Author Archive for Traci Garling Lee

Turkey ‘Friends’

I can’t remember the last time my family and I had a turkey at Thanksgiving. My grandpa isn’t a fan of turkey so we’d have different types of meat instead. “But turkey is the traditional Thanksgiving food!” people will say to me when they hear this. People also gasp when they hear that my family has mixed opinions on pumpkin pie, so we have other pies and desserts instead.

Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

(10:53:09 PM) Traci: I’m doing that thing where I’m trying to name all 50 states…I only have 39…
(10:53:15 PM) Amanda: hahaha
(10:53:19 PM) Amanda: love it
(10:53:21 PM) Amanda: let me see if I can do it

The Reality of Abuse

I felt 6 inches tall before I could stand 5 feet 2 inches. I used to think I was a coward more than I ever thought of myself as a victim. In my mind, being a victim meant I couldn’t handle my problems. I didn’t want to accept that I wasn’t capable of fixing them. I wanted to be tough. I wanted to be solid.

S4S: Green and Clean

Alexis Kim is obsessed with food. Real food, that is. As the current co-chair of Students for Sustainability, she hopes to see more of it on the UCI campus. It’s a part of the group’s mission: a sustainable future.

Wicca-Wicca Witchcraft

On Halloween, kids get the opportunity to dress up and assume another identity. For me, it wasn’t enough to just dress up as a witch; I wanted to be one.

When I was little, my sister and I would pretend we had magical powers like Sabrina, the teenage witch. We wrote a book of rhyming magical spells and rode around on our mom’s vacuum cleaner, like Sabrina did on TV. We dreamed of having magical powers and of discovering an Other Realm through the linen closet.

101 Reasons To Get Up and Go!

At this very moment on Post-it notes across campus, people are making to-do lists, from chores like vacuuming, taking out the trash and reminders to finally catch up on reading for class. On my desk is a list reminding me to do laundry, buy coffee creamer and study for multiple upcoming exams.

It can be overwhelming to see all of the tasks you must complete on a neon green note, so how would you feel about a to-do list with 101 things on it?

Disappearing Libraries

By the age of ten, I ran away with the Boxcar children, fought alien species with the Animorphs, traveled through a wardrobe to Narnia and attended Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione. I was an orphan, a superhero, an adventurer and a witch.

Confessions of a Clerk

Once upon a time, a lonely blue shopping cart was left abandoned hundreds of feet away from its home and it was my job to retrieve it. This is the tale of my short-lived career as an Albertson’s courtesy clerk where I learned how to become an expert at dodging fast cars in a poorly designed parking lot.

The Startling Truth Behind Facebook Quizzes: What You Don’t Know Others Know About You

Dear Facebook friends: please don’t take this the wrong way, but I feel like there’s something that you should know.

I’m glad that you resemble Meredith Grey out of all of the “Grey’s Anatomy” characters, and it’s nice to know that one of the five items you would wield during a zombie attack is a lightsaber, but I’m not interested in taking that quiz or “choosing my own five.”

I don’t want to join your Mafia War, nor do I care that you are “movin’ on up in FarmVille!” I hope my lack of cooperation doesn’t affect our online or in-person relationship.

Bringing Nerdy Back: Intergalactic Warfare at UCI

Gloves on. Lightsaber ready. It’s time to duel.