My personal manifesto, my ideas on how I will live my life moving forward.

As life usually does, it has thrown me some curveball this year that I didn’t see coming. I graduated with my BSW in social work Magna Cum Laude, which I guess is a good thing and I made it through my internship at planned parenthood with the only critique for the future being I need to get better at not getting emotional in front of clients.

After graduating from my undergraduate program I found myself without a routine and with no sense of direction. I came to the realization that I didn’t want to work as a licinced clinical socialworker, but that I wanted to do more macro level work helping communities of people, mine and others. Then I was reading through possible colleges for master’s degrees and I came across the master’s in soviet and public policy with an avaliable specialization in community advocacy. It all seemed perfect, so I applied in 2024 and got accepted in 2024.

I made it through my first semester and I did really well, but in my second semester, this one that just finished, I was behind on every assignment and even though I was getting great marks on the work I was turning in, I was no longer passionate about it because the field wasn’t what I was expecting and on top of that I was experiencing burn out from school and compassion fatigue from home.

I was placing everyone’s needs above my own and not asking for help when I needed it, and whenever I had free time within the craziness I spent it resting or distracting myself instead of focusing on work I needed to go. By the semesters half way point, I was extremely overwhelmed so I spoke to my advisor and others who led the graduate school I was in, and we came up with the idea for me to put in for a leave of absence that’s starts in the spring semester of 2026 and goes until the spring semester of 2027.

At the end of the leave I am supposed to decide if I want to stay enrolled in my graduate school and restart the classes i dropped, or if I want to completely step away from the program for good. I think I know what choice I want to make now, but im ordering myself to take the full year before I make any hasty decisions.

All that was left to do was to drop out of the current classes I was taking so the paperwork could go through. So I did that and now im back ehere I was before I started the degree program, without a clear routine and directionless. But I don’t plan to stay that way. This next year, and tge rest of the days in our current year im going to truly live my life to the fullest. Im going on healing and growing adventures, leisure, and restful adventures, and learning and inspiration seeking adventures, with some healthy doses of therapy, and properly taking my current treatments.

I know I probably don’t have any kind of following anymore since its been so long since I’ve been active on any of my blogs or socials, but that gives me a chance to start semi freshly and provide something worth following.

How I Survived, and Thrived, During my Family Reunion Trip to Texas

My birth mom and I quoted this episode of Spongebob all the time when we were preparing for Texas and while we were there.

With just a few taps on my phone it was done. Through the nervous sweating and intense rounds of should I shouldn’t  I, I had successfully bought a ticket to go over a thousand miles away to the other side of the United States for a double whammy family reunion.

I was headed to my first biological younger brother’s growing family whom I hadn’t seen since his first child was a newborn, and now that child is 3 while my brother’s newest baby is now 1 and this was our first meeting.

I was also going to see my birth mother in person for the first time in over a year. she lives in my home town in Connecticut and neither of us have much extra money for seeing each other in person that often, though last year she was living in the same state as me 3 hours away so it was a bit easier to see each other in person. We do talk on the phone often though, some say too often. That being said, Talking on the phone is a very different experience from being with each other non stop for about 2 weeks.

I love the minions, IDC if they are not cool to others!

Think navigating challenging family dynamics while protecting your mental health is impossible? Think again. In this post, I break down my recent experience at a Texas family reunion after years away from my mom and brother.

Learn the concrete steps I took to manage trauma triggers, establish clear boundaries (even when it was hard!), and weave self-care into a busy reunion schedule, including meeting my brother’s in-laws for the first time.”

  1. First I laid down the ground rules and set up boundaries with first myself about what topics I would and wouldn’t talk about so I wouldn’t start any arguments about differing beliefs and past traumas.
  2. I then discussed my boundaries with my birth mother about having a healthy visit without trauma bonding as we sometimes feel compelled to do.
  3. I also worked out a plan for how I was going to give myself some alone time each day as 2 weeks is a long-term time to be constantly socially interacting with new people, or people I just don’t see very often.
  4. I made sure to take time out of both weeks to talk to the one person in my like who has been my safe person since the day I met her, my adoptive mom. Talking to her whenever I was getting stressed out helped me Decompression and get reasurance that Everything would be ok. plus her voice was calming to hear.

