Hi friends,

The first week of August is over, and it's been an active one! Firstly, it was my mother's birthday on Wednesday, so a big shoutout to her for raising me to be the person I am. I wish I could've been there to celebrate. But, alas, I'll be home soon! Secondly, I want to say thanks to everyone reading this. Believe it or not, this provides a lot of external motivation for my intrinsic vision!

Rose, Bud, Thorn 🌹🌷🌵

Thanks to Julianne for suggesting I rename this section: Rose Bud Thorn (RBT) instead of highs and lows. RBT is a practical way to reflect on experiences without strictly limiting them to good and bad. Briefly, here's what each means:

Rose = A highlight, success, small win, or something positive that happened today. Thorn = A challenge you experienced or something you can use more support.
Bud = New ideas that have blossomed or something you are looking forward to knowing more about or experiencing

🌹 A highlight for this week was seeing my friend Maya who I haven't seen since before the pandemic. She left the States shortly after the school year ended and spent the pandemic year in South Korea — one of my dream countries to visit. We caught up over ramen, and it was pretty lovely.

🌷 + 🌵 Going to combine the thorn and the bud this week because I think they are on the same thing. This week I came up with a couple of really awesome ideas for my YouTube channel that I want to pursue. I brought it up with a couple of people (including my internship supervisor), and they've all validated it! I'm not ready to share it publicly yet, but I'll tell you and solicit your feedback if you ask me. The 🌵thorny part of this is that I'm so afraid of not having enough time to see this through, especially once school starts. I'm thinking of doing a lot of the work before school starts, but I want the process to be organic. So again, if anyone has thoughts and wants to chat, don't hesitate to reach out!

Book Talk📚

I spent this week reading Michelle Zauner's Crying in H Mart, and it was so beautiful. I wrote a Goodreads review this morning, so I'll plop it down here 👇🏾

I really enjoyed exploring Korean-American culture while learning about the terrifying yet authentic process of watching a loved one pass away before your eyes. As a Ghanaian-American, I related with a lot of points Michelle raised about her identity -- wanting to be seen as an American during her youth yet wanting to connect with her roots as an adult; wondering what her Korean identity really meant if her mom wasn't around to validate her by her mere presence.

One of my favorite aspects of the book was Michelle communicating her story and connection to her roots through food; how she would try to cook for her mom while she was sick and wouldn't quite get it right or returning to Korean comfort foods as an adult. I loved that she found Korean YouTubers to show her how to cook -- that's something I'm personally really grateful for.

It was also SO SO cool to learn at the end that Michelle is Japanese Breakfast!! Love that!! I've seen her perform before, and I just never knew her story. Overall, I thought it was really cool to explore this story with Michelle, and it has given me a greater appreciation for my mom and encourages me to spend whatever time I can with her and my dad.

Intentional Content Consumption📰

Article — City Water Systems for tomorrow

This week, one excellent article I read was on building sustainable water systems for cities. I haven't worked a lot with water infrastructure, so this was really cool to learn. One thing I know about water is that when things go wrong, they can be absolutely terrible — look at Flint, Michigan, for example. This article detailed a few ways we can tackle the water problem, and they are:

1. Attacking the demand side instead of the supply side

• An untraditional idea that reminds me of ways we can tackle the drug problem. We could curb the demand instead of attacking the supply, which might be harder to control and could lead to illegal ways.

2. Recycling water

• Initially seems gross, but we have the technology to clean recycled water, and I think we should really think about this.

3. Improving usage data

• More data on our usage for everything is always helpful because it helps us make more informed decisions, including taking shorter showers, turning the tap off when doing dishes, or upgrading your toilet to regulate water usage between #1 and #2.

4. Tackling climate change root causes

Resource — New Tab Stretchers

• Created by Kapwing, New Tab Stretchers is such a simple yet elegant "browser extension that reminds you to stretch your body while you're working from home. Whenever you open a new tab in Chrome, New Tab Stretches will show you a new stretch that you could do right in your office or even at your desk." I've found it super refreshing as I have been working this week! Try it out and share other cool extensions you use!

This week's video📹

A second video in as many weeks! I have some really exciting ideas coming up (as stated above), so stay tuned and keep encouraging me!

Thanks for reading, and I'll catch y'all soon!

Warmly,
Awoe✌🏾