Growing up, it [was pronounced] Travis 'Achane.' So, it's like, A-C-H-A-N-E. And that's how you always said Travis 'Achane.' But when I went to college, I kept telling them my name, like, every day, every day, every day. After like four weeks, they just couldn't get it. So I'm like, 'Man, it's [pronounced] ee-tee-en - how you see it is how you say it.'
Childhood patterns of beliefs, behaviors, and emotions are easily introduced to our young, malleable psyches through immediate family members, relatives, teachers, clergy, and coaches who present prescribed ways to live. The beliefs we inherit describe convictions about religion, work, money, and relationships, including how to relate to emotions through either suppression or expression.
It was another detail that the rest of the family apparently knew but had never told me; they thought I already knew. The biology mattered less to me than the secret. Dad had been adopted, it turned out. A classic affliction of the 1950s, in which young, unmarried couples were forced to give away their newborn babies.
I've been Ashley French for so long at home, but I really never changed publicly. Because everyone knows me as Ashley Tisdale. But I just felt like it was time for people to know me for me, and not just a character or a celebrity.
Security guards patrol areas that used to feel universally safe. This shift reflects a hard truth about modern healthcare - the environments designed for healing have become unexpectedly dangerous places to work. Behind every access control system, every badge scan, every visitor check-in, there are real people trying to do their jobs while feeling safe. And right now, too many of them don't.
When I modelled them in the shop for my wife, she reacted instantly. I couldn't pull them off, she said. You're not an art or fashion person, was the implication. She was right; her advice tends to be sound. As a man, when you push into your 40s it becomes harder to keep up with every new trend and perhaps there comes a point at which maybe you shouldn't. But you might not want to totally give up either.
None of this (Trump Media deal, subtle DEI rollbacks, etc.) was ever openly addressed. Since the firm advertises its commitment to socially progressive causes, I thought this was a tension that warranted conversation.
