"When you tell the mountains to be moved, it is not at your call that they obey. But journey and take even a spoonful of earth from its mountaintop and place it on flat ground and you would have changed the world a little bit already."

Melissa Roxas

"English is a language of conquest. I benefit from its richness, but I’m not exempt from its limitations. I am ‘that girl’ in your English classes, the one who is tired of talking about dead white dudes. But I’m still complicit with the system, reading nineteenth-century British literature to graduate."

Monica Torres, Majoring in English

This article echoes my sentiments exactly.

(Source: shoulderblades)

Rules my Grandma’s Psychiatrist gave her in ‘56

1. Get some cheap dishes and break them when you get upset.
2. Learn how to say “NO” and don’t feel guilty about it.
3. Buy something frivolous for yourself once in awhile, like a new hat. 
4. Never again do anything you don’t want to do. 

(Source: crystalground)

Today

• I picked up all my graduation tickets and my honors cord.
• Sent a draft of my commencement speech to Dewey.
• Turned in my intent to register for the UC Berkeley Summer Creative Writing Program.
• And to pay for that program, I will finally be using a $2,000 scholarship check I received when I was a senior in high school from the Alliance of Asian Pacific Administrators.
• The moral of this story is: SAVE YO MONEY. You’ll never know when you’ll want to do something worthwhile with it.

I’m

eating moist chocolate chip cookies, crying, and listening to My Chemical Romance. My thesis has done nothing but make me regress to my middle school self.

Weaving

I love your crooked sleep. The way your eyes
Tend to flutter just before your lashes,
Your long black threads, are knitted together
With your lids. Although our bodies are assorted,
Like two asymmetric cloth patches, every night
We are quilted on the same fabric. Your legs
Never fail to hook onto mine. My arms
Always seem to entwine around your shoulders.
We are loose fibers, waiting to be pulled,
Tightened, and fastened. Together
We weave as the sky blackens.

SHIT

• Today, I presented on my honors thesis, which is due this upcoming Monday.
• My first graduation ceremony is next Saturday, May 18.
• And I have just accepted the offer to be the undergraduate speaker for the Ethnic Studies Departmental Graduation.
• SHIT FUCK AH

I am so in love with this song and this performance. Thank God music like this exists.

Clarification

• You don’t do community work to feel good about yourself. Take it from an organizer who spent most of her time feeling like crap because she was exposed to the ugliness of community organizing. You do it because you want to give back, because you want to help people, not because you expect some big ass reward or some big ass affirmation out of it. Doing this type of work is already an affirmation. It means you’re a fucking good human being. What more do you need?
• Community work and advocacy is professional. It may not look as pretty on your resume as an internship under CNN or some other corporation but you develop skills and perspectives that will take you far beyond than someone interning under some office. You will gain hands-on experience. You will network with a lot of people. You will get to raise your voice and use it. And you won’t even need to sit in an office in front of a computer all day stapling papers and bringing coffee to your supervisor. You’ll be out there in the field everyday, doing work that directly impacts the people you serve.
• Organizing requires commitment. It’s not something you just dip your toes in and then run away from once you’ve had your fill. No, it’s a protracted struggle. It doesn’t stop when you want it to. It’s long, hard, and grueling work, but you will learn lessons that you’ll remember for the rest of your life and you will grow to be a beautiful and passionate person. You can take a breather when you want and move back to take some time to reflect and reenergize. But struggle doesn’t stop. And neither do organizers.

i never really liked

my name 

much

until i found out 

what it tastes like 

when you sigh it 

into my

mouth

(Source: oceanicforest)