You can learn a lot about people from their collections. Even the fact that a person has a particular collection can be a revelation in itself. I remember when I first found out that a childhood friend of mine collected Precious Moments china figurines. At first I was surprised, because I hadn’t met her that long ago and hadn’t pegged her as the kind of girl who would collect Precious Moments. But, as I got to know her better, I internalized this nugget of information and realized that her collection made perfect sense. Although not all of us collect objects, there is something that everyone collects, whether we know it…

Summer is almost upon us. When I was in middle school, this time of year meant a return to my summer job: bean-walking. I always found “bean-walking” to be a deceptively friendly term. For those who don’t know, bean-walking means pulling weeds from fields of beans and/or corn at organic farms, which can’t use pesticides. Sure, you’re walking, but you’re also bending down every two seconds to pull weeds, or else you’re crawling on your hands and knees when your back gets too tired to bend. It wasn’t glamorous work. You inevitably ended up hot, sweaty, and exhausted. Early in the season, your body hurt from stooping to pull out…