January 4, 2020 20/20 Vision Happy (late) Holidays and Happy New Year, everyone! In the spirit of the New Year, I felt it was time to be raw and share what’s been happening lately with you guys. There’s so much to share, and much to reflect on, so hold onto your hats.
November 16, 2019 Cleaning House “Ready?” I nodded over to Thomas, who held his wand tightly in his hand. His dark eyes shifted to the rattling door. I gulped. “On three.” “One,” we both paused, hearing more intense rattling, “two…three.” SLAM! One flick of our wrists and the lock turned. The door burst open, slamming open against the wall. Pages upon pages flew out of the attic, causing both of us to hold our hands up. Books toppled to the hallway floor from the stairs, reaching our toes and growing into a large pile.
October 28, 2019 Gratification or Gimmick? Our world is far too instantaneous. We have cell phones that allow us to access information in mere seconds, social media platforms that allow us to send messages to friends around the world in no time, and the climbing total for the MegaMillion lotto is displayed all around the country. Our society, whether we like it or not, thrives off the idea that somehow, some way, and somewhere, whatever we want is going to come to us right away, when we want it, and by total chance. That, unfortunately, is a giant lie.
September 28, 2019 From I to We Dressed in a pair of nude heels and a $.99 dress from Goodwill that remarkably looked super business professional, I sat in the middle of a room of a thousand people, recorder running and pen in hand. I was mentally present, but before the meeting had started at all, I was having my own personal dialogue going back and forth in my head.
September 21, 2019 Work Now, Play Later As a twenty-five year old single woman living in America, I’ll admit: the struggle, unfortunately, is very real sometimes. Life gets us down and we have to get back up, but that’s how it is, isn’t it? There are challenges, ups and downs, but we prevail in the end. Something I have never understood, however, is when we make deliberate, pleasure-based decisions and purchases that keep us down when all we want to do is get out of whatever rut we got stuck in.
August 3, 2019 A Simple Choice Every morning, Ted rises at six in the morning. He grabs his cup of coffee, makes some breakfast, and sits in front of the TV to see the news. It’s the same themes, different faces and locations. But Ted enjoys it. It fills his empty home.
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.
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 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.
