About this blog: I was born and raised in Palo Alto, and graduated from Palo Alto High in 2013. For the lion's share of that time, I had a starry-eyed adoration for my hometown, and all its perks: top-notch schools, safe neighborhoods, and a boomi...  (More)

About this blog: I was born and raised in Palo Alto, and graduated from Palo Alto High in 2013. For the lion's share of that time, I had a starry-eyed adoration for my hometown, and all its perks: top-notch schools, safe neighborhoods, and a booming tech industry to name a few. Now I've returned to work as an Anatomy Scholar and Bioscience Research Assistant at Stanford and SLAC, respectively; coming home after four years in rural Ohio (at beautiful Kenyon College), my perspective has shifted slightly. I still see the beauty of our incredible region, but I also see some of its problems: the Bay Area homeless population is growing, and full of real, hurting people. Our aging and dying are often marginalized, with their needs unseen and stories untold. We, as a community with social and financial power, can help these people. That simple realization was my motivation for this blog. My goal here is to tell stories of real individuals, battling poverty and terminal illness in the Bay Area. In doing so, I hope to challenge readers — and myself — to tackle their misconceptions about both poverty and death. Even more so, I want to galvanize others to engage and serve those who are battling such giants.  (Hide)