As a lover of the New York Time's Connections puzzle, I decided to create a puzzle that reflects my last six years living in the Bay Area. This puzzle is a tribute to Kamala Harris’s recent nomination, and details different aspects of the Bay Area in a prideful manner which educates facts of this region for all of the New York Times readers globally. To begin, I decided to focus on the unique geography of the Bay Area through the names of our four islands, which fill the center of this large metropolitan region. To reflect the cultural significance of the Bay, I went ahead and listed four well known celebrities from the region. Next, to mix it up I chose four inventions from the Bay Area that are well known and are reflective of the region's innovative nature (and are not tech for a change!). And lastly, as a final tribute to the political nature of this theme, I picked four politicians who either were from the Bay or who are important figures in current or historical landscape. Hope y'all have a hella good time completing this one! Here is the detailed groupings: - Islands of the Bay Area: Treasure, Angel, Yerba Buena, Alcatraz - Famous Celebrities of the Bay Area: Zendaya, (Margaret) Cho, (Tupac) Shakur, and (Courtney) Love - Inventions from the Bay Area: Pride Flag, Cioppino, Ice Pop, Jeans - Notable Politicians of the Bay Area: (London) Breed, (Harvey) Milk, (Clint) Eastwood, (Jerry) Brown

For most of my life, my world was the arts. During my sophomore year of college, my classes were canceled because of the turbulence of Hurricane Sandy. For over a week, much of lower Manhattan lost power. The subways were flooded. As a young adult, it felt like an infinite sleepover with the lights out and buckets of water in our tub in case our pipes stopped. Later, financial issues sent me home to California's central coast. Back in the redwoods, I felt like I could exhale for the first time in years. And yet, I found myself at Target with my Dad, buying air purifiers because of the deathly haze of the Soberanes fire. I made art about the fires, finding old charcoal logs that I would take molds of and then cast in bronze and iron. I wanted to memorialize what we had lost. When I finally finished my undergraduate degree in Chicago, I found myself navigating winter storms with novel names such as Polar Vortex and Snowmageddon. We dealt with these disruptions with dark humor, learned helplessness, and fatalism. What can you do when you are just one person?  I have worked as an educator in the Bay Area for the last couple of years. In this role, most of my world lives in the nuance of dealing with people, specifically other people's kids. I have been a cheerleader for a 7th-grade girl as she used the bandsaw for the first time and have been a resource for an exuberant 12th-grade boy who wants to understand more about the seawater rise and how it will impact the San Francisco waterfront. I have cultivated a space for curiosity and care. But I wonder if it is worth showing them how to 3D print when it requires so much plastic. Can I impart agency while not passing down guilt? When we and our ancestors have all contributed to this crisis, we must learn together how to resolve something so much larger than ourselves. In my early twenties, I worked as a community organizer, giving what I could of my time, yet I was perpetually plagued with the thought that it was never enough. Until one meeting when a senior organizer spoke about the importance of doing what you can and trusting that others will do the same. I often speak with my students, family, and friends about this. Each person can only do what is realistic for them regarding their footprint and sustained, long-term engagement. I dream of having a family after graduate school, even though I know it will significantly affect my carbon footprint. Whatever I ultimately decide, be it adoption or only having one child, my decision will be intentional. We have yet to have clever answers on how to solve this crisis, but if I am successful, the students I work with now will soon be my colleagues and partners in this endeavor to relieve some of these stressors on our planet and each other. With this ethos, I plan to attend Columbia University to pursue an M.A. in Climate and Society. I was accepted in February and deferred for a year due to a chronic health issue paired with financial concerns. My focus will be on how the choice of our building materials impacts both planetary and human health. With the mindset of healing as my guide, I hope to build a collective belief that we can reduce our impact on future generations through coalition building across various fields and disciplines.