May 2022 Over two years into the global pandemic, the world as I knew it looked and felt completely different. Those years seemed to both fly by and stand still. I graduated from law school in 2020, sat for and passed the Virginia bar exam, worked a fellowship, accepted a job in Northern Virginia where I lived for a year, then took a new job with the fellowship organization and moved to Ohio for a boy I met online. Even with all these changes—and countless others—my mom remai

December 2013 & Summer 2014 December 2013:  I loved Hawai’i so much the first time that I went back just six months later. My family and I stayed on Kaua’i, the northernmost island, over Christmas break. We rented a car, which is the easiest way to explore the island in a week, and stayed in a gorgeous resort near Lihue. One highlight was Waimea River, where we took a boat cruise and hiked to a waterfall that opened into a grotto. Surrounded by tropical flowers, mist, and wil