Author: admin

• Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” debuted on Friday.
• “Toy Story 5” has earned an estimated $312 million globally so far.
• Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and other celebrities have reprised their beloved roles.

The toys are back in town.

Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” has dominated the worldwide box office since its theatrical debut on Friday. The film, directed by Andrew Stanton and Kenna Harris, grossed an estimated $160 million domestically and another $152 million internationally.

The initial domestic box office numbers surpassed Universal Pictures’ “Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which earned $131 million when it opened in April. “Toy Story 5” has also topped the franchise, surpassing the $120 million “Toy Story 4” earned during its opening weekend in 2019.

In total, “Toy Story 5” has so far amassed an estimated $312 million globally. Disney said “Toy Story 5” had the second-highest animated opening weekend of all time, behind only “Incredibles 2.”

Since the first installment in 1995, “Toy Story” has remained one of Disney and Pixar’s most beloved franchises. The films have earned over $1.3 billion at the box office across three decades, in addition to revenue from video games, toys, merchandise, books, apparel, and in-real-life experiences.

“Toy Story 5” may feel like a reunion for lifelong fans. Many of the original cast members have reprised their roles, including Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, and Joan Cusack as Jessie. John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, and Annie Potts are also making their franchise return.

While the gang has faced off against humans, other toys, and even each other, they encounter a new challenge in “Toy Story 5” — technology.

“Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and the rest of the gang’s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad, a brand-new tablet device that arrives with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie. Will playtime ever be the same?” a synopsis of the film says.

Greta Lee plays Lilypad, while Keanu Reeves, Bad Bunny, Conan O’Brien, and other actors bring new characters to life.

Disney and Pixar’s decision to make technology the crux of “Toy Story 5” will likely resonate with parents raising children in the iPad era. Screen time has become a major discussion as devices like tablets become more accessible and further integrated into everyday life.

A 2024 survey by Common Sense Media found that 4 in 10 children have their own tablet by age 2. By age 4, more than half of children do. “Tablets have the highest proportion of ownership among children compared to any other mobile device,” the report said.

Parents often worry about how extended screen time can impact children’s development.

“Among parents, 75% to 80% express consistent concerns about screen media, including worries about excessive use, effects on mental health, and the amount of inappropriate content,” the report said.

In response, some parents have made a conscious effort to limit their children’s screentime, including Business Insider’s Conz Preti.

“I want my kids playing with each other and leaning into imagination, creating worlds together, instead of being zombiefied in front of an app,” she wrote after seeing “Toy Story 5” last week.

• Vice President JD Vance, President Donald Trump’s second-in-command, is a former Ohio senator.
• JD Vance met his wife, Usha Vance, while they were both students at Yale Law School.
• They wed in Christian and Hindu ceremonies in 2014 and are expecting their fourth child in July.

When Fox News asked Usha Vance in June 2024 how she felt about her husband, JD Vance, being considered as Donald Trump’s running mate, she told host Lawrence Jones that she was “not raring to change anything about our lives right now.”

But it appears that she came around, holding the Bible at the 2025 inauguration as JD Vance was sworn in as vice president of the United States.

JD Vance, the former junior senator from Ohio and bestselling author of memoirs “Hillbilly Elegy” and “Communion,” and Usha Vance, a litigator whose résumé includes a Supreme Court clerkship, met as students at Yale Law School and wed in 2014.

Since becoming vice president and second lady, the Vances have taken several international trips together, including a visit to the US military’s Pituffik Space Base in Greenland in March 2025 and the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in February 2026.

In January 2026, the Vances announced they are expecting their fourth child, making Usha Vance the first second lady in US history to be pregnant while in office.

Here’s a look inside the relationship of the GOP power couple serving as vice president and second lady.

Born in Ohio and raised by his grandparents in Kentucky, JD Vance joined the Marines and graduated from Ohio State University.

JD Vance served as a public affairs Marine in Iraq, liaising between service members and members of the press. After his military service, he majored in political science and philosophy at Ohio State University.

Usha Vance studied history at Yale and taught American history in Guangzhou as a Yale-China Teaching Fellow.

Usha Vance grew up in a suburb of San Diego. Her parents are Indian immigrants.

Usha Vance told Fox News in June 2025 that her parents’ Hindu faith was “one of the things that made them such good parents, that make them very good people.”

She was a registered Democrat until 2014.

She is also conversant in German.

The couple met while they were students at Yale Law School.

