Tag: reflection

stonefruit v7! 🍒

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What a privilege to be part of the 20th anniversary of the program that helped me hone my writing throughout college 🥺

🍒 stonefruit is about two friends, dreaming big, family legacies, farmworkers, hard choices, growing up, taking risks, and — most of all — cherries. 🍒 Like all my plays, I set out to share my feelings and I hope it encourages others to do the same. It can be lonely in this world, but like Tía Mattie says, “let [our feelings] connect us.” 😌

I started writing stonefruit 🍒 in Brian’s class, advanced playwriting winter quarter 2015, during the week 6 playwriting challenge. Then kept writing it for my final that quarter. Then kept writing it when I was 5 years post-grad at Bindlestiff during the full-length playwriting class in 2021. Then kept writing it for the staged reading at Bindlestiff in 2022. Then KEPT writing it when Brian invited me to the 20th Anniversary of the New Playwrights Festival this year, 2024. 🍒 7 drafts of the script later, and here we are. And there is more to come!! How much more? I don’t know but this is not the end.

I really unlocked something with this draft. And this draft unlocked something within me. 🍒 It would take me too long to write out what I mean by this but the short story is: Writing is hard work but it’s worth it for everything you discover about the world and yourself.

Anyway, thank you to everyone involved in the reading (cast, director Dr. Karina Gutierrez, SM, ASM, the SCU theatre department, Brian), and to all my friends and family who watched on Sunday (or sent good vibes 🙏🏽 ), and to everyone who has given me feedback on stonefruit over the years. 🍒 I am at version 7 because of you! Let’s see how far we can take it huh??

🌄 🍒 No hay camino, se hace camino al andar

🌱🍒 Kapag may itinanim, may aanihin

Lastly, peep my heart shaped keffiyeh pin bc it’s free pal/es/ti/ne now, during staged readings, during lunch, during commutes, during afternoon walks, and always. Contact your reps, don’t stop talking about plstn, and eyes on Rafah.

2023 Reflection

Last year marks the beginning of my Saturn Return, which explains a lot (last year also marks when I really started paying close attention to my astrology lolz). There was definitely a theme of 🎶growing up🎶 and I was happy to grow alongside everyone whose paths crossed mine last year. 🌱

📚 I read more books for the first time since college—and explored new genres, including memoirs!

📝 I took a break from playwriting (it’s very exhausting writing from multiple characters’ POV, let alone my own) and instead went slow into poetry and wrote several new pieces — I also hadn’t written this much poetry since college.

🪁 Attending protests for a Free Plstn 🍉 and learning more about colonization and oppression reminded me of my student organizing work in college. The work is never over and we keep going.

(Speaking of patterns, I see the “since college” one here! It was a time when I was able to fully dive into things I was sooo passionate about)

I know I was never really lost but it feels like I’m finding myself again. Here’s to 2024 ⭐️

14 days into 2017…

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As I write this, it is midway through January. I, like many others, have been back to work for two weeks after the holidays concluded. It’s been two weekends and 14 days into 2017. I have already felt a range of emotions, been bombarded with a few unexpected incidents… and recovered (or, in the process of recovering). I have seen a few friends, texted a few others, and hung out with my parents. In a nutshell, that’s how 2017 is going so far. Normal, I suppose.

I’m not sure I’m doing a ~fantastic~ job on my resolutions, but I am more than halfway through a book (!), well on my way to contributing to a theatre production (!), and attending TWO art-type events this weekend (!).

I did something a little different this year: I tried to “map” my year through a future log (i.e. bullet journal). I thought about all the goals and tasks I wanted to do every month and I wrote it down. I want to be on some-type-of track this year. I don’t want to be bogged down, however. I just want a little direction.

Think about it: How is your 2017 going? Is it going the way you thought it would, two weeks ago? What do you hope to accomplish by the end of these 365 days?

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Twitter: @marissamaym

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2016 Reflection

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Everybody lived their year this year and as always I have reflected a lot on the past 12 months. In fact, I’ve been reflecting since Thanksgiving. I’ve spent the last six weeks thinking about 2016 and gearing up for 2017. Pondering the lessons I’ve had this year and wondering what lessons the new year will bring. I think I am setting high expectations for myself to be organized and successful next year.. but when you really think about it, it’s just another loop around the sun like any other loop.

Anyway, 2016 was a year of endings (college, childhood, living at home) and beginnings (adulting, moving into my own place, first job outta school). It was a year of lessons. Learning about how to adult, learning about myself… I hope that I can take what I’ve learned so far and apply it to the next chapter.

I don’t want to dwell too much on 2016, mostly because I feel like I summed it up in the previous paragraph. I really feel like maybe this year wasn’t that spectacular aside from graduating. Graduating opened up the floodgates to so many new opportunities and they are gradually flowing into my life now. So I’ll focus on 2017 now and how to make it one of my best years yet.

For more life tidbits, please follow me on Twitter @marissamaym or check out one of my Instagrams @marmaym (personal), @sadwalletshappytummies (food), and @paperstonehearts (writing, journaling).

Some Things I Am Thankful For This Thanksgiving

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  1. Cookies and other baked goods
  2. Hugs
  3. Water. Clean water.
  4. My dogs
  5. My voice
  6. Everyone who stops to listen
  7. A warm home to protect me from the cold
  8. A job I really enjoy, working with cool co-workers
  9. Lotion and soap and make-up that help me feel good about myself
  10. Green tea

Even though Thanksgiving is this week and December soon follows, I still can’t seem to shake the feeling that summer was just last week. I still think about summer like it just happened, but in reality, it was three months ago. Three months have gone by, Fall is passing by, and yet I still hold on to Summer.

It’s kind of wistful. Or wishful. Or foolish. Or perhaps merely symbolic of my life as a fictional victorian novel. Whatever way you look at it… I’m still floating around in that Summer place. I think it’s probably denial; me denying myself that my life is actually moving forward after five months of sulking.

I’m not actually sulking, but it’s a kind of strange feeling. Transition. (Humans hate change and they love control. But they love the change that they can control. Sometimes you have that power and sometimes you don’t.)

In this time of transition for adults in their early-twenties and transition for our country, be thankful for what you do have! Think about what you do best (walking your dog, making rice, splurging on yourself) and try to apply that to those who don’t have half as much. Just think about it.