About Me
As you may have already guessed, I'm an avid nature lover and spend as much time as possible outdoors. I enjoy hiking, climbing, and biking with my friends, family, and dogs. I’m a fourth-year dual degree student at the University of New Mexico studying Biology and English and hope to write in environmental or biological journalism or field research writing. I’ve lived on campus for the past seven semesters, including the transition from in-person to remote learning in the spring of 2020. I’ve lived in the traditional dorms with a roommate, as well as in an apartment with three other roommates. My experiences have put me through the motions of learning to live away from home, to cope with home-sickness, identity crisis, living alone, and the challenges of being on a university schedule and budget while far from home while juggling academic responsibilities.
Growing up in a multicultural household, food was not only a necessary part of everyday life but the place in which I connected to who I am within my cultures and where I belong among my peers. Cooking is how my family and I spend time with each other and support one another and how we greet new people into our lives. Living away from home at the beginning of college, without a kitchen to cook in or family to eat with was a humbling and critical point in my recognition of what is important to me and how much of my energy I need to reserve for caring for myself to be happy.
While this pandemic has sent many of us home and far away from those we love and putting unbelievable pressure on all aspects of life it has presented me with a unique opportunity and brought me closer to feeling at home. When I was sent back from the university in March, I was still not able to return home for risk of exposing my parents to the virus, so some friends and I moved into a loft together and built a new life trying to get through our classes and pooling resources for meals and chores. Regularly cooking for myself again for the first time since I was in high school, I rediscovered my connection to home through food and the practice of cooking with others to share a sense of home. Spending the time to feed me and mindfully cook meals that my friends and I could enjoy reconnected me to life before and life looking towards after graduating. Returning to my university in the fall, living in an apartment with a kitchen on campus, I’ve been able to bring home with me and make this extended period of isolation more like home and care for myself better in the process of it.
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This site offers stories and experiences of loneliness in the pandemic and from living far from home, with recipes that can get you started on bringing yourself closer to home right in your own kitchen. A selection of meals that I’ve made and that are easy to make on a budget and that can open up more opportunities and time to spend investing in yourself is here for you to try and adapt to your own tastes and give you a start to your own experience of bringing home with you.