A Cup of Tea & Biscuits

I am afraid. Thirty-two thousand feet in the air, warm and comfortable in a blanket, some coffee, a drink and food at hand, the only confession I can make and admit to myself is that I am terrified. Of all the things I just left behind and the choice I’m hurtling towards. My heart is in my throat right now and I cannot stop the tears that I keep dabbing away. Less than an hour ago, I boarded a plane from Chicago to Seattle. As I went past security, a TSA agent asked me if I was heading home. I found myself tongue-tied. I was leaving home. A place I made my home in and going away. A conscious decision, I should add, but I was still leaving. For nearly 6 months now I’ve known this was bound to happen. Two months ago I signed certain papers and it became official. As I revealed the news to those closest to me, it slowly began to sink in that I wouldn’t see them again. Some of my best friends had already left Chicago and while I felt their absence keenly, it never struck me as a fina...

Also adapted & published on Medium . For years on end, I have signed up for reading challenges. Ok, scratch that. A few years ago, probably when I started working in 2011, I realized that I was reading fewer books. News, editorials, and essays I continued to read online, but never really books even though I continuously bought them. It was about that same time that Goodreads first wandered into my general awareness and off I went - creating lists, finding books I owned, read, wanted to read, etc. This included books I owned, borrowed from the library, friends, picked from at the office share-a-book shelf, pilfered (didn't do that)... I liked it! Watching my lists grow, knowing that I still hadn't accounted for several hundreds of books that I've covered in all my years of reading - which, I have on good authority, is a good 20 years now! Anyway, around that same time is when I figured I ought to challenge myself if only to prove that I genuinely was consuming as...