Things to do in Guam When You're Dead

Despensa yu' sa' noskuanto na ha'ani desde pumost yu' guini. I just finished up an article for Third Space, a anti-racist feminist zine published out of the University of Victoria. Lana, I'm slowly learning how hard it can be to shrink down my rambling into 1500 words. Gos mappot umbre, sa' payon yu' nu este na klasin tinige' (gi i internet, kalang taihinekok).

The article turned out pretty good. I'm intending it to be the last chapter of my latest master's thesis out here in San Diego.

This past year has been a big learning experience for me in terms of writing. After seeing so many of my friends struggle with writing their thesises and dissertations I decided at the start of my Ph.D. program last year, to do all I can to avoid getting stuck and incased in writer's block.

Despite already getting a master's degree in Micronesian Studies, I have to complete a new thesis for my Ethnic Studies doctorate. So to that end, since August of last year I've presented six different papers at six different conferences. Each of them geared towards something I want to have in my thesis, or something I'm just brainstorming for it. In addition to that I've written two book chapters which have been submitted and hopefully will get published. With the article I just turned in yesterday that makes three articles I've written for smaller zines such as Salty, Third Space, and the Guam Federation of Teachers magazine.

Gof gagu yu' na patgon, so I know myself well enough to not trust myself to get a thesis written on my own. So what I've basically done is committed myself to different groups, people, conferences, organizations in different ways, which will require me to think and get something down on paper. That is the hardest part, translating what floats around your head, down into your computer or on the thousands of pieces of scratch paper littering my room. Once that is done, editting, moving stuff around, adding superficial things here and there is a snap.

Maybe I'll post the text of my last article here. I'm sure the title alone will get people interested or aggrivated. I titled it "Things to Do in Guam When You're Dead."

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