About MeMy pen name is Mocha Mae. Mocha is a family name. Using this name for this body of work is very fitting because I am mostly writing about my family and my life experiences from my point of view. I have always been a creative person but have struggled with how to incorporate my natural creative abilities into a career that would be admirable to my first generation professional family. Let me clarify. My parent's generation were some of the firsts in our family to have careers that placed them in middle class or above so there is always this not so subtle, underlying pressure to be "richer" than them. Most of that generation was not afforded the luxury of a full college education and therefore do not fully understand the educated person point of view. My whole life I heard that education gives you freedom and choices that you otherwise will not be subjected to. I know my parents understood this statement on some levels - college equals more money. But I do not think they truly understood the entire truth to that statement. Education gives enlightenment and with enlightenment comes an astronomical amount of choice. When you realize you do not have to run the maze with the rest of the rats and you can indeed build your own maze or not be affiliated with a maze at all then you have tapped into the very essence of freedom. When unfocused it can be a terrifying thought to be completely free. For a long time I struggled with this concept because I always had ambitions and dreams but they were often met by the same rebuttal question , "How much does that pay?" With that being said, you can imagine the disappointment when I announced that I wanted to become a Preschool Teacher. Growing tired of fighting me over it my mother settled on convincing me to upgrade to an Elementary School Teacher. I guess she felt like it sounded better when she was talking about my career to her Banking colleagues. To make a long story short: 3 major changes, 4 and a half years of college, 10 years of teaching and 10 years of marriage later and one amazing son later - here I am finally allowing myself to share my point of view through writing.
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"WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS AND WE ARE THE DREAMERS OF DREAMS...fOR EACH AGE IS A DREAM THAT IS DYING OR ONE THAT IS COMING TO bIRTH" - aRTHUR o'SHAUGHNESSY |
" You own everything that happens to you. Tell YOUR stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better!" -Anne Lamott
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore!" - Carrie Bradshaw |