In law school, Usha Vance served as executive development editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, according to a bio on the website of her former employer, Munger, Tolles & Olson, that has since been removed.

She also worked pro bono with the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic, the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, and the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project.

Usha Vance told NBC News in 2017 that she and JD Vance took all of their classes together and were friends before they started dating. When they were assigned to work on a brief together, Usha Vance said she was impressed by his diligence.

“I’ve never seen anybody so starstruck,” their law school professor, Amy Chua, said of JD Vance in an interview with NBC News. “It was love at first sight.”

They wed in 2014 and held both Christian and Hindu ceremonies.

Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019. Usha Vance was raised Hindu.

When asked about their interfaith marriage in a June 2025 interview with Fox News, Usha Vance said: “There are a lot of things that we just agree on, I think, especially when it comes to family life, how to raise our kids. So I think the answer really is that we just talk a lot.”

While speaking at a Turning Point USA event in October 2025, JD Vance said that he hoped his wife would someday convert to Christianity.

“Do I hope that eventually she is somehow moved by what I was moved by in church? Yeah, honestly, I do wish that, because I believe in the Christian Gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way,” he said. “But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”

In 2016, JD Vance published his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” in which he wrote about his relationship with Usha Vance.

JD Vance’s memoir details his working-class upbringing and the lives of poor, white Americans. He also wrote about how Chua, his professor, encouraged him to focus on his relationship with Usha Vance as a Yale law student.

When JD Vance asked Chua to recommend him for a federal clerkship, she warned him that it’s “the type of thing that destroys relationships.”

“Amy’s advice stopped me from making a life-altering decision. It prevented me from moving a thousand miles away from the person I eventually married,” Vance wrote.

“Most important, it allowed me to accept my place at this unfamiliar institution — it was okay to chart my own path and okay to put a girl above some shortsighted ambition,” he continued. “My professor gave me permission to be me.”

After law school, JD Vance worked at VC firms while Usha Vance landed prestigious clerkships.

Vance worked at Mithril Capital, a VC firm backed by Peter Thiel, in 2016. One former coworker previously told Business Insider that Vance was often away from the job promoting his book, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Thiel ended up being instrumental in Vance’s rise to power in politics, donating $15 million to his Senate campaign and encouraging Trump to choose Vance as his running mate, The New York Times reported.

Vance went on to work at Revolution, a VC firm in Washington, DC, before founding his own firm, Narya Capital, in 2019.

Meanwhile, Usha Vance worked as a litigator at Munger, Tolles & Olson before leaving to clerk for Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the US Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts. Following her clerkships, she returned to Munger, Tolles & Olson, according to a bio on the firm’s website that has since been removed.

In his new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” JD Vance wrote that Usha Vance told him that she wanted to land a prestigious Supreme Court clerkship not out of ambition, but as an “insurance policy,” saying, “It’s so prestigious that if I do it and then have kids, it won’t ruin my career.”

Usha Vance appeared in a political ad and at campaign events when JD Vance ran for Congress in 2022.

In the ad, Usha Vance described her husband as “an incredible father” and “my best friend.”

In an interview with Newsmax about the ad, Usha Vance also responded to media reports about Vance’s dramatic transformation from a “Never Trumper” to a staunch Trump supporter.

“Sometimes people say that he’s changed a lot, but the truth is I’ve known him now for so many years and he’s always been so true to himself,” she said.

As Trump vetted JD Vance for the vice presidency, Usha Vance expressed ambivalence about the possibility of him being chosen.

“I’m not raring to change anything about our lives right now, but I really believe in JD and I love him, so we’ll see what happens with our lives,” she told Fox News in June 2024.

When Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate in July 2024, Usha Vance quit her job as a litigator.

On the first day of the Republican National Convention, when Trump announced JD Vance as his vice presidential pick, a spokesperson for Munger, Tolles & Olsen told ABC News that Usha Vance had left the firm.

“Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career,” the spokesperson said.

Usha Vance spoke at the Republican National Convention about meeting and falling in love with JD Vance.

Usha Vance said that when they first met, JD Vance approached their differences “with curiosity and enthusiasm.”

“Although he’s a meat and potatoes kind of guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learned to cook food from my mother, Indian food,” Usha Vance said in her speech. “Before I knew it, he’d become an integral part of my family, a person I could not imagine living without.”

JD Vance acknowledged racist attacks against his wife from white supremacists.

