MAGPIE

ZIONSVILLE, INDIANA James Spader is *niche* mean high school heart throb who turns out to be garbage The suburb I was born into was the classic Starter High School Boyfriend. He was mean to his mom, low-key addicted to video games, and would pay attention to you while sneakily forwarding on a sports-like ranking system of the hottest girls in school (A REAL THING THAT HAPPENED AT MY HIGH SCHOOL). He was trash who was only a little cute in the way that all white guys are kinda

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

It’s midnight on my 23rd birthday. I’m standing exactly 8,345 miles away from home in a Filipino town outside Manila and ugly-crying over a chocolate bundt cake as friends sing “happy birthday”. It’s one of those weird moments that while it’s happening, I’m hyper-aware, knowing I’ll remember it vividly for years to come, because it’s so quintessential of my time here. I feel both impossibly removed from everyone and everything that’s familiar to me and yet, impossibly at home

Every expat ((I’m talking at least half a year, buddy!)) has a reentry moment, after they leave the place they learned to call home and return to their “home” country, where they absolutely lose their sh*t. I thought mine would be the shock of returning not to my Stepford-ish suburban hometown but instead to 45 minutes north in Farmville, USA, to a ranch of cows and children. But surprisingly, nope, that didn’t push me over the edge. Maybe it would be the first time I drove f

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

My office “despedida” (Filipino goodbye party that is a category of its own but bordering children’s birthday party) was themed “Maggie Mia: Here She Goes Again” because, of course. It was extremely on-brand and I felt extremely loved. So in honor of that amazing party, here’s an inspired blog post. I strongly believe that the complete discography of ABBA has a song for every life situation ((okay fine, maybe not that time that your Filipino Grab driver offers you unsolicited

In my continuing brazen campaign to be sponsored by the Filipino Tourism Board (#itsmorefuninthephilippines) to get to attend free events in exchange for blog articles best described as “…cute”, I’ve been trying to explore my city more. I recently went to ArtFair Philippines, an annual contemporary art exhibition of predominantly Filipino talent, held in Makati. Makati is the swanky, bougie part of Manila that I don’t often get out to because 1.) traffic and 2.) I don’t like