Tolkien
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Four years ago, I had the surreal experience of whitewater rafting the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda. Over a six-hour journey, our group navigated twelve Class 4 and 5 rapids. I was thrown from the raft or flipped over entirely on four of them. It was exhausting, terrifying, and ultimately transformative. I walked away with…
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I tell a lot of stories to my classes; it’s how we connect. One of my favorites is about a junior high basketball game back in Seattle. We were locked in a back-and-forth battle for the final five minutes—an ulcer the size of a grapefruit growing in my stomach the whole time. With nine seconds…
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In December 2001, I sat in a darkened theater and watched Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring. I had read the books as a child, but seeing that world come alive sparked something inside me. My friend Sam and I made a pact to see every installment together. We returned for The Two Towers,…