Even When The Attention Focused On Me

Spend Your Free Time The Way You Like, Not The Way You Think You're Supposed To. Stay Home On New Year's Eve If That's What Makes You Happy. Skip The Committee Meeting. Cross The Street To Avoid Making Aimless Chitchat With Random Acquaintances. Read. Cook. Run. Write A Story. Make A Deal With Yourself That You'll Attend A Set Number Of Social Events In Exchange For Not Feeling Guilty When You Beg Off.

The Next Time You See A Person With A Composed Face And A Soft Voice, Remember That Inside Her Mind She Might Be Solving An Equation, Composing A Sonnet, Designing A Hat. She Might, That Is, Be Deploying The Power Of Quiet.

America Had Shifted From What Influential Cultural Historian Warren Susman Called A Culture Of Character To A Culture Of Personality, And Opened Up A Pandora's Box Of Personal Anxieties Of Which We Would Never Recover.

College Students Who Tend To Study Alone Learn More Over Time Than Those Who Work In Groups.

I'm Not Saying Abolish Group Work - I Think There's A Time And A Place For People To Come Together And Exchange Ideas, But Let's Restore The Respect We Once Had For Solitude. And We Need To Be Much More Mindful Of The Way We Come Together.