After white nationalist Nick Fuentes questioned JD Vance’s ability to “support white identity” with an Indian wife, he voiced support for his spouse.

“Look, I love my wife so much. I love her because she’s who she is,” JD Vance said in an interview with Megyn Kelly in July 2024. “Obviously, she’s not a white person, and we’ve been attacked by some white supremacists over that. But I just, I love Usha.”

He also hit back against the attacks on ABC News’ “This Week,” telling host Jonathan Karl in August 2024, “Look, my attitude to these people attacking my wife is, she’s beautiful, she’s smart. What kind of man marries Usha? A very smart man and a very lucky man, importantly.”

He continued, “Don’t attack my wife. She’s out of your league.”

JD Vance thanked his “beautiful wife” in a post on X after he and Trump won the election in November 2024.

Usha Vance appeared alongside her husband and members of the Trump family at the campaign’s election night event in Palm Beach, Florida.

“THANK YOU!” Vance wrote on X after the election results came in. “To my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this. To President Donald J. Trump, for giving me such an opportunity to serve our country at this level. And to the American people, for their trust. I will never stop fighting for ALL of you.”

At the 2025 inauguration, Usha Vance held the Bible as JD Vance was sworn in as vice president.

JD Vance was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Usha Vance’s former boss when she clerked for him in the US Court of Appeals.

They took their first foreign trip together as vice president and second lady in February 2025, visiting France and Germany.

The vice president attended the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris and the Munich Security Conference. He and Usha Vance also visited the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

They brought their three children along on Air Force Two.

In March 2025, JD Vance joined Usha Vance to visit Pituffik Space Base, the sole US military base in Greenland.

Since winning a second, non-consecutive term in the White House, Trump has doubled down on his intention to acquire Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory that hosts a US military base. The governments of Greenland and Denmark have maintained that it is not for sale, but Trump has said he would not rule out using force.

In March 2025, the White House announced Usha Vance would embark on a solo trip to Greenland to “visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersua, Greenland’s national dogsled race.” The government of Greenland said it had not invited any delegations to visit, and Greenland’s then-prime minister, Múte Bourup Egede, called the trip “very aggressive.” Trump said that Greenland had asked the US to visit.

Usha Vance’s trip was subsequently scaled back to visiting Pituffik Space Base, the US military’s northernmost installation in Greenland. In a video, JD Vance announced he would travel with her.

“There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” he said.

Taylor Van Kirk, JD Vance’s press secretary, told Business Insider that the Vances were “proud” to visit Greenland.

“The security of Greenland is critical in ensuring the security of the rest of the world, and the Vice President looks forward to learning more about the island,” Van Kirk said.

In April 2025, JD Vance visited India, where Usha’s parents immigrated from, for the first time.

The vice president and second lady visited the Akshardham Temple and the Taj Mahal with their children and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

“Despite being married to the daughter of Indian immigrants, I had never visited India,” JD Vance wrote in “Communion.” “This was partially my fault and partially the fault of circumstances — one-year jobs, a Zika outbreak while Usha was pregnant, and COVID.”

Usha Vance was seen without her wedding ring in November 2025, sparking scrutiny of their marriage that the second lady’s spokesperson dismissed.

During a public appearance at military bases in North Carolina, observers noticed that Usha Vance wasn’t wearing her wedding ring.

In a statement to People magazine, the second lady’s spokesperson described Usha Vance as “a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths, and forgets her ring sometimes.”

JD Vance also addressed the marriage rumors, telling NBC News that “we kind of get a kick out of it” and that their marriage was “as strong as it’s ever been.”

In January 2026, the couple announced that they are expecting their fourth child.

Their first child, Ewan, was born a month before Usha Vance began her clerkship with Chief Justice Roberts, NBC News reported. They also have another son, Vivek, and a daughter, Mirabel.

Their fourth child, a boy, is due in July.

“We’re very happy to share some exciting news. Our family is growing!” Usha Vance captioned a photo of a joint statement from the Office of the Vice President announcing her pregnancy on social media.

They attended several events at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026.

JD Vance and Usha Vance waved American flags at the opening ceremony and brought their kids along to support Team USA in the stands of figure skating competitions and ice hockey matches.

In March 2026, JD Vance and Usha Vance visited a Michigan factory, where JD Vance spoke about their decision to have another baby.

