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Bright Future
Voices, squeals, and laughter echo in the afternoon air as raindrops start to patter on the metal roof above. Girls and boys are scattered around the basketball court. A pack chases each other, dribbling a basketball. A lanky girl with hair pulled back in a ponytail squares up and shoots with great form, the ball…
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A Holy Cacophony
The sanctuary—lit by hundreds of candles set upon tables and on the floor that stretch the length of the open space—smells of incense, candles, sweat and the grass and pine that cover the floor. Large portraits and figures of the pantheon of Catholic saints line the walls, as people move freely around, praying or offering…
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The Call of the Quetzal
Veiled in morning fog, the pyramid emerges, revealing a mystical structure more than 1,000 years old. Situated in a large grassy square surrounded by smaller structures and jungle, the pyramid’s grandeur towers above the gawking tourists below. Sweat drips from my forehead as the fog fades. With the sounds of birds around, few tourists have…
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Spring 2022
Emerging from winter, opening to spring. Photos taken in Skagit Valley and Guemes Island in Washington state, April 28-30, 2022.
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Saying Goodbye
The rain came, and it seemed nonstop for an entire month. Streets flooded, water rushed under bridges, and still the rain fell. July 2018 brought floods to areas of the Sichuan province, drenching my final days in China. With mixed emotions, I looked out the window of my 15th floor apartment and sighed. From atop…
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You Are Not Alone: A Story of Friendship and Hope
This building haunts me. Its imposing architecture and location rend it as the focal point across the sparse college campus at Mianyang Teachers’ College. Long gray buildings no more than 10 years old with paint already cracked span the wide roads. Small trees still growing line the road leading toward it from the main gate.…
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Semester of Storytelling
In the Spring Semester of 2018 at 绵阳师范学院 (Mianyang Teachers’ College), I explored storytelling with my Sophomore classes. I guided them each week through the basics of the hero’s journey, genre, and sequencing toward a final group project. The project was to form a story, write the dialogue, and finally film themselves performing their story.…
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Blog resumes
Several drafts and ideas for posts have sat unfinished over the past year. Days, weeks, and months passed, with occasional attempts to start writing again; however, each time if I started at all, I found I lacked the concentration to follow through. A few sentences here, a blank page there, an empty and scattered mind…
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Awaken
Awaken to Spring’s arrival. Photos taken on March 30, 2019 on the University of Washington Campus in Seattle.
Megs the Wanderer 