What’s your favorite coffee shop order? Mine is a vanilla chai tea latte with almond milk. It’s warm and grounding, a signal that I’m doing something worthwhile. That’s what I ordered when I first met Lindsey in person at Philz Coffee in Bethesda, Maryland. We shared about puppies, working with tweens, how doing this work can be both rewarding and exhausting. She’s been a light as 2020 threw a shadow over all of us. After some time, I finally got to get her into my interview chair.

In my view, a chronicle indicates that a story is always being reimagined: it may take some turns and pauses, but the story itself keeps moving forward. Lauren and I share the experience of telling our stories on the big stage, surrounded by strangers who have become friends-in-bravery. Recently, I sat down with Lauren to ask some questions.

“How can I, a real human person with mental ashiness, possibly help and affect others whilst looking like I beat the final boss flawlessly? Do I have to? Who told me I had to? How can I seek and save the broken while being broken myself? Somebody messed up the guest list. I don’t belong in this space. Someone will find out I’m a fraud soon. Because I can’t be both broken and healing.”

2017 came equipped with copious amounts of razor blades, lemon juice and coconut oil. Here I lay out the highs and band-aids that was and at this moment still is 2017.