I am Indian. I came to America with ambition and a suitcase full of my mother’s recipes and my grandmother’s expectations. I built the life that looked right from the outside. The house. The career. The beautiful daughter who makes everything make sense. And still — I needed someone to talk to who wouldn’t flinch…

I am Filipino. I carry two worlds in my body — the one that raised me to be graceful and accommodating, and the one I am building now, which is louder and more honest and still learning its own shape. I live in the Pacific Northwest. I am learning what it means to want things…