Judy Jiang

 The World We Imagine Part 3 Founding Rationale Have you heard the term "quarter-life crisis"? While people often say your early 20s are the best times in your life, your early 20s are also likely to be filled with many struggles. You are unsure of who you are, what career you would like to pursue, where you are headed, where you belong, and how to navigate college. More notably, you often feel lonely even though you are surrounded by people your age at your college. All these mental struggles combined constitute what people call "quarter-life crisis." What sounds like a silly young-people term comes to actual negative impacts on one's mental health and how we perceive our sense of value and worth in life. In worse cases, young adults tend to experience depression, anxiety, other mental health issues, and in the worst case scenario, suicide.  I was at the one of the lowest points of life during my second year of college. Even though I knew a lot of people from U...

The World We Imagine Part 1 In high school, I was heavily drawn to, and quite frankly obsessed, with gender-related issues. My interest stemmed from my own upbringing. At a young age, learned about my grandparents' disappointment when they found out I was a girl baby. I always heard my parents arguing because my mom was not happy in the marriage, and she felt like her potential in life was cut short simply because of society's expectations of her as a wife and a mother.  Through theatre and performing arts, I explored and played a lot of complex female characters, such as Lady Macbeth and Nora from A Doll's House. Through the lens of fictional female characters, I was able to reflect on real-world gender-related issues and topics. I realized that, to an extent, women still struggle with the same thing in our world today from the times when those literatures were created. At its core, we struggle with the pressure to conform to a societal standard, and this struggle is not e...

My Travel Buddy: Poopy the Platypus  Meet Poopy. He was adopted by me from the top shelf of a thrift store Soap Plant Wacko in Hollywood, California on Nov 22nd, 2023. I decided to name him Poopy because of the color of his fur. I could’ve named him something related to choc olate, but I thought Poopy just had a better ring.  To celebrate his adoption and educate him, I took him to Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica to show him the iconic LA tourist destination. Then, he was able to channel his inner artist by visiting the Orange County Museum of Art. The architecture of the museum was definitely a sight to see.  It is very important to expose a child to different experiences as part of their education. So, a month later, I took him on a road trip with me to San Francisco. Apart from the amazing view of nature on the drive, he was also exposed to some of my favorite electronic dance music songs. Perhaps one day, he can go to a rave or music festival with me. While in...