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A Valkyries double feature 💜

Sunday: Took my sister to her first WNBA game in the Bay ft. @milly.ye

Monday: the @sanjoselibrary unveiled the new official @valkyries card at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library in DTSJ. Very special to see the lobby filled with fans decked out in light purple lining up to get their cards, including a very cute little girl in a Gabby Williams jersey 🥹

I used to come to the King library as a kid with my dad and sister. It warmed my heart to experience this corner of the world, where a WNBA team partners with the local library. Where something better is created to fill a space that was once empty.

30 years of the WNBA. 30 years!! To get to this moment we are all getting to enjoy. I take a lot of inspiration and guidance from the women who had the foresight of a world where arenas are filled with joy and people eager to cheer on professional female athletes.

It reminds me that we have to believe a better version of the world is possible. We have to believe there is a better future to look forward to. I do.

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Best day EVER!! Thank you @sfpubliclibrary @valkyries for putting on such a lovely launch event for the PUBLIC!! Went to get the “Official Valkyries Library Card” but got enticed by Bruce Lee 🤣

Shoutout @k_thornton6, Alejandro, Lori, and all the wonderful library staff for being present in the community.

Much gratitude to Lori, who gifted me a copy of Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan, the 2026 selection for One City One Book, a citywide literary event that encourages everyone to read the same book at the same time and discuss it in groups and events around the city.. 🥹💜

@openpractice__ next stop: San Francisco!!! Go Valks!

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I discovered a box filled with my books from college. Feels like receiving a blessing from the past. These 5 books were from a general education class I took on the American War in Vietnam, taught by @viet.thanh.nguyen.writer, who I learned also grew up in San Jose, California.

The thesis of his class was that wars are fought twice, first on the battle grounds and second in memory. How do we remember and teach the events of our history?

That class planted a seed inside of me that has grown steadily over time. Why was I not educated about the history of my ancestors earlier?

Being a child of Vietnamese refugees is a gift and a curse. It has taught me resilience and how to survive, relentlessly. Yet, it has only been in my embrace of joy and play that I have begun to experience peace in my body, mind, and spirit.

Being from San Jose is a superpower because I grew up thinking that I was in the majority. Everywhere I looked, there were people who looked just like me and plenty of people who did not. It wasn’t until I left SJ that I realized how special this place is.

Last year, I went to a book event in Menlo Park and told Viet that I had recently moved back home to San Jose and he said, why did you do that? 🤣 good question I thought… I told him that it was to be closer to my family.

Thank you professor for teaching me about our history. Best of luck in this next chapter of your life and hope to see you out there on the road 🥋

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on what I think is missing in the discourse on @pstorre and @pablotorrefindsout and the Clippers investigation

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dm @openpractice__ for more info

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I was at @daisychainfields 🌼❣️

the first time I saw @oliviarodrigo perform live was in New York and I was in awe of her ability to command a crowd. I realized that night that what made her music so special was that it gave people permission to feel big emotions, confidently. Concerts are magnificent communal spaces for us to feel together.

With DCF, Olivia is showing us that we don’t have to be a celebrity to change the world. We have the power and opportunity to set sail in a new direction at any moment. Much gratitude to @willahbennett for the assignment and to everyone I encountered that was willing to speak to me.

Slide 10 for a poem I wrote about my experience.

Cover photo by @redfrogfilm, my new friend I met while leaving the festival.

“She’s very special. Take her to your heart, I have.” —Stevie Nicks on Olivia Rodrigo

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🧘🏻‍♀️

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….I’ve come to know that love, when genuine and true, never leaves us. It’s something that is renewed through every moment of connection. It continues on, even in silence and flows and cools and calms even the harshest of times. It’s precious and I am lucky to know it is real.

🌀 YouTube.com/Open_Practice

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I used to love back-to-school season as a kid. So eager to figure out what magazine cut outs I want to put in the front of my binder. It would be vision of sorts for the year ahead. I’d walk through the aisles of the seasonal section in my local Target knowing I’d be back in class again.

I recently bought a new binder, though I’m not “going back to school” in the traditional sense. I decided to slip in a photograph to protect it from getting lost in the shuffle before I get it framed. But seeing it in that front sleeve did something more for me than any fancy custom frame job could ever do.

This photo is one that I took this summer on a field trip with my former HS cross country coach and @iden.le to Fort Point. They’ve been showing me the ropes in the world of black and white film photography. I learned how to develop my own film and spent hours in the dark room figuring out how to get the exposure just right to get this print to come to life.

