My Cardboard Balcony

Well. This is it. Tonight, I finally get to reveal what I've been super vague about. The big update to my life that I hope will lead to a great new adventure full of learning and success and self-fulfillment. Ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary lovelies...I am ridiculously gay. Oh, no, sorry. That part's painfully obvious. Moving on. The real news is: I have a new job! I will be teaching tenth grade English and Yearbook at a public high school in a nearby county. I start in August, and my wife and I will be moving as close as possible to the campus. It's a big change, and I'm very excited. I'm also extremely terrified. For a number of reasons - some legit, some irrational. For starters, I now have to say goodbye to Fusion Academy, where I have taught English and Social Studies for over two years. The time I have spent at this small but mighty school has been invaluable, and I wouldn't change a thing about it. I have grown so much as a teacher and a perso...

Warrior's Duty by Belinda Roddie I shape the dreams of children with a sword and shield.

How many boys wore eyeliner to the concert that night? They screamed and blew kisses at one another as the lead guitarist made out with his microphone. Meanwhile, I was lusting after the bassist, with that red hair and her sweet, sweet hips, those kickass curves. I knew the pills were kicking in because then I saw double - awesome! Two sexy bassists!

Two Years Ago by Belinda Roddie Two years ago, I was hired at a school where I could teach my students one-on-one. My fellow teachers were all pretty cool, and classes I held were a lot of fun. I taught both English and Social Studies, as well as basic Spanish. I learned so much and improved my own expertise. There's so much more I understand and know from working with such strong, amazing youth with different stories that they've learned to tell without shame and without fear. And the truth is, I gained strength and courage as well. These two years have been two of my life's best - my next adventure will be quite the test.

"Wait...how many pairs of shoes do you have?" Nora demanded to know. "I dunno." Harriet shrugged. "Twenty-two? Twenty-three, maybe?" "Do you really need that many pairs?" "Of course!" Harriet pointed to her pile of high heels. "Every pair is for a different occasion. There's a difference between holiday heels and date night heels. And don't even get me started on my daily sneaker regimen!"

Living In Sepia by Belinda Roddie This brown medicine doesn't make me feel better; it just turns the broth in my intestines just as brown and leaves me hiccuping in my bed with mud brown sheets and a mud brown comforter and all this mud filling up the sinuses leading to my mud-filled brain; to my mud-filled memories. I sink in the swamp of beige and spit out clotted lumps of life while my arms are dunked in Mother Nature's dipping sauce for her kale chips. Does she toast her dinners with a glass of the ocean? Do crabs swim in the crystalline flute? She's made this world very beautiful. Autumn reds and spring greens suit her. Even the winter whites and summer yellows are worth a glance. Mother wouldn't appreciate a canvas scraped apart with gravel and dirt. I don't like being forced to consume anything that results in my colors dulling. Leave the earth tones to the earth; I shoot rainbows between my teeth for fun, beat my brothers ...

She kept her boat close to the shore, the salt in her lungs and bits of kelp in her hair. She tugged at the ropes so that the sails could breathe a little in the night air. It was cold and dreary out; the skies were tinged with the sort of gray that was dull and mournful, as if drained of color many days ago. She could see the moon, but barely, as it hung like a limp pearl among dimmed stars.