Why can’t a sparky love co-exist with the stable everyday kind as well? We have bypassed the in-between, unable to sit with both/and of a relationship being at once thrilling and exciting as well as reliable and calming, but love is certainly not an either/or.

Perpetuating the same narratives of conflict in mass media not only dictates a cultural hierarchy of what is considered important but also creates distance in how we are able to see ourselves represented in stories at large.

The stories stayed with me long after I finished, and I still seek out certain essays or refer them to loved ones going through a hard time. 

I had planned to write a swashbuckling adventure of demigods defeating villains against-all-odds, but I have never defeated a villain. I have only loved and been loved and lost love. The simple version of why I wrote this story is in the attempt to get over a boy.

Gerwig’s films resist storytelling structures that serve masculinity. From Frances Ha (2012) to Barbie (2023), her stories embrace and celebrate what is traditionally considered feminine. They depict the truest parts of existing as a woman in the world.

These books capture that magic that drew me to books in the first place, and I revisit them when I need to fall in love with the world again.  

We do owe people things, and we cannot build any kind of community or resistance without owing.

No Place Like Home is an immigration-story spin on the Wizard of Oz.

“It’s a powerful and uplifting message, and kids adjusting to new homes will find a lot of themselves in Lan’s journey, and perhaps a bit of Lan’s courage in themselves.”