My brain is a menace. I wish and hope and dream for those moments of focus, but they’re few-er and far-er between than I’d like. Instead, my brain often gives me TV static with occasional small focus successes. (Oh hello, ADHD that wasn’t diagnosed until adulthood.)

I went through school like this, see-sawing between modes: floating through the day not knowing why my math work was only partly complete…or zipping through my classwork so quickly that I was accused of cheating¹.

In school, in life, i...