Maggie Collins

Can we ever escape the stories our families pass down about our bodies — and our fate? The monster under my bed came with my last name: the fear that my heart could stop at any moment. It wasn’t just fear — it was family legacy. On my dad’s side, everyone seemed to accept that people just dropped dead from heart attacks in their 50s. It was a fact that everyone accepted without much emotion or even really any noticeable fear. It was just how things are for you if you share this bloodline.

New York has long recognized the transformative power of after-school programs in fostering students’ academic achievement, social development and overall well-being. However, if the state is to build a truly equitable after-school system, it must expand to include more eligible programs — including programs for students over the age of 13. With last year’s Learning and Enrichment Afterschool Program Supports (LEAPS) initiative, Gov.

The final divorce papers are sitting somewhere in a judge’s files waiting for a signature that ends the legal bonds of my nearly thirty-year marriage. There is no handbook on the appropriate way to feel in these moments. Friends who have walked this road before me have described a near-euphoric space of the end of something awful. Others have talked about the deep grief that welled up unexpectedly from within.