“I remember when we decided to run for vice president, I said, ‘Honey, I really want to have a fourth kid,'” JD Vance said in his speech at a manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan. “And she said, ‘Well, you can become vice president or you can have a fourth baby. But, ladies and gentlemen, I am persuasive because I got both.”

That same month, Usha Vance spoke about her “idiosyncratic” political views in an interview with NBC News.

Usha Vance said that while she and JD Vance don’t always share the same political opinions, they remain “open-minded” in their conversations.

“There’s no expectation that we are going to see eye to eye on everything,” she told NBC News in an interview promoting her “Storytime with the Second Lady” podcast focused on child literacy.

She also addressed her past as a registered Democrat, saying her views don’t always fall along party lines.

“Sometimes I have thoughts that fit very comfortably into one side or another. Sometimes I have views that are way more idiosyncratic,” she said.

When asked about JD Vance’s remarks from their trip to Michigan, in which he said he had persuaded her to have another baby, Usha Vance said she had “never closed the door” on the possibility of a fourth child.

“We have our daughter, who’s amazing, and it was great. And so I just wasn’t sure. But as time passed, I realized that I was feeling more and more, kind of, excited about that possibility,” she said.

JD Vance published a new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” in June 2026 and dedicated the book to his wife.

The book’s dedication reads: “For my darling Usha, who taught me to think on those things that are honest, just, pure, and lovely.”

He also wrote extensively about their courtship and marriage, saying that he was “drawn to her unlike I had ever been drawn to anyone” when they met in law school, and that he told her he wanted to marry her after a few weeks of dating.

He also wrote that his “traumatic childhood” made him a “lousy boyfriend in many ways,” and that she encouraged him to go to therapy.

Toward the end of the book, he recalled how Usha Vance initially wasn’t interested in having a fourth child, but changed her mind after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed.

The acknowledgments section concludes with JD Vance thanking his wife.

“There is at least a little irony in the fact that my non-Christian wife helped lead me back to my own Christian faith, and then made it possible for me to discuss the journey on paper,” he wrote. “The Lord works in mysterious ways, indeed.”

• My teenage son is using AI to help him do math homework, and I didn’t know what to do.
• When his school asked parents to join an AI taskforce, I jumped at the opportunity.
• We came up with a system that allows teachers to decide how much AI can be used on each assignment.

Last fall, my children’s school district — in a suburb north of San Francisco, in a community connected to leading tech companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google — issued a call to parents.

The district wanted us to join its Artificial Intelligence (AI) task force. The goal was to draft an AI vision statement and develop a framework for AI in the classroom. I signed up without hesitation.

Why? Because my kid was coming home, taking pictures of his math homework, feeding them into an AI engine, and writing a single prompt: Solve.

He’s known for taking shortcuts, but this one concerned me. As a rule follower, I thought, yikes, he may get into trouble using AI for his homework.

And then a bigger question gave me pause. Do I even want him to be using AI in this way?

I’ve realized many parents are also struggling with AI

My parenting generation has had to navigate rules on screen time, cellphones, and social media without a clear road map.

Having to contend with another emerging technology, one that feels even more powerful, has been daunting. I began to worry about what AI might do to a developing mind.

As I spoke with other parents about my concerns, I discovered I wasn’t alone. Many saw AI literacy as an important skill, but they also worried about its effects on creativity, attachment, critical thinking, and children’s ability to problem-solve on their own.

I joined my son’s AI task force

When I joined the Reed Union School District (RUSD) AI task force in November of last year with a group of teachers, administrators, and parent volunteers, I was struck right away by the district’s posture.

This wasn’t a discussion about whether AI was to be used in the classroom. It was a conversation on how to do it thoughtfully. The general attitude was that this new technology, when used responsibly, could improve learning outcomes and prepare students for a future in which tech skills are increasingly valued.

Over three meetings, we helped form a vision statement for AI integration, a safety and ethics review, and a policy on AI literacy and student use.

The more I listened, the more my own thinking shifted. AI held promise, and there were real risks to consider. Both things are true.

I came into the AI task force with a protective parent instinct, but I came to understand that finding the middle way with this technology was the work I had signed up to do.

We’ve implemented a new, helpful system

Many students have no idea what the rules are when using AI in their schoolwork, and it’s a lot messier than you think.

I have heard it firsthand from my own kid: use AI, maybe get an A, or use AI and risk getting judged by your friends, or punished by teachers. Some kids are risk takers who experiment with these tools. Others won’t touch them at all. As a parent watching from both sides, I could see that neither response serves them.

