How to Let Go of an Old Life, or Neil Hughes and the Fiery Death of the Phoenix

Readers of How To Be Everything—Emilie Wapnicks’s guidebook to life—will be familiar with the Phoenix Approach, which describes how people occasionally reinvent themselves like the legendary phoenix rising from its own ashes.

This sounds exciting—and it is. But it turns out burning up and rebirthing out of the remains can hurt.

How to Have No Regrets

Once upon a time, my parents took me to the zoo. This day is full of memories which have stuck with me ever since—the sunshine, the excitement, the ice cream… even holding hands with my dad, watching eagerly as he unfolded the map.

One of the sharpest and most vivid memories is of…