Last year, I sat in on a lecture and learned that the word photography literally means “drawing with light.” I was fascinated by the history of the camera and how we take our ability to capture images for granted with how easy smartphones have made it.

This is a picture of my mom in 1987, printed in her community college student paper. I remember this image distinctly because it’s one of the first photos I saw of my mother as a young woman.

The meaning of that quote resonates with me much more deeply now as I am 29, the same age she was when she left Vietnam on a boat for the chance to make a new life in America.

Growing up in San Jose, that sentence seemed banal to me but I’ve learned that the history and meaning behind those words is anything but ordinary.

This is a shirt I designed when I was going to school at USC. (FIGHT ON!!!) @elementofjess gave me my first sports internship with USC Athletics and the opportunity to design this tee which was a student giveaway.

Seeing my mom in it earlier this week made me smile because she’s the reason I got the education I did, which lead me to the life and opportunities I’ve been lucky enough to have.

In one of my very first classes at SC, I learned about the business o

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Be water, my friends.

I took a break from social media this year because I felt myself using scrolling as a crutch to distract from the painful and turbulent things I’ve been going through in my personal life so I made the decision to do something different.

During that time, I felt my mind open up again. I had space. I had room for possibility, boredom, to wander and to feel. It’s hard to admit to yourself that you’re not doing well, let alone open up to another person but I tried. When I felt my lowest, I rejected my learned tendency to manage on my own and I reached out for help.

As hard as it was, I just kept doing that over and over again and I was lucky enough to have friends reach out to me and provide support when I didn’t even know what to ask for. There were many days when I felt like I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel but I just keep stacking the days and leaning on things I knew have always kept me steady. Books, basketball, friendship, art.

When I witnessed @jus242’s vulnerability during her postgame press conference last night, it hit me. I was floored by her willingness to be open and honest about something that just transpired in front of the world. It showed how incredibly beautiful her spirit and resilience is. She acknowledged her mistake and was provided an opportunity to give more context for a moment that was clipped and spread online that caused knee jerk reactions. She expressed her gratitude for the mentors in her life and talked about how she’s been able to live out all her dreams because of the kindness and generosity of others.

I know that AI is already embedded in many parts of the technology I use in my daily life but despite what big tech likes to say about the inevitability of where we are headed, I’d like to think we have some say in our humanity.

The reason why I love basketball so much is because it saves me by keeping me present. Over and over and over again. Last night JJ said something I have a tendency to forget at times: “No matter what mood I’m in basketball can pick me back up.” Thank you to all the women of the WNBA, past and present. For just being you.
Let’s take care of our future together.

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I’ve always had this random thought that one day all my t-shirts would become vintage. Especially sports or music related tees… every time I’d get a new one, I’d secretly be grinning in my head thinking that one day it’d become a grail ($$$).

This shirt was my first basketball “jersey” from the co-ed league at the Berryessa Youth Center. That summer was my first time playing organized basketball. Anyone who was there knows how special being in that place was.

It’s so stunning to hold something as an adult that you remember so vividly possessing as a child. I wish I had a photo of myself in this shirt as a little girl but those memories are all in my head and heart. Sifting through everything, what I’ve realized is that it really does all go by so fast. One minute I’m learning how to not get blocked every time I try to go up for a shot, the next, I’m unearthing this t-shirt from a box in my parent’s garage thinking, wow… is this vintage now?

I try not to think about the past in a wishful way, even though I do wish the BYC still existed in the way it did before. Moreover, I think about how the only reason I got to experience a space on the hardwood—something I deeply needed to nourish me as a child—was because a community created it. We make things happen to survive and flourish and I believe that’s what we need now more than ever. Here’s to a year closer to a closet filled of vintage tees and more hoops hoops hoops 😤

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One of the things that helped me the most this past year was taking time to identify a few of my core values and choosing to orient my days around activities that aligned with those values. A simple idea that has kept me feeling hopeful, focused, and whole in our noisy, chaotic world.

I designed this activity for Open Practice as a way for our community to playfully and deliberately set their intentions for the new year—all within the form of a paper fortune teller. It was beautiful to see and hear what everyone decided to write down and why.

If you want to make one, just message me and I’ll send you the more detailed instructions. Wishing everyone so much warmth and joy. —Melissa

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