My greatest victory is all due to being in recovery after years of off and on addiction. About nine months after I got clean, I took a temp job as an admin assistant. I worked really hard, was honest and transparent and they quickly hired me as Administrative Manager. It was honestly the most fun job I’d ever had. I…

I used to go to an LA Fitness. Nice gym and all, now I have a home treadmill.

In Jackson MS, about 4 years ago, I was at a popular bar during an open mic night. I was sitting in the back chatting up some random new acquaintances. On the stage a mostly-drunk/completely-joyus woman had wandered up to an empty drum set. She banged on the drums for 10 minutes. Every second of her performance was…

Was in kindergarten and my teacher had gone to Mexico and come back with all sorts of awesome stuff for the kids! This included a piñata so she decided we would have a party and play with it. Of course, giving five year olds bats and blindfolding them doesn’t go well, so she had to organize everyone so no one got hit!

I majored in film and took a wonderful class in Musicals my junior year. I grew up watching musicals from the 1930s-1960s (my mom was a big fan), so I was pretty much the only person in the class who went into it already knowing and loving everything on the syllabus. (I was also the only female in the class, which may…

The time I worked in oil... oh man.

I once yelled at a guy, across a parking lot no less, for tossing something out his window as he drove by. (“Nice job, pig!”) The words were out of my mouth before my brain could weigh the consequences. Like, it was broad daylight and in public, so I probably WOULD NOT get murdered, but you can never rule it out, you…

I was in high school, junior year, US history. My teacher was FRESH out of college, he tried to painfully “hey you fellow kids” us a lot. At the time we were covering the civil rights and feminist movements. It wasn’t in the book, but he touched on some lgbt stuff, too. I was wearing this top from Delia*s that had…

I grew up in a small South Carolina town- Seneca- and was in Honors English 9th and 10th grade with the same teacher- who was just named SC teacher of the year. I was also queer and knew it but wasn’t out because I was in Seneca Sc in 1990. We were studying Whitman- and the teacher could only talk about how he was gay…

Road rage is the stupidest thing. I really don’t understand how some people get so worked up and make it sooooo personal. 

My sister was in 5th grade, and I was in 2nd grade. She was quiet, shy and always did the right thing. I was (am) loud, obnoxious and usually did the right thing after trying the bad thing first. One day, she came home from school crying that the girl bully in her class was cheating off her during tests. My sister was …

It was a small thing, but I got to quit a job in righteous indignation, and that was really satisfying.

I used to be a barmaid in a remote Australian town that had a large Aboriginal population and was so, so racist. The pub had two bars in separate rooms, connected by an opening behind the bar so the bar staff could move easily between them.

I was in college several years back taking Political Science/International Studies. I forget which niche topic the class was supposed to be for, but it was taught by the head of the Political Science department, an old white man who’d been working for forty plus years. Generally, he was nice and generous with grades.

So this story isn’t one of me sticking up for something (not in the mood to write anything detailed tonight), but one of my big sister sticking up for me— I’m trying to decide whether or not to incorporate into my MOH toast in a few months.

How sad is it that there’s not one (or two, or five) examples that pop into my head? That’s a crappy feeling.

Some little shithead was hitting my six-year-old kid at recess. We talked to the teacher and the principal multiple times to no avail. (We don’t know who is doing it, your child only mentions it after-the-fact, etc)

I used to work in a government subsidy program that paid for child care for needy families. I had an 86 year old client who was caring for her 3 grandchildren ages 5-10 in my caseload. She missed an appointment and I had to initiate a termination of her case. She didn’t get in contact until the day after her case…

The time I bulled up and refused a doctor's shrieking order, thereby sparing the patient's life. The doc's face! I died.

I stood up for a person and for being a decent friend in general. One of my best friends now was being bullied by her “friends”at school. One of them told her that she couldn’t eat lunch with them because she wasn’t cool anymore. I heard this from my seat in class and got PISSED. I didn’t really know the chick at the…