Blog

Matriculation/Sports List

Amherst College- Squash, Football, W Lacrosse. Babson College- M Tennis, W Soccer, M Soccer, Baseball Bates College- Field hockey, Skiing, W Squash, Football Birmingham Southern- M Lacrosse Boston College- W Rowing Boston...

Wise Insights

My Whole Heart and Soul: What Being a Fish Means to Me

What being a FISH means to me? The FISH Philosophy website asks, “Imagine what would happen if people at your organization felt comfortable to be themselves and throw their whole heart and...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: Choosing My Attitude

I have just finished reading about the Pike Place Fish Company’s work philosophy and I love it! They focus on play, being there, choosing your attitude, and making other people’s (and your...

Wise Insights

The Joy is in the Planning

What I love about camping isn’t just the camping itself, it’s the lead up. It’s selecting the site, expertly crafting the cooler friendly grocery list, and in my case, it’s also climbing...

Wise Insights

Finding Myself in Nature

A friend recently asked me if I considered myself a spiritual person. Of course this means different things to different people. For me, much of my spirituality revolves around the outdoors. I...

Wise Insights

My Life on a Continuum

Running, playing guitar, and speaking Spanish; these three activities are some of the most rewarding yet most frustrating parts of my life. The runner’s high, nailing the rhythm of a song, or...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: What’s Out There in the Big World?

When I think about what being a fish means to me, I think about my pregnant belly as a fish tank and my baby inside as a fish bonking the glass trying...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: Stay in Your Lane and Enjoy the Journey

It’s 6:00 pm on a beautiful sunny, summer night. The beach crowds are thinning, and the orange bubbled, colored capped open water swimmers are showing up. I meet up with my buddies,...

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What Being a Fish Means to Me: What Kind of Music are You Making?

My reading lately has led me to John Cage’s book Silence, which oddly reminds me of our team’s desire to embody the FISH! Philosophy of Seattle’s Pike’s Place Fish Company. Cage, an...

Wise Insights

What Fishing, er Clamming, Means to Me

Some of my most treasured times, first growing up and then raising a family, have taken place near the ocean in Chatham, Massachusetts on Cape Cod – breathing in the salt air,...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: The View from the Deep End

As I was thinking about how I might contribute to my colleagues’ wonderful reflections about our annual theme What being a fish means to me, a childhood memory accompanied by one of...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: You Are Not Alone

Growing up, our family had such a large goldfish that we named him Big Fish. He was the only fish in the ten-gallon tank in our kitchen surrounded by a faded green...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: Come Swim with Me!

If you read my colleagues’ recent blogs, you know that we at McMillan have embraced the Fish Philosophy to bring more joy and productivity to our work. As a result, a lot...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: It’s Not About the Catch

My husband is an avid fisherman. Freshwater fly fishing, saltwater fly fishing, spinning, tuna trolling, you name it and he does it. He ties his own flies and strings his own rods....

Wise Insights

“What Being a Fish Means to Me: Just Keep Swimming”

After attending our annual NACAC and EMA conferences in Seattle last fall, we returned to Boston refreshed and renewed after reconnecting with colleagues and touring Reed, Lewis & Clark, and the University...

Wise Insights

In Sickness and In Health: What Character Means to Me

It has been said that suffering hardship builds character. For most of my life, that statement didn’t mean much to me. I lived a semi-charmed life, for the most part, and considered...

Wise Insights

What Character Means to Me ~ Nanny Noyes

It was after my mum had suggested a shortcut through Fenway Park that turned out not to be when I told myself “to get over it.” You see, I was carrying my...

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What Character Means to Me: SNL’s Grumpy Old Man & Coping With Cam’s Deployment

One of my dad’s favorite parenting mantras was “mind cheerfully.” It would roll off his tongue several times a week. Translation: it’s not enough to do what I say … do it...

Wise Insights

What Character Means to Me

Every card or letter my mother ever sent me was signed the same way, “Hugs and kisses, Love Mama, A.B.N.” A.B.N. was my mother’s acronym for, “Always be nice”. It was so...

Wise Insights

A Gift from my Parents: Lessons in How to Be a Character

My dad was a character. My mom is too, in her own somewhat less outrageous way. Or maybe she’s the more outrageous one? Either way, I learned about character from my parents,...

Wise Insights

Blood, Sweat, and Sisterhood: Thoughts on Character

As I scramble up yet another steep incline, my buddy asks what happened to my leg. I look down and see blood streaming down my calf. Not feeling a thing, I laugh...

Wise Insights

What Character Means to Me

I am starting to think it is no coincidence that I am tasked with writing this blog a few days before Father’s Day. When I think of the people closest to me...

Wise Insights

What Education Means to Me

I’ve always loved stories, especially biographies and memoirs. In elementary and middle school, I always seemed to have my nose in a book about a famous person. It wasn’t unusual for me...

Wise Insights

What Education Means to Me

What Education means to me has a great deal to do with relationships. When I look back at the influential people that have taught, guided, and nurtured my learning, the process began...