I take on political topics in my writing--labor activism in Opa Nobody, the need for universal healthcare in Cover Me--but like many writers on She Writes, I start with my own life because that's the subject I know best. A long time ago, when I was working as a cashier and receptionist at a photo processing shop in Cambridge, MA, a friend named Pete who was the photo tech gave me a beautiful quote written on the back of a post card: "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open." That inspiring pair of sentences written by Muriel Rukeyser has been a dare for me since then. I do believe the personal is political, but I also think that the definitions of "personal" can sometimes be too narrow. We think of our sex lives as personal, but our bank accounts and our job histories as merely mundane. I've been trying to see into my life from every angle possible, and I'm just at the beginning stages of that process because there are so many ways to look at one life. And whenever I look at my life, it becomes a kaleidoscope or telescope--a lens that requires me to see through my life into the world beyond it. I sit down every morning to write to try to tell the truth about my life, from the mundane to the secret worries to the things that make me boring and predictable, hoping to find the bridges that connect us all.