Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.
If you have ever felt that the stories we are told by mainstream media are missing the bigger picture, or that the things we are taught in schools are too flat and disconnected from real life, then you have found a kindred spirit.
This Substack is a slow-paced, independent space for deep dives, long-form essays, and book reviews. I write at my own pace, often returning to subjects over time, focusing on nuclear safety, cultural ideas, literature, and the education of our children.
Why I Write
For me, writing began in the early 2000s simply because I needed an intellectual outlet. What started as journaling eventually grew into a full book manuscript, advocacy, and a deep commitment to exposing the truth.
I write today because I believe people deserve to know what is actually happening behind the headlines. When it comes to complex systems like nuclear safety, the full story rarely makes it to the evening news.
I also write to capture a kind of wisdom that is rapidly disappearing. When I was young, I was fortunate to know older people who shared insights with me that could never be found in a textbook. Today, so much of education has been reduced to flat data, memorized for an exam and then forgotten, often leaving young people unprepared for the actual depth of the world. My writing is an effort to bring that depth, nuance, and real-world experience back to the page.
The Lens I View the World Through
My perspective isn’t academic; it is shaped by lived experience and long observation:
A Global Childhood: Growing up in Indonesia and attending international schools, I lived among the infrastructure of massive, cross-cultural engineering projects. It taught me early on to pay attention to how large institutions operate across different cultures.
Economic Realities: In the 1980s, with an Associate degree in Fashion Design, I worked in the Southern California clothing manufacturing industry just as it was being dismantled and shipped overseas. It was a firsthand lesson in how broad economic decisions reshape individual lives.
Behind the Gates of Nuclear Power: For nearly three decades, my life was closely tied to the nuclear industry through my husband’s career as a licensed reactor operator at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Living alongside that high-risk industry, and navigating the personal fallout when safety concerns were raised. That experience gave me an unfiltered look at institutional workplace culture.
The Hardest Work: Alongside all of this, I spent over twenty years homeschooling our four children. Being a wife and a mother has been the hardest thing I have ever tackled, and absolutely nothing I learned in formal education prepared me for the actual realities of raising a family.
In 2024, I distilled these intense chapters of my life into my novel, Light on the Horizon: Inspired by Real Events. This Substack is the natural continuation of that journey. Please consider supporting my work by purchasing my book, Light on the Horizon - Inspired by Real Events on Amazon. Thank you!
What to Expect Here
Today, my husband and I run a small online plant nursery from our home in northeast San Diego County. When I am not tending to plants, I am reading, researching, and working on this publication.
This space is entirely reader-supported. There are no corporate sponsors and no ads. By subscribing, you get full access to the archives and can join a community of thoughtful readers in the comments section.
My hope is that through these essays, we can look past the surface of things and recognize what is truly valuable in life through truth, humor, and lived perspective.
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