There’s a plant, Moses in the cradle, my mom received from someone, I forgot who. It was to help with health issues. My mom planted and cared for it and was able to brew it to drink it with her meals. The plant only had so many leaves until it regrew/reproduced. This pace was too slow for my dad, so he went to home depot to look for the plant, with a photo he had taken on the canon camera my mom (+ siblings?) had given him; he’s not a smartphone person. With limited English, an employee was able to identify the plant, then he took a photo of it on his Canon camera. He came home that day (or did he wait for me to come home on a weekend?) and showed me the name of the plant. Knowing the CIA that I am, he knew he could count on me to find what the plant was and how to find more.

It wasn’t easy, is what someone else would’ve said. I found it literally in minutes (I swear, my parents must always be amazed when I do that). I wasn’t ballin either, so we ordered 1-2 sets of 8 mini ones, like a root that’s about to be a leaf, just to be sure it. It arrived to their house and my parents were glad it was the correct one. They said to order another set, and I did. From there, they started splitting and repotting the plant.

A couple months later, I went home and the plants took over the coffee table. It was just amazing because it showed how my parents/Hmong parents are great gardeners. I could never do that; I don’t even dust fake plants. But the problem to their skill was limited space and storage. I went back (to my) home and ordered two five-shelf organizers shipped to their house. Then I went back home a couple months later, and there were a bunch of planting pots all over the kitchen floor and counter on top of the filled shelves. There was no room to walk and eat! LOL. Went back home, ordered them somewhat a mini greenhouse to put the plants on the floor outside. Those shelves were packed within weeks.

The winter months came and there was no way all the plants could fit in their house since the summer gifted them with great weather. My brother opened his duplex home for two five shelves of plants to go over there. This process itself took two hours. 30 minutes to load, 30 minutes to reorganize the setup situation at my parents' house. Then when we got to my brothers’, 30 minutes to assemble new shelf and 30 minutes to unload. I could’ve let my parents do all this by themselves because they didn’t ask me, but I didn’t need that. I simply saw that they were great at keeping the plants alive and I wanted more plants to be alive. Oh, and winter was coming.

I wish I have the tools and skills to design a nice garden shelf for them. But I don’t, and it’s ok. A hero can still show up to save the day. I gave them what I could, which was use my points to pay for all the shelves. Had I waited until I had the tools and skills, there wouldn’t be as many plants as there are today. Never once did my parents ask if I can buy any of the shelves or organize the plants. They actually wanted to pay for it but it was priced so much when they went to look. With my CIA skills, they costed nothing. I mean, I used my points (that was expiring) to pay for it.

Sometimes we don’t need a hero, we just need someone there. One could have all the skills and tools in the world and do absolutely nothing with it. As soon as I saw how good their gardening was, I knew I had to step in to take it to the next level.

JFK once said, “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

I say, “Don’t wait to be asked what you can do, do what you see need to be done.”

"Garden as though you will live forever." – William Kent

Credits: MissionsbyLi

Hello! Thank you for tuning into this entry!

My 2018-2019 journey is over. I went into this with no idea of what I’ll be judged on. I was told the topics to prepare for, but no one in my family has done it before, so we didn't know what to expect. People that know me were curious why I decided to do it, so here’s why:

• I wanted a representation of myself: college grad, Hmong Leeg, and an independent woman under her own roof.
• I had participated in a variety of competition and I’ve put off the pageant for a long time because I wanted and waited to become my idea of a Miss Hmong and reach more milestones/experiences. 
• I was tire of the fake, cliches, and temporary parts of the pageants. That’s everything from actual contestant to the fake things they say. I wanted to change my own views of the pageant status for the Hmong community. Had I won, I would execute my platform, something that some pageants do not show/communicate properly. 

My biggest fear going into this was how I would sound. I’ve never really spoke in a huge crowd or even with a mic, so I was extremely concerned that I would sound like the Hulk. One of my biggest downfall was my confidence in walking. I was really bad at it, because I don’t … I just don’t, I don’t know. I mean, what if you’re physically disabled and you can’t walk? The things that should be judged on should be universal things; just your 2 cents. Like, how does walking show/make me a great Miss whatever? If anything, that should show the speed of my brain :P. I’m super kidding! It should’ve just been, how did you present in the category.

What I got out of the pageant was more than what I came for. I went in as a tennis player (solo) and came out with a soccer team (get it?). Running for the pageant can be stressful (and I thought I would have achieved it alone for a second? Face slam). At the very least, you will need one person on the day of to help you dress. There’s no way your outfits will turn our near perfect without a second set of eyes. Anyway, lets start the list of what I gained:

• Bond with amazing girls; our group did ⅚ as paj huam for our talent. That itself is powerful. Every single paj huam had such beautiful rhyming and a very important message/topic. I wished I would’ve had more time to prepare a semi lengthy paj huam. 
• Amazing support from my family. If you didn’t know this, now you will. Not every pageant contestant comes up with all the ideas by their self from scratch. Our 2019 MHM had an aunt who sew together her history costume that was brainstormed with her mentor. As for me, I drafted my design, but one sister executed it and the other brainstormed the speech.
• Learning about the Hmong language and culture itself. If you have time, seriously, go watch all the paj huam the girls performed. It is extremely beautiful; I’ll have to translate it some time for our non and limited Hmong speakers. I learned the paj huam just weeks before the final event. I was extremely proud to walk on that stage with my Hmong Leeg tongue.

I encourage everyone who is eligible to run for the pageant, wherever it is, to do it if they can (ok, not everyone all at once now :P jk. Do ittttt!). If you are tire of seeing what doesn’t represent you or your idea of a Miss Hmong/whatever, get it done yourself, or tell your aunt, friend, nieces, whoever they are, they need to get on that stage. I learned that the pageant doesn’t have “bad” contestants. It simply has contestants that are willing to put themselves on stage more than anything and that means the “good” ones sitting comfortable in the audience crowd or at home letting that happen. There are no bad contestants, just a lot of individuals who do not believe in their self enough to try it. The next time someone has a negative thing to say, go say it on stage; don’t write a shady comment/letter on social media because YOU are the reason the pageant (or whatever other issue you have) continues to stay the way they do.

I have more thoughts on this, but we’ll see how much I want to share or even put it on a video :P As always, thank you for reading. Subscribe to my youtube channel for Hmong music and Hmong New Year dance performances. Like my FB page if you want to follow my journey in other directions of life. Thank you and happy new year from the Hmong calendar.

Credits: MissionsbyLi

I'm so glad I finally organized a way to file my thoughts and entries. Going into 2019, it'll be like this:

Soul Sunday - Rest day and preparing entries for the week
Movie Monday - I watch a lot of movies, so this should be the most exciting posts
Travel Tuesday - Travel tips or talk about past/future travels
Wonderful Wednesday - Talk about the good stuff in the news or in life
Throwback Thursday - Share my memories or advice from reflecting the past
Foodie Friday - Talk about the food I've eaten, cooked, or restaurant recommendations
Saving Saturday - Tips about money in general; debt, deals, and living.

I was so excited, I hand wrote 4 entries scheduled to post next week. Putting this together was such a great way to let my audience know what to expect and when. Had I never started writing, I wouldn't have concluded on that schedule.

I hope to make time to do videos for some of these entries as well, but writing is where I start. Thanks for tuning in and come back for next week's entries!