So much about the time before menopause is unknown I’ve had a multitude of health issues in the last few years which I am now relating to hormonal imbalances that comes with approaching 50. I feel like no one warned me that my late 40s would be a rollercoaster of…

By Carol Izumikawa, City on a Hill Press January 20, 1994

The universe may have other things in store for you When I was pregnant with my first child, I began to crave “regular” work hours. I worked in litigation which often meant long work hours. I applied for a government job with State Compensation Insurance Fund. I received a letter…

I can still feel the pain of failure from the eighth grade I first heard Blue Monday by New Order when I was in eighth grade. I was standing in the courtyard watching a demonstration of an audition routine. It seemed like every female eighth grader was there to try…

I Still Don’t Really Know On the first day of kindergarten, a little girl asked me if I was Chinese. It took me a second to answer that I didn’t know. At recess, three little boys bowed in front of me. It made me laugh. Maybe I was Chinese. I…

Former Murder Capital of the World When I moved in to Stevenson College, I had no idea that Santa Cruz had the history of being the Murder Capital of the World. In 1991, the town was still recovering from the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. The Pacific Garden Mall crumbled…

Gangsta’s Paradise is a haunting classic As soon as my husband informed me that Coolio had passed away, we immediately said the opening lines of 1995’s best-selling single Gangsta’s Paradise. As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I take a look at my life and realize…

My father served as a Civil Defense Volunteer in 1941 My father was born on the 4th of July in 1933 in the pineapple town of Haiku in Maui. My grandparents and all of their 13 children worked at the Libby cannery. WWII affected my family greatly. I knew that…

Social, one-to-one, and self-preservation variants The Enneagram consists of three groups of three personality types based on head (5,6,7), heart (2,3,4) and gut instints (8,9,1). Each personality type also has three variants, or subtypes, which can look very different to each other. …