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Maya Chu Gooding

@mayachugooding

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The worst year, but here’s proof of life and some of the silly bits from traveling (also didn’t realize until making this how sad and tired I look in most of it!) 🖤 My grandma (my last grandparent) passed. My tiny Min self-deported to Mexican dog heaven and broke my heart forever. I was pushed out of a company that constantly lied to me and depleted my sanity. So many of my friends and family had some major life crisis this year, and my heart aches for all of them. Crisis and horror in America. Crisis and horror all over the world. + Anxiety, depression… etc etc. 🖤 I feel the universe is forcing me into making drastic positive change in the new year by finally releasing me of the sh*ttiest year. I don’t know exactly what it’ll be yet, but I’ve got thoughts and ideas cooking. 2026, please be better. by @mayachugooding

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7 months ago

MCG in NYT (on my lunch break 😅) - check out my interview in ‘The Emotional Gamble of a Hand-Knitted Gift’ - thx @blokting for including me 🥰 taken in NYC by @mayachugooding

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3 years ago

My biggest adventure of the year - almost a month in Europe. I went to Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Zurich, Munich, Berlin, Odense, Copenhagen, Malmo, and London - primarily by train, but after Germany I was so depleted and exhausted I took some quick flights instead. Went through a ton of other towns and cities for train station and airport connections, navigating with my limited language abilities and a lot of google searches. I got to spend time in Amsterdam with one of my closest friends (@kh.mailloux ) and teach her all my chaotic travel ways. I found out at my ripe age that I actually like drinking coffee. I lugged around a giant backpack that weighed as much as I did. The recent Tame Impala album was my daily driver for much of the trip since it came out when I was in Belgium. I had one really, really bad day in Munich, but pretty much good days everywhere else. I ate so much ramen my mom sent me money for food halfway through my trip bc she was bothered that I was only eating ramen. I was in central Paris for the Louvre heist (it wasn’t me). I took so many photos on my phone and on film but almost none of any actual landmarks or super famous artwork, bc as my parents taught me, look out for the cool little parts in the weird corners that no one else is taking pictures of, they’re always more interesting. So here are the collages I made with them. by @mayachugooding

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7 months ago

2+ weeks of our little family missing our Min guy every second of every day 🦐 by @mayachugooding

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a year ago

This year was absolutely one of the worst ever so made a collage of the parts that were actually good to remember them instead ❤️ by @mayachugooding

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7 months ago

He was supposed to live another 14 years, but he went out early on his own terms in his safe space - his mother’s arms. Most people would ask me “how do you know your dog is gay?” Then they’d meet him and there would be no more questions. He found a late-in-life twin with his little sister from Korea. He started peeing like a female dog when we brought Waffles home - pretty sure he thought he was a bulldog too. He was my partner through the worst and best times of my life. His dad became his live-in nurse towards the end but did everything for him with a smile and a kiss - he’d always say he was his best friend. A truly funny, unique and perfect cozy little guy with a million names. I will always miss him with my whole heart, think of him when eating cheese, and get to live with his beautiful baby deer face on my arm forever. Mommy loves you min ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💖 by @mayachugooding

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a year ago

C ya 🇳🇱👋🏼 taken in Amsterdam, Netherlands by @mayachugooding

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2 years ago

UPDATE: new start date is Sunday 2/15 🚨 @roznewyork 💖 by @mayachugooding

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6 months ago

june/july 🙃

too hot? taken in New York by @mayachugooding

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a year ago

Yesterday I lost my grandma. She’d been sick for the past few months (she was 93), and yesterday in quick succession, she spontaneously woke up from her near-vegetative state to ask for ice cream (the only food she’d eaten in over a week), ate it, and then died. An insane way to go. But kind of a perfect ending for a person full of insane life stories.

So much of who I am is because of my grandmothers. I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet my other grandma, but this one I was lucky enough to live with and learn from my entire life. She’d bake with me, craft with me, read with me, and ask me to fix something electronic every time I’d see her. Last time I saw her a few months ago in LA (this is the last picture of us together) I explained to her that her daily short can of Diet Coke was known as a fridge cigarette. She was hilarious, sassy, and stubborn as hell. She took care of me when I was little and got sick from eating too many cookies (and I returned the favor many years later she was actually sick).

It’s a stranger and sadder world without her in it - kind of gray and misty and hollow. I’m grateful that we loved each other so much - she knew it and I know it. Say hey to grandpa for me in the afterlife, I know there’s a sewing machine waiting for you ❤️ by @mayachugooding

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8 months ago

Don’t tell me what to do taken in Amsterdam, Netherlands by @mayachugooding

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2 years ago

UTrek™️ taken in Utrecht, Netherlands by @mayachugooding

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2 years ago