New Vocal Media Story! (despite The Title I Promise It Has Nothing To Do With Dried Fruit) Submitted

Confessions

The One About Trader Joe's Chili Spiced Dried Mango

A Reflection on Life, Love, and the Universe

The abridged version of this piece that I hastily submitted to the (No) Regrets Vocal Media challenge

Unilever- why bring a child into the world? (originally posted in 2014 or 2015)

"@mollyx9120 1 day ago

I’m glad you brought it back around to the dehumanization of children, because that’s what underlies the entire cultural process of infantilization in the first place, and what gives infantilization its meanings in culture. The oppression of children one of the most overlooked issues in U.S. society. My dad always said you can learn a lot about a culture by how it treats it’s children. And we as kids are forced to learn a certain way, forced to perform to certain expectations, forced to suppress and ignore our natural inclinations and needs, and given no platform for autonomy in the world that controls us. So it’s no wonder many of us seek to comfort our inner child when we are grown. This is why children and teens are so effective as activists, because by the time we grow up the determination is starved out of us, and we are tired and burned out. We need youth liberation for effective progress."

Do-Re-Mi -- NBC's The Sound of Music Live cast and you YOU!

tl;dr- this is 2 hours late

I don't know why I decided to wake up at 8 am yesterday morning, on a solid 4.5 hours of sleep, to help a bunch of tree huggers dig out blackberry plants and pass heavy buckets of mulch down a hillside park no one gives a rat's tail about anyway, only to find myself still up at 1:30am, frantically scribbling away at my homework that I had the entire weekend to do.

But there is one thing I do know. I know that yesterday was the day where we commemorate a man who changed the lives of millions as he fought tooth and nail to bring justice to an oppressed people, a man who accomplished more with peace and love than most could dream to do with guns, germs and steel, a man whose humility and altruism inspires nobodies like me to run out of my cozy dorm on a chilly Monday morning and help restore an urban forest park. Sure, it's not like uprooting a few invasive species or passing a few buckets of dirt is going to save the planet or anything. But if there's one thing the Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior has shown, it's that giving back is giving back, period, whether it's to your family or friends, community or country. Everything counts, no matter how insignificant, and even though I might never change the world like MLK did, that doesn't stop my from feeling an obligation to honor his memory by giving back, just as he did, with UW Earth Club, volunteering for Earth Core, on this sunny day in Seattle. For lack of something better to say, Happy MLK day everyone.

2013 World Population Map by Seven Billions

Mailbox Peak

Mailbox Peak is one of those daredevil hikes people go on just to brag about it on social media. 4000 ft of elevation gain in 3 miles (or 6, if you go on the new trail), and there's a colorful mailbox on top that's plastered with a bunch of stickers you can take a picture with. It seems like the kind of thing you'd put on your college bucket list to tackle while you're still young and reckless. I first heard about the trail through seeing a couple ladies I knew post about it on social media-- and my young, reckless college brain vowed to one day trace the steps of those pairs of suave Gore-Tex boots clad in tight yoga pants. (I was and still am a connoisseur of yoga pants and the shapely beings that don them.)

Officially a published writer on Vocal Media! Hopefully the first piece of many to come! I originally wrote this for the Outdoor Shots challenge, but decided to spend more time polishing the ending. There’s no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.

another Vocal Media piece on baklava, but with the recipe included at the end

Feast

Memories of Baklava

Making baklava over the years