been on a bit of a blogging hiatus due to lots of super-awesome things happening in her life right now.
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