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I'M BACK: Everything I Should Write in My Journal

     Oh my, hello hello! I know it's been a long time - 593 days, 3 hours, 17 minutes, and 25 seconds to be exact, but I'm sure you weren't counting. Anyway, yesterday night, I stumbled upon my blog and was rereading some of my old posts. And, I realized just how much I missed writing down my thoughts - it made them feel more concrete, more real. Also, with the freedom that college provides, I have been focusing more intensely on more technical or STEM-based classes which is definitely pushing me towards my career goals but leaving my writing feeling a bit lackluster, and my general headspace quite uninspired. So, I've decided to restart my documentation of some of my introspective and interesting ideas in the namesake of the site.      So, I thought I would begin with some life updates and current musings because I'm a bit rusty at this writing thing, and this seemed like the topic I could speak (metaphorically of course) upon with the least activation energy requi
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Inside My Mind At My High School Graduation

    There are times you feel like writing or speaking, and if you don't, you feel like you will regret it forever. This feels like one of those moments. Upon the realization of the fleeting nature of our memory, I have found so much value in writing. When I read my past writing, I am reminded of times in my life with such vivacity and am instantly emotionally transported to the specific moment in the past during which I wrote it. And, what better way to write than to share it with thousands across the internet.      I'm writing this at my graduation ceremony while my principal is speaking. But, you know what they say: when creative inspiration strikes, you just have to go with it. Considering I will be walking across the stage in an hour, let me give you what I would consider my unfiltered graduation "speech", so welcome inside my mind.      Just a quick update on how I feel: right now, my legs are incredibly sore from a series of terrible decisions about my workouts.

Should the Grind Ever Stop?

      I am the type of person that watches all YouTube videos at double speed and still finds them slow and listens to podcasts to and from school at double speed. Audiobooks and even Netflix shows - all watched/listened to at double speed. So, I was thinking about this recently and the reason for my tendency to do this. Am I living my life in double speed? Is it simply my desire to learn more in a shorter period of time? Is that a symptom of my desire to constantly be productive - to cram in every second of productivity even within my time for entertainment? Or maybe my short attention span that tries to convert long-form entertainment into the quick speed of mindless Tik Tok and Instagram scrolling?     This week I decided to focus on the first hypothesis - my desire to be constantly productive. I wanted to give a quick disclaimer: I am, by no stretch of the imagination, productive all the time. However, I do think many of us, myself included, feel the need to be exceedingly producti

Self Care: Let's Talk Elitism, Privilege, and Gender

Recently, with all of the college stress finally winding down (I do plan to write future posts about my college application process), I thought it would be a good time to do some self-care. But, what exactly does that entail? In my mind that entails relaxation, face masks, Netflix, family time, writing this post (and the introspection that it entails), and more activities along a similar vein. But, as I was about to "indulge" in these activities, I was thinking about the marketing of self-care and the industry itself. There is inherently a level of privilege in the way self-care is promoted today and what seems like a holistic focus inwards has a $450 billion market (compared to a $4 billion market in 2014) selling a completely different narrative.  In the true fashion of capitalism, we have found a way to make an escape from worldly pressures into marketable products.The idea of self-care being an indulgence begins the deviation of self-care from its original intent. And rig

Access to Justice: Where We Are Now and Where We Need to Be

     In a world plagued by the diverse forces of poverty, racism, sexism, and more, access to justice has lost its protection as a universal human right, and access to high-quality legal support has become a marker of privilege. Justice has become just another means and system of social stratification that leaves millions, if not billions, vulnerable. Yet, according to international law, legal assistance is supposed to be equally accessible, transparent, and effective. However, in the enforcement and execution of these standards 1  , this fundamental concept is often lost, and equal access to legal support becomes increasingly disparate across different groups. Although there has been a tremendous success over the last years to maximize the use of technology to increase access to justice, much more work is yet to be done. Through a combination of relief-oriented strategies, structural change to the legal system, and long-term educational solutions, access to justice can begin to reclai

"Not Good Enough (Or Even Close)" : Healthcare Disparities and Differences Among the LGBTQ+ Community

In the discussion of sex-and-gender-based medicine (SGBM), we often turn a blind eye to the healthcare disparities and differences in the LGBTQ+ community. In an attempt to make SGBM more "digestible", it becomes easier to align with the heteronormativity that forms the basis of medicine instead of pursuing medicine that is considerate of differences among sexual and gender identity while ensuring the patient-physician relationship is supportive and high-quality, insured (under private healthcare industries like the US) healthcare is accessible. For this week's post, I wanted to shed some light on three important aspects: access to healthcare, healthcare outcomes, and potential solutions.  The LGBTQ population is less likely to have health insurance or have their prescriptions filled, more likely to delay getting care, and more likely to be refused healthcare and be harassed by healthcare providers. They are also significantly more likely to report negative effects after

The "99% Paradox" and How It Stops Us From Reaching Our Full Potential

Hello,  This is my first post after being monetized which is very exciting! I have always enjoyed writing about the topics that keep me up at night and to even have a large enough audience to be approved by Google AdSense is incredible. So, thank you so much to everyone that reads and finds some value in the blog posts.  Today's post is something that I have been contemplating for a couple of weeks but have been unable to completely wrap my head around and succinctly explain my personal experiences. Finally, today, I saw a YouTube video that coincidentally covered similar ideas and felt like some sort of "sign" that I should just write this post despite initial hesitation. Before I begin, I wanted to express that the "99% paradox" - as I have coined it - does not have empirical evidence to support it, yet I still feel many of these more subjective emotions are something many, if not all of us, encounter.  The basic premise of the 99% paradox lies in receiving a