July 27, 2019 Why Convenience Isn’t All That Great Once upon a time in a not so far away land and time, I was living in Taiwan. Or as I like to call it, the land of convenience stores, amazing food, and Pokemon Go everywhere you go. But mostly convenience. I used to think that America was the Convenience King, but I was proven wrong. Taiwan is the King of Convenience.
July 20, 2019 Clean Eyes A couple of months ago, there was this ten year challenge going around on various social media, mostly Instagram and Facebook. I remember looking through photos (and yes, I did post one just for fun) and thinking to myself that I literally look the exact same. My hair was more or less the same length, color, and I was more or less happy to the same extent, at least upon first glance at the image. But if you dug beneath the surface, Marie of 2009 and Marie of 2019 are very different.
June 29, 2019 Twenty-Five Tips for Twenty-Five Years Recently, I celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday, and coincidentally, my first birthday in the states in three years. It was weird to say the least, realizing all that had happened in the last three hundred and sixty-five days. My twenty-fourth year was jam packed: living abroad, visiting home, traveling around the island of Taiwan, my first Chinese New Year, moving home, and so much more in between all of the aforementioned.
June 15, 2019 Another Mortal Monday Directly to my right, an alarm clock buzzed and vibrated the night stand. I opened my eyes, but moved slowly as I waved a hand over the machine, turning it off without even putting a finger on it. The horrid noise stopped and I pulled my pillow over my face. Another glorious school day. At least it was nearly summer vacation.
June 8, 2019 New Mental Push-Ups It’s Friday, April 26th. My alarm goes off at 4:30 AM, and I rise out of bed rather easily because this isn’t my first time getting up before the sun peaks above the horizon. I throw on my Aldi work t-shirt, a pair of beat up black jeans, and make sure my hair is tied back and I am relatively alert. Then I put on a podcast and go to make breakfast.
June 1, 2019 Copacetic Clare Tapping my foot against the tile floor, I checked the clock adjacent to the door. 2:58. Despite the exciting video that Mrs. Namira had put on during psychology, time was moving slower than sloths. And the more the narrator droned on about Sigmund Freud, the sleepier I got.
May 25, 2019 The Great Divide On the curb outside of Pine Elementary School, Annabelle sat tying her shoelaces. Her hair remained in the braids her mother had put in earlier that day. Over her shoulders, her backpack carried more textbooks than the day before, but for a rather exciting reason: it was the last day of fifth grade.
May 18, 2019 I Free Sally and All Her Friends “Hey, can you pass me the salt, Sam?” Dad reached over with a hand, not bothering to look over as he scrolled through his phone. Across from me, my stepmother, Carol, was also glancing over her emails and not at all interested in talking. I sighed, passing my dad the salt. Then I went back to ignoring everyone and eating tonight’s mediocre carry-out dinner.
May 11, 2019 The Power of Words As children, we spend much of our days dreaming. We wake up, daydreaming about last night’s fantasies of candy houses and fairy tales. During class, our mind wanders away to worlds unknown and situations unseen, thinking of another time. And then, we return to our slumber, to our special worlds that only we know, until we have to wake and reenter reality.
May 4, 2019 What Friends Are For It’s weird to think that a little under two months ago, I was living in Taiwan still working as an English teacher. And now I am in Florida, working and mostly settled into a new pattern and a new set of routines. While so much has changed, I was recently reminded that really, when it comes down to it not that much has altered.
