MAGPIE

I’ve moved back from the Philippines five months ago and since being home, I’ve been stuck in a weird loop of family crises and brief intermissions. I’ve flown to Los Angeles with two days’ notice to be a caretaker for my aunt post-operation and packed up her home for her transcontinental move. I’ve nannied my distant relative’s kids during a family crisis in South Carolina which consisted of a lot of holiday distraction and a million rounds of card games. I sat with my great

As I prepared to leave the Philippines and my 15 months’ service with International Justice Mission fighting against cybersex trafficking of children, I started to regularly have this question asked to me. The first couple of times I heard it, I just kinda made this creepy Tina Belcher moaning noise until the person asking would take pity on me and let me weirdly moonwalk away. The question on everyone’s mind? What was the big takeaway? At first, I would develop some kind of

I’ve decided to tell you a highly bizarre, emotional saga, with twists and turns and romance (hahaha I’m just joking with the romance) that may seem unbelievable. I only ask that you read it on your commute or at a café and if you laugh out loud, you immediately tell everyone around you where you found such entertaining content 🙂 Eleven months ago, I moved to the Philippines to serve with International Justice Mission in their fight against Online Sexual Exploitation of Chil

I love email and letter correspondences because they are whimsical, genuine, and impossible. You both try to share as much as you can but you just can’t capture the truest moments, the fleeting feelings that disappear as quickly as they happened. They’re beautiful but lackluster, like pressed flowers. I keep up a few correspondences here and for whatever reason, I revisited one that I wrote last month. I excitedly told one of my dearest friends about life in the Philippines 

Over a year ago, I left Romania shaky and weepy. My three-ish month stint serving at a survivor shelter for vulnerable women and children was watershed, seismic, and numinous. My eyes had been opened to a deep running river of Christ’s love, weaving in and around heartbreak, abuse, trauma, and exploitation, ending in assured restoration, empowerment, and hope. The people I met and learned from had an intoxicating spirit of survival, faith, and love. They were brave, uncomprom

You know that feeling when you try to wake up from a self-induced NyQuil coma and you’re kinda awake and moving, but also like, are you even? Living in Southeast Asia for nearly six months now has been like experiencing that transcendent, hazy dream-like state constantly interspersed with acute moments of the deepest, sharpest realities I’ve ever known. Maybe it’s the pervasive pollution finally seeping its way into my brain (haha, no, but also, maybe), but I’ve been surprisi

I have had many experiences in my life where my critical eye has helped me. It’s made me a good student, one that sees in a different perspective. It especially helps me with arguments, forming logic and tossing out whatever doesn’t fit. I’d like to think it also helps refine my taste (I make good movie recommendations, people!). I’ve also had experiences in which I have felt ashamed of the way that I am. Sometimes I am too harsh or too unforgiving or just don’t agree with wh