RUSD is guiding students, teachers, and parents out of this gray zone. The district is rolling out a traffic-light model specifying when and how AI is permitted for academic tasks.

For elementary K-5 students, red light means no AI usage, yellow light allows AI as a tutor or support, and green light means AI as a partner.

For middle schoolers, the model becomes a 0 to 4 scale with color bands. Here, 0 indicates no AI involvement, while 4 indicates a task in which AI generates the work and the student must critique and fact-check it.

The traffic light system and numeric framework will be placed on assignment headers, classroom posters, and communications with families. This creates clear signals, helping students understand the rules and the reasons behind them.

This will also help me know what to reinforce at home.

I’m still figuring it out as I go

What I want for my son is not a ban on AI. I want him to use it as a learning partner — to be curious, to be creative, to ask it questions, to read it carefully, and to push back on its answers if they don’t sound right.

I don’t want him to sit down, hit copy and paste, and walk away. That is the difference between a student who uses AI to outsource thinking and a student who learns to augment his own.

RUSD is trying to build the latter. And so am I.

• I rarely get to connect with my 30-year-old son, so I invited him on a trip with me.
• We planned the trip together and decided to travel to Hawaii.
• While there, we were able to have deeper conversations while still maintaining boundaries.

I live in New York City. My 30-year-old son, Alec, lives across the country in Southern California. When I visit, I respect that he has his own busy, adult life. While I’d like nothing more than to spend every minute with him, I’m proud of his independence and try not to monopolize his time.

Alec has a roommate and no space for an overnight guest. When I’m on his home turf, I stay in a hotel or with a friend.

When he comes to NYC for the holidays, his schedule is packed. Plus, with the entire family under one roof, it can be tough to carve out one-on-one time.

I don’t feel shut out of Alec’s life, but I do miss spending quality time with him, so I floated the idea of a mother-son vacation.

He set a few ground rules before we started planning

Alec was vocal that for our getaway to work, we’d need to approach it as equals. This may sound deceptively simple, but it took lots of self-control on my part.

Little kids and I pair like milk and cookies. I did my graduate studies in early childhood education and taught preschool for years. Parenting young kids is never easy, but it felt instinctive. It grew harder as my children grew older.

Alec is my firstborn, and my parental grip was tightest around him. When he was a teenager, he told me I didn’t understand that teens needed autonomy. At the time, he was correct, but over the years, I’ve worked hard to pacify my bossy instincts.

This time, I would welcome his voice in planning our vacation.

Alec brought up another rule: that part of being equal should include sharing expenses. I gifted Alec his airline ticket using miles, and we split additional expenses.

Choosing a destination

Alec had four days off work over Memorial Day Weekend. I advocated for a location that wasn’t too hot, as I had suffered a bout of heatstroke in Greece last summer. A yoga class nearby would be a bonus.

Alec made a case for Hawaii. He’d never been, but its laidback reputation appealed to him. He said he wanted to destress at a resort and eat poke every day.

Hawaii is special to me. I first visited when I was a kid, spending a summer at my aunt and uncle’s home in Waianae on Oahu. The idea of sharing Hawaii with Alec was exciting.

From a practical point of view, Hawaii made sense. There are numerous nonstop flights from LAX, Alec’s home airport. I was going to be in Denver for work, so I was already heading in a westerly direction.

Each of the Hawaiian Islands has its own flavor. We had lots of options and weren’t quite sure how to narrow them down.

Alec is a fan of the television cooking show “Top Chef.” During his online research, he learned that former contestant Sheldon Simeon was scheduled to be the visiting chef at the Ritz-Carlton O’ahu, Turtle Bay on the island’s North Shore on the Saturday night of our trip.

The Hawaiian-born chef would be preparing a multi-course dinner using island-grown ingredients. I’m all about exploring local culture through food, so it seemed like a jackpot for both of us.

After we booked the dinner, we figured it made sense to stay at the Ritz-Carlton.

Balancing time together and separately was key

Another boundary we set for our vacation was balancing time together with time apart.

Each morning, Alec surfed, and I swam laps in the pool. I signed up for a lei-making workshop while he attended a tennis clinic.

In a perfect world, we would have reserved individual rooms; however, we shared a room for economic reasons.

We were still able to maintain boundaries and give each other privacy as our room had a comfortable ocean-view patio, perfect for reading and relaxing.

