Nonfiction

Peaceful Dumpling •

Five Daily Practices That Improve My Mental Health

There is a lot of pseudoscience out there on social media about mental health (and honestly, just health in general). It can be overwhelming, and difficult to discern what’s effective, from what’s just a sales pitch. Personally, I like to get back to basics when it comes to my own emotional well-being. My reasoning is that kids are overall a lot happier than adults, so I incorporate things that I remember doing often as a kid. This may sound strange, but let me explain. Every night, I name five
Peaceful Dumpling •

Learning About My Heritage Helped Me Feel At Home In My Body

I grew up in the age where Megan Fox was the beauty standard. She’s tall and tan, with pouty lips and long dark hair. That has never been what I look like. Because of this, I used to wish that I looked differently. I had days when I loved myself, and days when I didn’t, but the love rarely included love for my body or appearance. I didn’t see that as a negative thing, or let it eat me up with a desire for cosmetic surgeries or anything. I took pride in my strength, and my athletic abilities, and
Peaceful Dumpling •

Best And Worst Zero-Waste Swaps I've Ever Made

When I first decided to adopt a zero-waste lifestyle, it overwhelmed me. I worried I wouldn’t like the swaps, that I’d fall for greenwashing, or that it would be expensive and therefore unsustainable for my life. A few years later, I now have a few things down—how to save money by avoiding plastic, how to spot greenwashing, and what swaps work for me. That last point took the longest to sort out, and there are a few changes that I’m still trying to work out. I think in environmental spaces onli
Peaceful Dumpling •

Here's How I Feel At Home Wherever I Am

I grew up moving around—a lot. I considered the place we most often moved back to be my hometown, but we lived all over the country. We often moved without much notice, and I learned to be transient. As an adult, I got into travel writing and had a strong case of wanderlust. It was a struggle to stay in one place for four years to attend school, and I now am living on the opposite coast from my hometown: the coast I spent less time on. None of my family lives nearby, all of my extended family an
Peaceful Dumpling •

I Graduated College In The Middle Of A Pandemic: Here's What That's Been Like

I returned to school after four years working and traveling. I decided that while my life was good, it could be better by having a college degree. I wanted to be paid a fair wage, qualify for better jobs, and learn more about my areas of interest. Four more years later, and I’ve graduated with a few degrees from a really good school. The catch? We’re in the middle of a global pandemic with a possible second one on the horizon, a war has broken out in Europe, prices on essentials like gas and foo
Peaceful Dumpling •

In The Age Of Picking A Niche, Here's Why I'm Not

With social media ruling society at large, individuals are encouraged to define themselves: find a niche. We pick categories to list under our names, pick a theme for our Instagram accounts, and are told to pick specialties in our careers and schooling. Essentially, when we enter adulthood or interact online, we are supposed to find a box and make ourselves fit into it. I believe that we are more complicated than that. We are messy, contradictory, and plentiful—each one of us. Life is not one t
Peaceful Dumpling •

How The Viking Diet Informs Contemporary Scandi-veganism

As a Norwegian and Danish person, the biggest challenge of becoming a vegan was losing my heritage. I thought that if I cut out animal products, I wouldn’t be able to eat the way my family fed me, or the way my ancestors fed themselves. Like most people, I was told my whole life that Norsemen ate a meat-heavy diet. I pictured huge men around fires eating spits of salmon during long winters. It wasn’t until I did a semester-long research project on the topic that I realized that Vikings were a l
EmFallingToEarth •

Owning Who We Are This 2018

I have been thinking a lot about goals and resolutions (with the new year and all). I was trying to figure out what my resolution this year should be, and I came to a very simple conclusion. I need to focus more on what MY goals are, and what success is to ME, rather than what would make others proud of me, or what society views as the end game. It is so easy to see successful musicians, and even though you don’t play an instrument, wish you could be them and rock that drum set as hard as them.
EmFallingToEarth •

Heroes

We cling onto a few that remain relevant to us, but as we grow, we outgrow our heroes too. The idea of a hero is someone who can save us- emotionally, physically, or intellectually. As we shed old skins, and adopt new personas, we leave behind things like favorite books, fashion choices, and things we consider necessary. A hero is someone we need to save us, so logically, as we change, so do our heroes. I was thinking this week about that- how things and people that are so vital for our surviv
EmFallingToEarth •

Ama La Vida

Life is about that feeling you get from putting on a warm sweatshirt straight out of the dryer. It’s about the exhilaration that comes from letting your feet leave the sand and getting tossed in the waves and covered in sea water. Life is a mango sunrise spilling onto your lap from outside your airplane window, and that quilt of cotton clouds below you. It’s the way the mountains turn lavender in the evening and pink at dawn. It is the deep drumming you feel in your chest when you watch a twinkl
EmFallingToEarth •

My Instagram Philosophy: How to Use "The Gram"

So if any of you follow my Instagram account, you will more than likely notice two things: • My feed is super colorful and full of things that involve politics, the environment, equality, art, and photography. Is this bad? Well in my opinion no- it is not. I honestly wish my friends and fam posted more often than they do. The thing is, I don’t see the point in Instagram or social media in general unless you are sharing your life and photos (like a photo album), or promoting a brand. Otherwise y
Peaceful Dumpling •

How I Celebrate The Holidays As An Agnostic Who Practices Witchcraft

After leaving a high-demand Christian religion, December became a confusing time of year for me. Suddenly I felt really out of place during a time of year that I used to love. I felt like the holidays didn’t have room for me, and if I celebrated anything at all, I’d be a fraud. It was a pretty triggering month at that point, and it took away a lot of the goodness that this festive holiday time used to bring me. That first December after leaving the religion, I ended up just celebrating how all
Peaceful Dumpling •

I Celebrate Pagan Holidays, And Here's Why You Should Too

I have been honoring Pagan holidays for years. Even in my childhood, my family indirectly celebrated them. My dad is a huge history buff, so we would make merry for the equinoxes and solstices, and he would tell us stories about days like May Day (a.k.a. Beltane). My mom would make us seasonal treats, we were all often barefoot, and my parents taught us that the mountains and the forest can be our “church.” They were the ones who taught me about the spiritual value of the Earth, and we were alwa
Peaceful Dumpling •

I Took 4 Years Off To Volunteer, Travel & Work Before College. Here's Why I Recommend It

I took four years off in between high school and college. Looking back, it was by far one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. College is so expensive, and while I had a desire to learn and hopefully attend higher education eventually, I was in no rush. I knew that through grade school, the best education I ever got was actually in my family’s travels and not in the classroom. We moved around constantly as a kid and teenager, so not only did that shape me into a very stir-crazy individual, but
EmFallingToEarth •

BTS- Travel Writing About Boston

I write travel pieces for Taylor Magazine. I love compiling the pieces and creating adventure guides for those with wanderlust. It’s a London based magazine, so it’s really fun to have a global outreach with it! I just wrote a piece about traveling in Boston, and let me just say- IT WAS SUCH A BLAST TO WRITE!! I loved looking back on my adventures had there, and being able to spread the word about delicious places and cool sites! To be honest though, I absolutely LOVED the research part of it!!
Peaceful Dumpling •

Why I Left The Mormon Church And Why It's A Cult

If you know a Mormon, you probably have had one of three thoughts: “Their family is so big and they all look the same,” “Why are they so judgmental?”, or “Wow, they sure invite me to a lot of church events.” You might know about the Book of Mormon (the racist Mormon bible of the Americas that essentially erases the real history of Indigenous people, written by a white man in the 1800s). You might know what a Mormon temple looks like. You might even know that they don’t drink, but no one outside
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