What are we doing, sitting in a tree?
When I first launched this newsletter in the fall of 2023, we were sitting in a tree here because of the good ol’ heteronormative schoolyard rhyme:
Girl and Boy, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Girl with the baby carriage (because of course it’s the girl).
As a newlywed 30-something, I wanted to talk about the gargantuan life-choices and nuanced epoch of time that I and so much of this community are currently navigating. What next? Family complexities, marriages, divorces, the baby decision, friendship evolutions, grief, personal development– what parts do we want to participate in or abstain from?
But now?
I’m sitting in the tree, partially to take a birds-eye view and breather (disassociate + escape) from the unprecedented dumpster fire of the world below, while forcing myself to look up at the still-hypnotizing sky and clouds that continue to steadily move along (for now), to explore what it means to navigate a world so full of contradicting wonder and horror.
Being the hyperlexic, hyperverbal human that I am, I do my fair share of yapping and advocating on my social media pages– whether that’s for constitutional rights and our current fight against fascism or insisting that you make this epic roasted garlic dressing RIGHT NOW – but the thoughts that feed my insomnia at night are far more nuanced than what the hollow nuggets of content, whittled down to serve as mini m&m’s of dopamine for our ever-shortening attention spans, can possibly convey.
I care deeply about this shared world we live in, and am endlessly fascinated with the inextricable intersectionality that weaves the fabric of our world.
Health and well-being, food, mental health, politics, consumerism, societal norms, environmentalism – all things that cannot be isolated without willful, selective ignorance and that overlap is a lot of what you’ll see here.
I *will* effortlessly (actually, with a lot of effort, who am I kidding) ping-pong between fantasy novels, relationships, healthcare reform, things that make my life better, the skincare I can’t get enough of, and railing against the tradwife / wellness to alt-right pipeline.
So we’re sitting in the tree, to gab about it all: dumpster fire below, endless skies above.
Also, gear up for a lot of em dashes, parentheses, and oxford commas – not because I’d ever touch AI for my writing (I’m a luddite that has never opened ChatGPT, ever), but because this is what it’s like to be in my brain.
About Me
My name is Minna, pronounced Mee-na (not Min-uh). I'm a neurospicy Korean-American almost-35-year-old, who has been sharing her life on the internet for over a decade.
I am the somewhat-now-trite label that many of us consider ourselves these days, a multi-hyphenate. I was a personal trainer + nutrition coach, startup founder, photographer, writer, influencer, and now… some hybrid of it all. I’m also a mother to the world’s most adorable @bennybthecorgi, who I’d lay down in traffic for (while he’d exuberantly trade me for a sliver of salmon sashimi), and wife to my favorite person, J.
After 14 years of calling NYC home, J and I enjoyed 2 years of being LA residents, during which we whirled through some larger life milestones: we got engaged, I got to take my mom back to Korea (a bucket list goal of mine!), we traveled a bunch, we got married, I finally had my endo surgery, and then abruptly decided to move back to the east coast and get settled into the NJ suburbs– a place I swore I’d never live, but have now come to love as home.
This past year of my life after taking a hiatus from this newsletter has been filled over the brim, with deep changes. My AuDHD diagnosis and unpacking everything that came with that, including a drastic need to adjust how I work, the ever-evolving experience of being in your 30’s while living in a dumpster fire world, and then most recently, a rare cancer diagnosis that is latest addition to my health history could be mistaken for a Cheesecake Factory menu (endometriosis! hEDS! hashimoto’s! cancer! what the fuck!)
My joys: good coffee, being by a body of water, spicy mezcal margaritas, making kimchi and gluten-free sourdough, full-on ADHD hyperfixating on being a first-time gardener, being a homebody with my boys, curling up like a hands-free worm with my kindle and paired remote in silence and fresh sheets, film photography, illicit eating of cheese despite my intolerance to lactose, hanging my head slightly outside a window while a car is moving, and the manic feeling of typing away furiously like Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty when I have an explosion of thoughts.
Feel free to hang with me over on Instagram and/or Tiktok, where I share more of my day-to-day, political yapping, and amuse-bouche-sized thoughts!
And of course, Benny tax:
The stuffy newsletter things:
Now let’s go over some of the technical aspects of this newsletter you should know:
This is a paid newsletter, because it is ad-free.
I have nothing against ads, so long as it’s morally-aligned. That being said, I firmly believe that everyone deserves to be paid for their work, and the value and insight I will strive to continually impart here deserves that too (…I say, as the blood drains from my people-pleasing overachiever face).
On occasion I may include discount codes and/or affiliate links, from which I will earn small commissions at no cost to you.
This is the smallest part of my work revenue from my social platforms– HOWEVER, for the affiliate earnings from any links in this newsletter, they will go to non-profits of I contribute to, ongoing: ACLU, NAACP, and a variety of dog rescue or rehabilitation organizations (Queen’s Best Stumpy Rescue for Corgis is a personal fave)— along with disaster relief funds when those arise… because they non-stop will, as we continue to wreak havoc on the planet.
Paid subscribers will receive:
Weekly Circle Time issues.
Personal essays. These will range quite a bit, especially with my latest life and health changes, but some previous issues include the expectations to have it all, finances, friendships in your 30’s, the baby decision, tackling adulting things like creating a will, changing names with marriage.
The community in the comment section. One of the best and worst parts about the internet, but the best of it usually in places like this.
Full access to the archives, of all the Sitting in a Tree issues ever written.
My gratitude, for supporting my ability to do this work and occasionally be off the social-media hamster wheel.
Free subscribers will receive the occasional bonus issues.