Meaningful conversations are what stand out

Time together sparked the meaningful conversations and connection I had longed for.

On May 24, I mentioned that it was my beloved dad’s heavenly birthday. Alec shared tender memories of his grandpa and told me that my dad had been a father figure for him, too, teaching him lessons that continue to impact his life. It made me teary.

We also had an intelligent discussion on income inequality. Alec overheard a group of vacationing doctors and a group of vacationing teachers chatting in the Jacuzzi. He said the doctors worked very long hours without complaint, while the teachers complained nonstop about their overwhelming workload. This led to a conversation between Alec and me about teachers being underpaid and undervalued.

As a former teacher, I found that my son’s thinking about socio-economic issues that hit so close to home really resonated with me.

Our mother-son vacation brought us closer

Our mother-son vacation was a success. Alec ate plenty of poke. I got to practice yoga. Together, we swam in the Pacific, walked trails surrounded by gardenias, and enjoyed a delectable Hawaiian dinner.

As much as I loved our activities, it’s the memories of our personal and poignant conversations that are etched in my heart.

I can’t wait to travel with Alec again.

• I’m raising young children while helping care for my father with Alzheimer’s.
• My children are gaining independence as my father loses his.
• The experience has reshaped how I think about grief, memory, and family relationships.

In December 2018, my mom sent a group text to hop on a call. She was holding the results of my dad’s test. He has asked my mom to deliver the news.

My dad, who spent his entire life showing up for other people, couldn’t bring himself to deliver the news to his kids. His cognitive test came to 17 out of 30.

By November 2019, the results were official. I was living in Brooklyn, eight months pregnant with my first baby, standing in my kitchen with my husband making dinner, when we got the call. My dad had Alzheimer’s.

He was 66 when he was diagnosed

My dad was a quiet man. Deeply humble. A highly respected otolaryngologist who built a free clinic for people without health insurance, traveled to Guatemala to build an orphanage and provide medical care for remote villages, and volunteered at the local homeless shelter. He did it all without fanfare.

He kept his emotions to himself, but he read and wrote constantly. Journals, notes, and margins filled with his thoughts. Writing was his private place to process the world. And exercise was his outlet for mental health. He had a place for everything. Told us we’d never lose something if we always put it back. I hear his voice every time I repeat it as I’m cleaning up with my kids.

He was healthy. And only six years into his early retirement, at age 66, he faced Alzheimer’s.

My dad did so many great things quietly. And it wasn’t until I sat down at his desk that I realized how much more there was about him I didn’t know.

My dad is losing himself

Last Thanksgiving, we went back to my childhood home to clean it out before the sale. I asked my dad if he wanted to go through his desk together. He looked at a few papers and quietly walked away. So I sat down on the floor next to it.

A big white desk, neat the way he always kept everything. A corkboard covered in cards, phrases, and sayings. Trinkets from his hospital office. A whole life, carefully arranged.

I started opening folders. Each one had a very specific title: quotes, book ideas, Bible study, purpose of life, patient thank-yous. I read everything he wrote, underlined, circled, scribbled in the margins. I had become his memory holder, discovering him in a way I couldn’t get from our conversations anymore. And there was so much more I wanted to learn about him.

My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when I was pregnant with my first child. Now I’m pregnant again with my third, raising two kids who are discovering themselves, while caring for a dad who is losing himself.

I am parenting in both directions

At dinner, I’m cutting up food for my 3-year-old, reminding him to sit and eat. Then turning to do the same for my dad.

I’m signing my kids up for school and setting up care for my dad.

Making sure everyone is safe, fed, and not left alone. Witnessing development and decline simultaneously. I feel like I need to be in two places at once, because sometimes life actually depends on it.

My dad no longer creates interactions naturally. So I curate them. I put toys on the table. I place Beckett next to Papa with a book. I cling to the five minutes they have together before someone loses interest.

When my dad colors with my 6-year-old, my mind flashes between the respected surgeon he was and the man struggling to stay within the lines. Violet looks up and asks why Papa colors like that. I tell her that’s how creativity looks; everyone does it differently. Protecting my dad from shame and interpreting for my daughter.

My kids see his quirks as cute and funny, and I try to see them that way too. But when we are alone, they ask harder questions. Will you get old like Papa? Why does Papa put his knife in his water? I’ve become the translator of confusing behavior.

