In case you don’t know this about me, let me clue you in on something: I’m somewhat of a productivity nerd. It’s always been part of my DNA to get things done as efficiently as possible. I think I’m this way for three reasons: 1) it is a learned behavior. My mom was a school teacher, and my dad was a military officer. Enough said. 2) self-preservation to conserve energy and maximize performance. Being born with a physical disability meant I had to learn how to get more done with less from a young age. 3) I happen to enjoy it.

A few years ago, habit formation became very popular in the productivity world. It was spurred mainly by books by Charles Duhigg and James Clear. I’ve read Duhigg’s book, but only half of Clear’s. By the end of this post, you should understand more clearly why I didn’t finish Clear’s Atomic Habits.

It was the summer of 2019, and Drew and I were sitting in a movie theater watching the previews for Ford vs. Ferrari when I saw the trailer for Top Gun Maverick for the first time. Even though it was just a few scenes set to the iconic Top Gun anthem, I immediately got goosebumps. To say I am a fan girl of Top Gun would be a huge understatement.

When Top Gun was released I was only 10 years old. My parents never took me to see movies as a kid, so as a result I never saw it in the theater. When I did finally watch it on VHS later that year, it had a significant impact on me. Even though I know at that age, my ability to appreciate all the movie had to offer was limited, I still loved everything about it. I mostly connected to the movie’s military setting and the aerial combat scenes because my dad was a fighter pilot— Air Force, though, not Navy, as he’d like to correct me.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day here in the United States. I’ve always been conflicted about the holiday. I think my hesitation to fully embrace a celebratory attitude stems from one of a couple of reasons. Either: a) my aversion to a holiday that legitimizes drunkenness or b) that the holiday mascot is a leprechaun— a cute, jolly little short dude who is an appropriating stereotype and caricature for a Little Person (who are actually real people, by the way).

Aside from green beer and leprechauns, though, St. Patrick’s Day is most associated with luck and four-leaf clovers. The myth of Celtic tradition says that four-leaf clovers are to be used to repel back luck. The leaves of the clover themself stand for faith, hope, luck and love.

If you are a creative entrepreneur who is currently using WordPress to host your content, and you are thinking of switching to a different platform, let this blog post serve as a kind of permission slip. Because years ago, when I was thinking of leaving WordPress , I came upon a blog post written by a woman who had just made the leap from WordPress to Squarespace. She explained her reasons and rationale, but all in all what the post did was permit me to let go of all my hang-ups about sticking it out on WordPress and make the leap myself.

I was a sophomore in high school when the break up of the USSR happened. I wish I could say I remember it clearly, but I don’t. My family was going through a breakup of its own at the time, so I doubt I had the attention span for current global events, and I’m kind of regretting that now.

What I do remember are hearing phrases like “the effects of perestroika and glasnost,” and “the end of the Cold War.” I clearly remember images from 1989, two years prior, of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow and execution of Nicolae Ceausescu. Seeing how the Romanians pulled down a statue of Ceausescu in the capital of Bucharest and thinking, “Gee, those people don’t mess around.”

I feel like the world is in a weird place right now. Or maybe it’s that I’m feeling weird in the world. More times than I find comfort in, have I checked the headlines this week to see if World War III has broken out. Depending on who you ask, some say it has. But what does that mean, exactly?

I love history. It was my favorite subject in school. It’s my favorite category on Jeopardy. I usually do pretty well when anything history-related is a Trivial Pursuit question.

I also love journalism. It was my major in college, and if it weren’t for the soul-crushing pace of a reporter’s life, I think I would have excelled in the profession. Even though I didn’t make journalism my career, does not mean I wasted my time in college. I learned how to ask questions, think critically, and never bury the lead. I believe good skills to have in general, really.

The beautiful nexus of where history and journalism converge is that reporting (when at its best and most objective) becomes a record of history. There is a quote I love by the late Philip Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post, who said, “Journalism is the first rough draft of history.”