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When I'm not here, you may find me wandering the pages below. (If I'm a regular visitor to your site and I've left your link off or mislinked to you, please let me know! And likewise, if you've blogrolled me, please check that my link is updated: thisroamanticlife.blogspot.com. The extra (a) makes all the difference!)

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For posts sorted by date or label, see the links below.

For posts on frequently referenced topics, click the buttons to the right.

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Body: in sickness and in health

I won't lie; this body and I have had our issues with each other for many years. Body image -- sure. Physical and mental overextension -- comes with being a Type A kind of girl. I still struggle with these things, so they show up from time to time in my writing.

More recently, illness, pure but not simple, has added itself to the mix in a multi-system sort of way. And the challenges in figuring out exactly what's gone wrong are many. As problems have revealed themselves in the last few years, beginning with reactive hypoglycemia in late 2008, I've documented them here, partly to gain a little clarity on managing complex conditions but mostly to give voice to vulnerabilities I feel but don't normally share with anyone face to face. Better out than in, they say, right? (Oh yes, humor is one way I deal.)

The links below cover the different angles I've examined (and from which I've been examined) within that experience.

Travel: neither here nor there

When the person you're married to lives two time zones away, you log a fair number of frequent flier miles. And if you blog about commuter relationships, you log quite a few posts en route too.

Since we're no longer in separate places, I blog less often from airports. But we do travel -- together now! -- which is much more fun to write about. So in addition to thoughts on our years of commuting, the links below cover the places we've been as a pair and, in some cases, the adventures that have happened on the way.

Writing: the long and short of it

Why do I do it? Good question. Maybe it's not so much that I like to write but that I have to write, even when the words refuse to stick to the page. Believe me, I've tried doing other things like majoring in biochemistry (freshman fall, many semesters ago). Within a year, I'd switched to English with a concentration in creative writing and wasn't looking back.

After graduating, I taught English for a few years and then worked as an editor, which I still do freelance. In 2007, I applied and got into an MFA program at a place I like to call Little U. on the Prairie. I finished my degree in 2011 and have been balancing tutoring and writing on my own ever since.

The following links cover the writing I've done about writing: process, content, obstacles, you name it. It's not always pretty. But some part of me loves it, even when it's hard. And this is the result.

Heart: family and friends

I'd have a hard time explaining who I am without being able to talk about the family I grew up in as well as the people I've met beyond its bounds. But even with such context, it's not easy! In the simplest terms, I'm a first-generation Asian-American who has spent most of this life caught between cultures. That, of course, doesn't even begin to describe what I mean to, but there's my first stab at the heart of it all.

That's what this group of posts is reserved for -- heart. The essential parts of my life whose influences I carry with me, for better or worse. The links below cover what I've written as I've learned how these forces work within me, for me, against me, in spite of me. They anchor me even as they change me, and they keep life interesting.

Recommended reading

What do I do when there's too much on my mind and my words won't stick to the page? I escape into someone else's thoughts. Below is a collection of books and articles that have been sources of information, inspiration, and occasional insight for my own work.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Vistas


Two years ago today, D and I were standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower as the sun went down. It was close to the end of our honeymoon, so we had been to a lot of the major landmarks -- Sacré-Coeur, Notre-Dame, l'Arc de Triomphe. Getting to retrace our steps across Paris from that vantage point was a huge treat, if only to see where we had been and to remember the highlights of our week's explorations.

It would be so nice if the future were as neatly framed.

I've blogged a lot about the uncertainty of my plans for life after graduate school. And I realize that I chose that uncertainty to some degree -- I walked away from my plan to become a doctor when I decided after my first year of college that being a science major wasn't my passion even if the subject matter was fascinating. There are moments when I wish I had the structure of that career path still -- the firmly delineated prerequisite courses, the clear-cut certification ladder, the guarantee that at some point you will get to a good place in the pecking order. Academia doesn't offer that same sort of standardized guided ascent (the paths on one side of the mountain may be marked in one way while the paths on the other side might be marked in another). Which leads to widely different requirements for securing a "good" place at an institution, depending on which trailhead you choose. In some cases, the paths that look like they lead to the top are washed out by landslides of work that prevent you from making real headway toward the summit. In many ways, other career paths are similar. I wish I had known this when I left my plans for medical school behind.

I know, however, that the path to becoming a doctor wasn't one I wanted to negotiate. Watching my younger sister bushwhacking her way through her first two years of medical school has repeatedly left me certain of that. There are few trails that branch off the main one leading to an M.D. (whereas in academia, you can jump from one path to another -- gaining little vertical progress but still accomplishing lateral movement). Which means you cannot fail at any of the junctures where you have to prove you are fit to continue upward.

Today, my sister got her board exam scores back, and she passed. I am so incredibly proud of her.

There will be more certification exams before she finishes, but this was the first big hurdle (the culmination of two intensive years of cramming tons of knowledge into her head). And she totally cleared it! I've got to come up with a handle for her on this blog that reflects that. Can I call you Dr. Sis? Or does that have to wait till you're a resident?

In any case, I'm thrilled and relieved. And wondering if I'll ever see the top of a mountain myself.
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Vistas


Two years ago today, D and I were standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower as the sun went down. It was close to the end of our honeymoon, so we had been to a lot of the major landmarks -- Sacré-Coeur, Notre-Dame, l'Arc de Triomphe. Getting to retrace our steps across Paris from that vantage point was a huge treat, if only to see where we had been and to remember the highlights of our week's explorations.

It would be so nice if the future were as neatly framed.

I've blogged a lot about the uncertainty of my plans for life after graduate school. And I realize that I chose that uncertainty to some degree -- I walked away from my plan to become a doctor when I decided after my first year of college that being a science major wasn't my passion even if the subject matter was fascinating. There are moments when I wish I had the structure of that career path still -- the firmly delineated prerequisite courses, the clear-cut certification ladder, the guarantee that at some point you will get to a good place in the pecking order. Academia doesn't offer that same sort of standardized guided ascent (the paths on one side of the mountain may be marked in one way while the paths on the other side might be marked in another). Which leads to widely different requirements for securing a "good" place at an institution, depending on which trailhead you choose. In some cases, the paths that look like they lead to the top are washed out by landslides of work that prevent you from making real headway toward the summit. In many ways, other career paths are similar. I wish I had known this when I left my plans for medical school behind.

I know, however, that the path to becoming a doctor wasn't one I wanted to negotiate. Watching my younger sister bushwhacking her way through her first two years of medical school has repeatedly left me certain of that. There are few trails that branch off the main one leading to an M.D. (whereas in academia, you can jump from one path to another -- gaining little vertical progress but still accomplishing lateral movement). Which means you cannot fail at any of the junctures where you have to prove you are fit to continue upward.

Today, my sister got her board exam scores back, and she passed. I am so incredibly proud of her.

There will be more certification exams before she finishes, but this was the first big hurdle (the culmination of two intensive years of cramming tons of knowledge into her head). And she totally cleared it! I've got to come up with a handle for her on this blog that reflects that. Can I call you Dr. Sis? Or does that have to wait till you're a resident?

In any case, I'm thrilled and relieved. And wondering if I'll ever see the top of a mountain myself.
Posted by This Ro(a)mantic Life at 6:20 PM
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