Wrap up:

I had a wonderful time in Texas I reunited with family I hadn’t seen in a while, I met new additions to my family, I saw some different local sites, and ate some delicious food Ive never eaten before. Though my family is one drenched in generational trauma, it is very dysfunctional, but I have healed enough to be able to enjoy their company for 2 weeks without my safe person nearby, so that is a big step for me. My vacation results may not be the same for others with tramatic backgrounds or from dysfunctional families, but I urge anyone struggling with their families to go through the proper channels to get help coping or developing skills to work through these challenges such as a licensed therapist. I do know that not everyone can afford therapy, or insurance, and not every insurance plan covers the needed amount of therapy anyway, so if that is your situation just do your best to prioritize your mental health even if that means cutting that family member ir members out of your life until one or both of you are in a position to heal.

Travel Post

Do you Love ro travel? I do. I love Traveling so much that I made an informal blog dedicated to travel in all forms and in all manners. I’ve traveled internationally over seas, on the same continent, domestically to several states and towns, I’ve been on cruises, traveled several states away by bus, train, plane, and by car. I’ve even done staycations where I stay in a hotel in my town and treat it like a new location.

This is a very brand new travel blog but I’m having fun with it. I’m trying out this zine which is a form of content I’m just starting to learn about. I wanted you guasto to be the first ones to check it out. It shows hilights from my recent trip to Texas.

I am working on a blog post about it for this blog too. I will be Talking about the travel aspect at the Trisha Travels blog on Tumblr and Medium, and I will be making a blog post here about the mental health and personal growth aspect here (I am still working on it).

until then enjoy this travel zine.

White Black Photo-centric Travel Personal Interests Zine_20250502_200822_0000Download

Mini School and Life Update

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Hey Everyone!

I know its been awhile and I haven’t been checking my emails, but there has been a lot going on with school stuff, family stuff, health stuff and world stuff. I am going to share some updates here as well as some of my favorite things about 2025 so far to keep things positive.

School Update:

School is actually going pretty well for me. As you may know if you have seen my other posts, I am in graduate school for a master’s in social and public policy with a specialization in community advocacy. I am on my second modules for all three of my classes (three classes is considered full time for grad students), and so far I’ve gotten grades back from the first module for two of my classes. In my research methods class I got a 95 on my first module, and in my community advocacy at the state and local level I got a 100. I am still waiting on the grade for my policy implementation class. So far the workload is high, but I’ve found ways to make it manageable, mainly through strategic reading and using a block schedule to balance school and other obligations. I just need to do less scrolling online and more blogging on my blogs in my free time to maximize productivity. Also I am in the school book club and I joined the e-sports team, but I don’t know how active I’ll be able to be in the esports team until I get updated game systems. That is all for school though.

Family Update:

I’m not going to go to far into detail here, because it is private family stuff, but there is always something stressful going on somewhere and with someones in my family. I suppose its like most families. That being said, we all have a strong amount of love for each other, and an understanding that we will always be there for anyone of us in need. Also, my German shepherd is doing great as usual. she loves playing in the snow and going outside even though it’s so bitter cold where we are. today it was -9 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t worry, we weren’t out too long. There is also exciting things happening in my family, like my nephew and one of my brothers are having their birthdays this month and in April, I’m supposed to be visiting my brother for his and his youngest baby’s birthday which is on the same day. Other than that, there is not that much I can tell you other than my grandma and great-grandma are doing way better since Christmas time when they were in the hospital.

Health Update:

Ok, so one thing I have to come clean about is, that I haven’t been doing the best health wise. school is great, my family is mixed between great some times and struggling others, but my health has really not been the best. I guess I started putting my health on the backburner, not watching what I was eating anymore, not getting good sleep anymore, not doing what I’m supposed to to manage health conditions like taking meds on time every time, and now I have been feeling sick the past week, and have had a major headache that will not go away. I do have type 2 diabetes and the not eating right has caused me to gain more weight when I was in the process of getting down to a healthy weight for my body and for my specific needs (everyone’s healthy body is different and the ideal weight for one person may not be the same for another). Always listen to your doctors before starting any kind of weight loss journey and know that the issues I am struggling with due to my diabetes is not the same for everyone and the way to heal for me may not work for others. That being said, this past week has been a real wakeup call, especially after talking to my cousin who knows way more about diabetes than I do. As of right now I have started tracking my food and water intake and exercise output in a food journal, getting more serious about tracking my blood sugar, and for the past two days reducing the amount of carbs I eat and making sure they come from unprocessed sources. I don’t know how well this will go, but I plan to continue with guidance from my health professionals.

