By Troy Headrick It’s possible some of you may have noted my absence these last couple of weeks.  There’s good reason for that.  My maternal grandmother, a woman with whom I lived when I was growing up because of the instability of my parents’ marriage, died eight days ago now.  She was 103 years old.... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick This is the second in a series of blogs intended to thank those who’ve played important roles in shaping my personality and values, in helping me become the person I am today.  If you’d like to read the first piece in this series, check this out. It’s commonly thought that every human... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick If you read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, a book I’ve alluded to in at least one other piece, you’ll see that “Book 1” is a collection of acknowledgements and thank yous.  For example, Aurelius lists family members, friends, “the gods,” and others in this opening chapter.  He thanks each one of these individuals... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I pride myself on being someone who wants to have new experiences, meet interesting people, grow intellectually and spiritually, and expand my horizons in the process. Having said all that, I want to share a story with you about how recently meeting a very special person has had such a wonderfully positive... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick On Friday, October 11th, I attended a professional development workshop at the college where I’m employed.  The title of the session was “Communication Skills for Collaboration.”  Looking back, I don’t think the title gave an apt preview of what the talk would cover.  Plus, the title was boring; whereas, the actually workshop... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I was raised in a very unusual way.  I spent the first eight years of my life as an only child and resided in a rural area.  In fact, for a good chunk of my formative years, I didn’t really have neighbors and certainly not any with kids I could play with.... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick As some of you might know, I am the director of a writing center at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas.  Just yesterday, a bright, young woman came into our facility and one of our best tutors helped her with a piece of writing she’d been working on. The tutoring session... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I’m going to share a secret with you.  Several years ago, back when I was living overseas, I used to create artwork and show it internationally.  I even sold quite a few pieces.  Then, for reasons I won’t get into right now, I stopped making art.  (By the way, my header image... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick After I’d posted “Practicing Patience,” Betul Erbasi and I had a really interesting exchange.  (By the way, Betul is one of Pointless Overthinking’s regular contributors and a Turk who is working on her PhD at the University of Southern California.)  The topic of this conversation was anger and American culture.  I pointed... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick It’s not even close to January 1st but I’m making a resolution nonetheless.  I’m resolving to become a more patient person.  The way I want achieve this goal is by establishing a daily habit of practicing patience. Those of you who regularly read my blogs know that I’m an American who spent... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I want to start this one with a warning.  I’m not for sure what I want to say, where this is going to go, or what my real subject is.  I want to discover all of those things through the process of putting words on paper. Lately, I’ve been suffering from a... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick In “What I’ve Learned about Life while Watching My Father Age,” a blog I wrote several weeks ago, I mentioned that I’d been reading On Death and Dying, a wonderfully insightful book written by Elisabeth Kϋbler-Ross.  Throughout that tome, the author argues that doctors need to take a more “human” approach while... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I grew up in a small town and was raised by a very conventional family.  Some might even say my kinfolk were conservative, and certainly many of them were exactly that. I share this bit of autobiographical information because I think my southern upbringing was pretty standard, with the exception that my... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I’ve long been interested in the connection between self-awareness and healing.  This interest didn’t begin in some academic way with me reading something about the causal relationship implied here.  It started in a more practical way.  It began with me trying to deal with a medical condition that has long bothered me.... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I’m an American educator who spent nearly two decades living and working abroad—in Europe, Asia, and Africa.  Though this period of my life was a wonderful adventure and provided me with the opportunity to have many life-changing experiences, there was a cost.  Except for the short trips home each year, I became... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I’ll start this one off with a confession.  Lately, I’ve been feeling depressed and overwhelmed.  These feelings are a byproduct of what I see happening in America, the place I currently live, and elsewhere, especially in parts of Europe. As everyone certainly knows, America’s president is Donald Trump.  (Just having to say... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I had been thinking for several days about the possibility of writing something about automobiles and driving and the impact these things have on our mental health and happiness, and then I saw that Betul Erbasi had published this piece on slowing down.  As someone who writes regularly for Pointless Overthinking, I... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick Several days ago I needed to leave the writing center I manage and walk to the college library to pick up some reading that is relevant to some research I am doing.  So I turned the center over to my very capable tutors and began the ten-minute stroll across campus to the... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick To be human is to have limitations.  Some of our limitations are physical.  For example, in my case, I know for a fact that I cannot run a marathon, nor can I lift a barbell loaded with two hundred pounds over my head (even though I’m fairly fit).  We are also intellectually... Continue Reading →