It was June 2020, peak covid-19.
This was the story of two individuals: one from Orange County and one from El Paso trying to make one last attempt to meet in the middle after 2 years of romancing long distance.
5 hours of driving later, there was an absolute crazy consumption of in & out, extreme heat driving through the desserts of Arizona, and most stressfully, running through the crazy questions of: “has it really been two years?“ “where do we see us?” “when will we see each other next?” “is there a future?”
simmering under the Arizona heat, they parted with an embrace, deep down, both knowing that it was their last.
For the rest of 2020, I was draining all my tears and emotions with the state of the world, injustice, a heartbreak, and work. There was little energy other than walk my dog for 2 hours twice a day as my form of exercise
When 2021 came around, I had to set. it. right.
And I told myself, where can I just disappear for a week? This, I later find out is quite an avoidant tendency of mine…
My friend Viviane had semi-manic freaked out on my whereabouts because I wasn’t responding for 48 hours during this trip
So I asked my sister: “Hey, lets go to joshua tree for New Years”
She agreed
And we spent a lovely, therapeurtic, and wholesome time together reading, meditating, hiking, and listening to true crime in the desert
I took these in black and white because I wanted to showcase how simple life was back then when the intention was focused on letting go of the most pivotal year of my life - and I wish to only view them that way
I later devleoped these during my solo trip to Houston and found out that these were expire film… but none the less, I loved them.
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Poem:
sister
could I have asked for a more special person to be my soul mate?
friends that agreed to meet me while I was visting Houston - each of them gave me more life through art galleries, social distanced walks, and exploring the city
Feb 2021
July 2022
I booked a spontaneous trip to France after my friends had an extra room to stay in their home swap. It was also my first time booking a solo trip to northern France, Normandie.
We had one of the most beautiful first 48 hours, morning museum walks, fresh fruit breakfast plates, 10pm sunsets in the city, and countless of jazz and watch parties of the Effiel Tower.
That is, on the 2nd night I decided to sponteanously ride a scooter intoxicated at 2am with two adolescents I met at an expat rooftop bar; they wanted to see the tower shimmer at midnight and with most delusion for a good story, I agreed. The cobble floor showed no mercy for anyone, and I ended up with a deep gash in my chin.
This is my thank you note for the one man who gave me his ‘safe the planet’ white tshirt to soak my blood, housed me to charge my phone, and gave me a packet of bandaids. Thank you kind stranger.