I’m stuck between beginnings and endings

Last summer at my childhood lake house, my parents could only stay a short while. When it was time to leave, our whole family stood in the driveway. We watched their car pull away. Just as my kids are starting to make memories there, I don’t think my dad will ever come back. And as chapters are opening in my life, I am constantly closing others in his. Stretched between beginnings and endings.

Most days, I wear a facade, mourning privately while performing stability publicly. I don’t want my dad to see me always sad. I want my kids to feel the joy of being together. So I hold it.

But one night after my parents left our house, I was putting the kids to bed, crying. Violet asked me why. I told her I was sad about Papa.

She looked at me and said, “Mom, let me tell you something. You have a heart, and Papa is going to look in there.”

I hugged her a little tighter and whispered, “You’re right.”

My dad used to say relationships are everything. I’m making sure my kids know it too.

• I had worked for the same company for 12 years, but wasn’t happy.
• I decided to give myself one year and a reasonable budget to take a chance on a new career.
• Today, I can say I successfully launched a new career in the travel industry.

At 38, I gave myself one year and £15,000 (nearly $20,000 USD at the time) to completely change my life. I told myself that if it didn’t work, I’d go back to the life I had spent so long trying to leave.

At the time, I was a VP of Sales for a global wholesale business. I had spent the last 12 painstaking years working my way up the ladder, giving up evenings and weekends to pursue the next promotion. On paper, it looked like I was succeeding, but in reality, every rung broke my spirit a little more.

At the same time, my marriage was ending, and everything that once felt stable suddenly didn’t. For the first time in years, I felt lost. I was at a crossroads of what I thought I should do and what I wanted to do.

I gave myself a deadline and a financial limit

When my house sold, I made a decision that felt both freeing and terrifying in equal measures. Instead of putting that money toward long-term security, I used part of it to “get my business going,” which, if I’m being honest, turned into a travel fund.

I set myself a boundary: £15,000 (nearly $20,000 USD at the time) and 1 year. If my travel blog couldn’t sustain me before the money ran out, I would return to the rat race.

At that point, my blog was only bringing in around £50 (around $68 USD) on a good month. Not nearly enough to support me. I remember refreshing my earnings dashboard, knowing the number wouldn’t change. It wasn’t a business. It was an idea.

The deadline may have given me focus, but it also put pressure on me.

As the money ran out, I prepared to walk away

At first, everything felt exciting. I was traveling across Africa, building something that felt more aligned with who I was, but I was still only creating free content. Excitement and free safari exchanges don’t pay the bills.

As the months passed, the gap between what I was building and what actually worked grew harder to ignore. The blog wasn’t generating meaningful income, and the money I had set aside was steadily disappearing.

To make matters worse, my blog, which had slowly been gaining traction, crashed quite exceptionally two months before my year was up. Everything I had dreamed of suddenly felt impossible.

I found myself scrolling job listings late at night, saving roles I didn’t even want, just to prove to myself that I had a backup plan. Some were jobs I would have been proud of a year or so earlier. Now, they just felt like part of a life I was trying to leave behind.

Things started working when I was about to quit

I seriously considered giving up. I told myself that “at least I had tried.” I wasn’t ready to throw it all away just yet, though. I just needed a different plan. And so with the last remaining balance from the money I set aside, I invested in a new website.

That money could have allowed me to extend my arbitrary boundary of a year by a few extra months. But instead, I decided to go all in and give my business the leg up it needed if I genuinely wanted people to take me seriously.

The results weren’t instant, but things did start to shift gradually. Work I had put in months earlier started to gain traction. My content began reaching the right people, and doors I had never even imagined started to open.

My first breakthrough came in June 2025 when I landed my first paid brand collaboration. It wasn’t life-changing money, but it proved there was a market for what I was creating. A few months later, my Tanzania group tour sold out, and as my website traffic climbed, my affiliate income became meaningful rather than occasional.

It didn’t feel like success. But it sure did feel like relief.

Over time, that momentum became something sustainable. What started as a blog evolved into a mix of content, tours, and consulting work within the travel industry.

My idea of security has changed

Some may think I was reckless. Sure, I used money that could have gone toward long-term stability without any guarantee it would work. But what I’ve realized is that the version of security I had before didn’t actually feel secure. It was predictable, but it wasn’t fulfilling.

Giving myself a defined window and a financial limit forced me to commit fully in a way I never had before.

Sometimes, the bigger risk isn’t walking away. It’s staying somewhere that no longer fits.