Lisen Stromberg

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  1. The Vassar 76: On Rejection and Other Life Lessons

    2/2/12 1:25pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    vassar

    That kind of switch and bait probably didn’t occur to most of the 76 students who were recently accepted and then summarily rejected by Vassar College. A computer glitch, just the kind my own son worried about, sent 122 early decision candidates letters of acceptance. For 46 of them, the news was accurate; they had been accepted. For the remaining students, the computer system, in fact the entire system, had failed.  Read more >

  2. Our Mothers, Ourselves: Did Your Mother Prepare You for Motherhood?

    1/24/12 2:00pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    baby isolette

    Eighteen years ago this month, my first child arrived six weeks ahead of schedule. While he was hooked up to tubes and toasting away in the ICU’s isolette, I spent those first days as a mother praying for him and reading Annie Lamott’s memoir, Operating Instructions. Between the laughter and the tears, I was hoping to find that elusive “how-to” manual for mothering.  Read more >

  3. Is College for All? Does a Proposed Two-Tier System Work?

    12/13/11 9:00am by Lisen Stromberg
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    college acceptance letter

    Sometime in the next few months, my son will receive an acceptance letter to college. And with it, a bill. A big bill. A bill so big it will shape his future, defining what he does in the classroom and after graduation because the schools to which he is applying will cost him (and us, his parents) upwards of half a million dollars.Which begs the question, is it worth it?  Read more >

  4. Many College Applications Due Tomorrow: Has the Process Been Frustrating for You and Yours?

    11/29/11 1:30pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    College application process

    I hate the college application process. It reminds me of that old song by Alanis Morrissette, “It’s like meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife.”Isn’t it ironic? You hear about a school. If you’re lucky and can afford it, you visit the school. It seduces you with its ivy covered campus, shinny happy students, and doting professors. Sure it’ll costs somewhere upwards of a quarter of a million dollars to send him, but you’ll figure it out. It would be the perfect place to send your beloved, and of course brilliant, child. No doubt the school would be lucky to have him. Sadly, 40,000 (or 50,000 or even 75,000) other parents couldn’t agree more.  Read more >

  5. Moms Clean Air Force Asks, “Shouldn’t Our Children Have the Right to Clean Air?”

    11/21/11 6:54pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    Double Pendulum screen grab

    Did you know we take between 18,000 and 28,000 breaths a day? That’s a lot of in/out/in/out. And yet it’s something we rarely think about. It’s so natural, so essential, it doesn’t require us to think -- until we have to. Breathing’s been on my mind lately. It may have been the yoga class I took the other day. “Focus on breath,” said the instructor. And so I did.  Read more >

  6. On Norway, My Heritage and Innocence Lost

    8/16/11 6:15pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    Lisen Stromberg - children in Norway

    It’s been nearly a month since Anders Behring Breivik wreaked havoc in Oslo and Utoeya island. And while the rest of the world has moved on to the next headline, Norway, and those who love it, have just begun to develop a measured response. I mourn the Norway of my childhood, the birthplace my mother.  Read more >

  7. Summer Internships and the Price of Privilege

    7/29/11 4:00pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    lifeguard

    When Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest,” I am pretty sure he didn’t mean forking over thousands of dollars so your kid could participate in a fancy (unpaid) internship. But that is exactly what parents of privilege are doing this summer.“What?” you ask. “Parents are paying to have their children work at a company?” Oh, yes they are and it’s not just because the Great Recession continues unabated.  Read more >

  8. The Beach Trees: Understanding Why People Rebuild

    7/28/11 3:00pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    As I have watched one natural disaster after another batter these United States, I have wondered why those who live in hurricane country or Tornado Alley don’t just throw in the towel and retreat to safer ground. Unlike earthquakes that are rare and unpredictable, hurricanes and tornadoes have yearly seasons. The damage that is done is sure to be done again and sooner rather than later. Reading Karen White’s latest novel, The Beach Trees, I think I have a better sense of what makes us stay.  Read more >

  9. The (Ongoing) War Against Mothers

    6/27/11 12:00am by Lisen Stromberg
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    Working mom

    Remember that old movie, Network, where the guy hangs out of the window and yells, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”? Well, that’s how I felt when I read this month’s issue of The Atlantic. The cover article is called,”How to Land Your Kid in Therapy,” but what it should really be called is, “Yet Another Way to Blame Mothers for Their Children’s Failures.”  Read more >

  10. It's Exam Time and That Means It's Cheating Season Again

    6/8/11 3:00pm by Lisen Stromberg
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    Test Taking

    Many moons ago, as I preparing for finals in college, I met a friend for a last minute cram session. I was pretty well prepared, but he said he needed help. He brought copies of what he explained were “last year’s test.” Using old exams was not uncommon practice in my classes. Professors even occasionally left hard copies in the library for review (there was no on-line then).  Read more >

Lisen Stromberg

Full Name
Lisen Stromberg
Member Since
June 2009
About Me: 

"I was a late bloomer. But anyone who blooms at all, ever, is very lucky." - Sharon Olds

I, too, am a late bloomer. Late to writing, late to blogging, and usually late to lunch, but grateful to be here. I began writing a little over a decade ago on a plane to Boston. Frustrated by the lack of understanding, compassion, and support I experienced as the mother of a janegirl, I scribbled my thoughts on the back of a United luncheon napkin. Once home, I refined my ideas and sent the article to a number of publications. It hit a nerve. The essay, My Son, the Cross Dresser, won a number of awards and launched my writing career. I have since been published in a variety of magazines (both on-line and off), completed my MFA in Prose at Mills College, and am now working on my first novel about a woman who wonders how she can be a mother, a wife and still a feminist. 

You can visit www.prismwork.com to read more...

 

Location Tags: 

Northern California, Annisquam

School Tags: 

Dartmouth College,Mills College

About Me Tags: 

Writing,Marriage,Parenting,Teens,Gender Identity,Class,Summer,Friendship,Women,Reunions,Life in the Forty Lane,

Causes Tags: 

Literacy,Reproductive Freedom,The Next Wave of Feminism (that means making real change for men and boys so that our daughters and sisters can have truly evolved partners,employees,employers,friends and so on)

 

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