World Update:

I don’t need to tell anyone what has been going on here in the U.S. with all of the drastic changes taking effect so quickly. but I will say all of this stuff I see on the news is making me the most afraid out of anything. Not only will these changes affect my loved ones and I, but they will affect so many of other innocent people around the nation, and around the world (at least with our allies). I have seen that some people are flourishing with all of the changes to the government, but a great many more are in fear for their lives. If that is you, then I advise you to utilize your support systems, your community resources that remain including 988 the toll free crisis line, and the crisis text number where you text HOME to 741741. If you find it helpful please go to my page of resources for all kinds of supportive services and hotlines, and please be kind to yourselves and your fellow human beings (animals too).

What I’ve enjoyed about 2025 so far:

  • Getting started with my school program and finding out that I am cut out for master’s level work.
  • connecting more with my family, staying connected with my friends, and making new connections with new people.
  • Playing and laying with my dog in this cold winter weather and in our warm home.

Christmas and New Year’s

Hello everyone; I know it’s been so long since I’ve made a post. My last post was about Thanksgiving. Since then there has been a bunch of changes on my adoptive family causing a bit of stress but it is all being handled. Christmas was pretty good overall despite some drama with the 3 siblings that showed up for Christmas Day.


On Christmas eve I called as many family members as I could and wished them happy holidays. Then on Christmas morning I got quite a bit of stuff I was hoping for because I actually gave my mom a list this year (like she told me to) and she got me like everything on the list. my My brother whom I live with and I opened most of our presents the day before Christmas, but I got some that were late in the mail after Christmas and he is still deciding what he wants my mom to get him for his room.

And of course I got Honey, our family’s German Shepard presents, I got her a new bed, as she had tore up her old one, I got her a dog bone toy for aggressive chewers that she honestly didn’t care about, and some cinnamon roll dog treats that she loved.

I still haven’t sent out Christmas cards, so I think I’ll do that next year, but other than that I was able to get meaningful gifts for everyone on my list starting with my 2 nieces and nephews, then my moms, then my siblings (all the ones that still talk to me), then my adoptive mom’s mom, dad, step mom and grandma on her mom’s side (my birth mom’s parents and grandparents are all passed on and i don’t talk to anyone on my dads’ sides of the family. then my dog, obviously, then my one cousin that I always buy a christmas gift for.

And now everyone is taken care of and there isn’t a birthday I need to worry about  until February when my 16 year old brother and my sisters son have their birthdays.


On Christmas morning, my mom, my 3 youngest brothers, and I all ate Christmas breakfast at Ihop. I got the double blueberry pancakes, and they were really good, just not the next day. After that, we went home and hung out together until it was time to go to Christmas dinner at my mom’s aunt’s house.

The only problem with that is that she lives like 30 minutes away and in a place where driving conditions were less than ideal. Everything was fine getting there and back, though. We just drove very slowly.

Dinner also went very well. Politics was only brought up once, and everyone got along great. The only people who weren’t there were my uncle and his wife as they were traveling somewhere else.


Sometime after Christmas, someone in my close family went to the hospital and stayed until yesterday, but they are doing much better now.

For New Year’s Eve, I just stayed in with my mom while my youngest brother went to a friend’s house. I watched the ball drop on Dick Clark’s Rockin New Year’s Eve with Ryan Secrest hosting. I watched with my adoptive mom in the room and with my birth mom on Facebook messenger.


I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions in the traditional way because those never seem to last for me, but instead, I made a list of physical health, mental health, social, spiritual and productivity SMART goals I want to achieve with set steps and deadlines. I am hoping I can stick to this new style of setting and achieving my goals better than just setting lofty resolutions that I end up breaking.


So that is how my holidays went this year. Now that they are over I am looking forward to the next chapter of my life which includes my first semester of my social and public policy master’s program online at Empire State University starting on the 13th of this month, so next week. I am going for that with an advanced certificate in community advocacy.


I have my books and most of my other supplies, and my current laptop is getting a battery placed hopefully by the beginning of next week (I’ll have to use my phone until then) then when my financial aid comes in I am hoping to get a new computer as I’ve had my current one for quite a while and I want one that can better handle high quality gaming graphics and much more hard drive space as I have Joined the school’s gaming community.


The next time I post, you will get an update for how I am coping with grad school and life stuff combined. Until then feel free to check any of the pages on this site out including the extensive resource page with new resources consistently being added. If any of the links on the page don’t work, please let me know. And have a happy, healthy day/ night, week, month, year, life.