by Monica Wiant | Jun 23, 2017 | Personal, Poland Project
My proudest accomplishment of the trip so far: I got my rental station wagon out of a tiny underground parking garage and into another one 300 km away.In between, I saw a stretch of central-to-southern Poland that sometimes reminded me of Minnesota or Wisconsin, and...
by Monica Wiant | Jun 22, 2017 | Personal, Poland Project
Warsaw is at a latitude of 52.2 degrees north. It’s farther north than Calgary and Saskatoon. These are the things a person learns at 4:12 a.m. while trying to figure out why it’s so light outside.It was a good day, albeit a long one. My mom, also awake at 4 a.m.,...
by Monica Wiant | Jun 21, 2017 | Personal, Poland Project
On the summer solstice, I flew above the north Atlantic, midnight sun glowing outside the airplane window, illuminating the clouds below us in a suspension that melted from violet dusk into pink dawn without ever touching the dark shades in between.It was a night...
by Monica Wiant | Jun 20, 2017 | Business, Leadership, Social Media
Blogging is a great way for leaders to communicate with employees. It fosters community, conversation, learning, and relationships that cross the org chart. If you’re stuck on “What do I write about?” here are a few suggestions. Include a link to an interesting news...
by Monica Wiant | Jun 15, 2017 | Personal, Poland Project
For 18 months, I’ve dreamed of visiting Poland to research my family’s history and to share it with my daughter. Last fall, I booked the flights. I persuaded my mother to join us. Three generations of women are going to explore our ancestral homeland.When it was far...
by Monica Wiant | Apr 1, 2017 | Personal
My daughter’s 10th birthday marks another milestone: The friendships I made on a now-defunct Internet forum have lasted a decade. It startles me even more than the fact that my tiny newborn is now a YouTube-watching, long-legged tween who texts me funny GIFs and...
by Monica Wiant | Jan 20, 2017 | Personal
Dear Evie,When you live through an important time in history, you carry it for the rest of your life. You will tell people what it was like. They will ask what you did, even if you were only a kid.I’m afraid we are living in those times, and here’s where we...
by Monica Wiant | Dec 21, 2016 | Personal
My dad was wonderful. Ask anyone: His friends, his patients, his students, his family. He is my hero and my inspiration. I’ve written about him here before, but there’s one part of the story that I haven’t shared. I disappointed him.Growing up, I was my dad’s girl. We...
by Monica Wiant | Nov 19, 2016 | Personal, Poland Project
I went to Poland once, when I was 15. It was one stop in my last European vacation with my parents. We visited relatives, my mother’s childhood home, and my grandfather’s grave. It was a powerful emotional experience for my parents, and while I know the trip was...
by Monica Wiant | Nov 9, 2016 | Personal
Dear Evie & Felix,It’s 4:30 a.m. and I am trying to figure out how to tell you that the America you’re waking up in has elected Donald Trump as its next president.You watched the first debate and, even at ages 6 and 9, you saw Hillary Clinton as the more polished,...
