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Rainesford Stauffer
Rainesford Stauffer

3.6K Followers

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May 31, 2021

How We Can Have Better Conversations About Growing Up

‘The End of Adolescence’ debunks the stereotype that young people today are slow to grow up. — It sounds like a movie plot: Researchers stumble upon a forgotten archive of research, featuring interviews with then-college students, stashed in the attic of a Harvard University building for 50 years. And that research might change everything we thought we knew about what it means to grow up. The initial…

Books

10 min read

How We Can Have Better Conversations About Growing Up
How We Can Have Better Conversations About Growing Up
Books

10 min read


May 30, 2021

What to Say to Recent Graduates

‘So, what are your plans?’ isn’t always helpful. — It’s been a couple years since I was a college student, and even then, my own chaotic time in college is one reason I’ve written frequently about the myth of the “college experience” being the “best four years of your life.” But my personal chaos was nothing compared to what…

Kiwi2021

7 min read

What to Say to Recent Graduates
What to Say to Recent Graduates
Kiwi2021

7 min read


Published in Forge

·May 25, 2021

Why It’s Easier to Believe Criticism About Ourselves Than Compliments

The more we care what others think of us, the harder it is to know ourselves. But self-compassion can help. — Depending on who you listen to, I’m a “try-hard,” an imposter, no fun at parties, and could be improving at, well, just about everything, from the way I dress, to the job I do, to wrangling my eyebrows. All of these are things that have been said about me or…

Kiwi2021

6 min read

Why It’s Easier to Believe Criticism About Ourselves Than Compliments
Why It’s Easier to Believe Criticism About Ourselves Than Compliments
Kiwi2021

6 min read


May 22, 2021

It’s Okay to Outgrow the Life You Thought You Wanted

How do we untether ourselves from the people we imagined we’d become? — Growing out of things is spun as a given: Old clothes that no longer fit or feel like you, jobs or schools, phases of life, living situations, habits. …

Growth

4 min read

It’s Okay to Outgrow the Life You Thought You Wanted
It’s Okay to Outgrow the Life You Thought You Wanted
Growth

4 min read


Published in Forge

·May 14, 2021

The Pandemic Finally Killed the Self-Care Myth

What happens when “just take care of yourself” starts to sound a lot like “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”? — I think it was the suggestion that I join an after-work mental health workshop that involved a quiz at the end. Or maybe it was the earnest pitch offering a desktop extension to make my laptop “cozier,” whatever that means. I’m not sure exactly which moment was the tipping point…

Self

6 min read

The Pandemic Finally Killed the Self-Care Myth
The Pandemic Finally Killed the Self-Care Myth
Self

6 min read


Published in Forge

·Apr 30, 2021

The Responsible Way to Blow Up Your Life

Here’s what to do with that late-pandemic impulse to make a big change — Blowing up your life has always seemed like a romantic idea — shrugging off all the things that were weighing you down, wiping your slate clean, actually doing the thing you always kept tucked in the back of your mind. Trying your hand at a job in a totally different…

Self

6 min read

The Responsible Way to Blow Up Your Life
The Responsible Way to Blow Up Your Life
Self

6 min read


Apr 29, 2021

No, You Don’t Always Outgrow Perfectionism

Maybe we can’t fix perfectionism ourselves. It was the drumbeat of my life, growing up: When I overdid my homework and rewrote notes until my penmanship was perfect, when I practiced pirouettes in the ballet studio until my calves started giving out, when I people-pleased to the point where it…

Perfectionism

6 min read

No, You Don’t Always Outgrow Perfectionism
No, You Don’t Always Outgrow Perfectionism
Perfectionism

6 min read


Apr 28, 2021

Q&A with Nicole Lynn Lewis, author of ‘Pregnant Girl’

“I was a person before I was a mother, before I was a teen mother, before I was the pregnant girl.” — The last time I spoke to Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder of Generation Hope, she told me that student parents, especially those who are teenagers, are a “largely invisible population.” Despite being at the epicenter of intersecting issues, including systemic racism, poverty, classism, and basic needs insecurity, young adults who are…

Authors

8 min read

Q&A with Nicole Lynn Lewis, author of ‘Pregnant Girl’
Q&A with Nicole Lynn Lewis, author of ‘Pregnant Girl’
Authors

8 min read


Published in Forge

·Apr 22, 2021

There Are No More 5-Year Plans

What does it mean to plan out our lives in unplannable circumstances? — The last time someone asked me about my five-year plan, I was in an office with too few windows, interviewing for a job that listed one set of responsibilities in the description and a different set in the interviews. …

Kiwi2021

6 min read

There Are No More 5-Year Plans
There Are No More 5-Year Plans
Kiwi2021

6 min read


Apr 12, 2021

I Didn’t Know It at 15: On Taylor Swift & Young Adulthood

At fifteen, I was staring down losing a career that I’d committed my short life to chasing, choosing ballet barres and bloody blisters across my toes over boys and benchmarks of a high school life well-lived. …

Kiwi2021

6 min read

I Didn’t Know It at 15: On Taylor Swift & Young Adulthood
I Didn’t Know It at 15: On Taylor Swift & Young Adulthood
Kiwi2021

6 min read

Rainesford Stauffer

Rainesford Stauffer

3.6K Followers

Author of An Ordinary Age, out 5/4/2021. Freelance writer. Kentuckian.

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