happy fall — hey it's maya

Hi there! It’s me! It’s been way too long. How have you been?? There’s lots to catch up on.

Lately, I’ve been working a ton, spending time with friends and family, training for a half-marathon, drinking matcha lattes and boba on the daily, and playing pickleball. My friends and I love pickleball. After watching Challengers, we felt especially inspired to channel our inner Tashi Duncan and pick up a paddle (and pretend it’s a racket).

For the past few months, I’ve been working as a teacher's assistant at an elementary school. I’m working with a pre-kindergarten class, so the kids are 4-5 years old. I’ve never worked with such a young age group, and let me tell you, it’s definitely a roller coaster of emotions. There are moments when my heart is filled to the brink with affection for these kids, and then there are other moments where I feel like I’m on the verge of a heart-attack because all 22 kids are yelling and 6 of them are asking me questions all at once and 2 of them are wandering away and 1 of them is crying. It’s that crazy sometimes. It definitely takes an inner-calm and inner-patience that is truly a gift. I have a newfound appreciation for what teachers do every day. This job is teaching me that I actually have more patience inside of me than I ever thought I had. And I’m also discovering the wonders of a post-work nap.

Overall, I love working with the kids. They are so sweet, curious, and they say the funniest things without trying to be funny. They also grow so much during this age. There’s one girl in my class whose family recently moved from China, and she came in on the first-day not knowing any English other than being able to say “No!” Fast-forward a couple months later, and she’s already starting to speak in full sentences. She’s also super sweet and runs up to me and gives me several hugs every day :)

Aside from work, one of the highlights of this fall was participating in a 5-day cooking bootcamp with the Culinary Institute of America. My mom and I did it together, and it was absolutely incredible! We learned all about knife skills, mise en place, sauces, soups, meats, confit, and we even deboned a chicken on our first day. I never thought I’d find myself deboning a chicken, or see my mom fry what had to be 7 pounds of chicken in a pot of oil, but alas, it happened. It was definitely the closest I’ve been to being on a cooking show like MasterChef. Our chef instructor was pretty intense, so he would call out orders like we were in a real kitchen. We’d hear him holler things like, “15 minutes until plating!” and “Make sure to taste your food!” There were times when we were kind of just thrown into the “fire” and we’d have to figure out how to make our soup not taste bland, or how to stuff a pork loin, or how to make risotto al dente, or how to make sure we didn’t poison people with our chicken, etc. It was cool (and a bit stressful) to get a glimpse into what it’s like to cook in a professional kitchen. We also got to know some lovely, interesting people who were in the bootcamp with us. Shoutout to Reto who was on a team with me and my mom!

On a separate note, is anyone else as excited as I am that it’s Fall?! I absolutely love Fall. I love the coziness that this season brings with its brisk, blue-sky mornings and leaves that cover the ground. I love baking pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips, sipping chai lattes, wearing sweaters, and watching trick-or-treaters (while wishing it was still socially acceptable for me to trick-or-treat). I have to say, one of my favorite childhood memories was trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with my friends and going to all the huge houses that had the best decorations and gave out the biggest candy bars. After trick-or-treating, we would come back to my place and trade each other for the candies that we liked best. My favorites were always Reese’s, Snickers, and Junior Mints.

A couple of weekends ago I visited a pumpkin patch and it felt like I entered a scene from Gilmore Girls. It was so charming seeing a bunch of little kids pushing wobbly wheelbarrows full of pumpkins. Was the pumpkin patch mainly meant for 2-12 year olds? Yes. But am I still a kid at heart? Also yes. The pumpkin patch had a petting zoo, haunted house, and corn maze that I was almost as tall as. I got to pet a fluffy llama which felt like petting a cloud. I got a pumpkin from the patch and carved it this past weekend. It felt so nostalgic…why did I ever stop doing this! I have to start making it a tradition.

P.S. What’s one of your favorite fall activities?