a space for the in-between

for the ones who learned love

in translation.

Essays on healing, cultural inheritance, and the complicated tenderness of one's becoming amidst chaos.

read the essays find me on instagram →

"a regular #poc #antiimperialist gyal seeking love & liberation in a time of neoliberalism. spoiler alert: it's awful."

@significantlyothered →

I'm Hanalei.

A regular poc, anti-imperialist gyal seeking love and liberation in a time of neoliberalism.

This space is for the adult children of immigrants, the ones who code-switched before they knew the word for it. We felt the weight of things that were never spoken aloud.

You've found a place for grief we never named. The table we kept setting. What it means to love people who don't have the words.

"seeking love & liberation in a time of neoliberalism."
#poc #antiimperialist filipina-american hawaiʻi jersey healing addressing trauma diaspora

Based in Hawaiʻi. Born in Jersey. Bicolana braised in P'que. Writing through the obfuscation of intergenerational everything.

featured essays

inheritance

What My Mother Never Said in English

On the untranslatable weight of "mahal kita" and what gets lost when love skips a language.

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healing

What They Didn't Tell Us in Therapy

When the DSM doesn't have a code for "my lola sacrificed everything and I feel guilty for wanting more."

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belonging

The Table We Kept Setting

A meditation on hospitality as armor, and why our parents fed everyone else before themselves.

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Coming soon: Essays will live here.

letters for the
long way home

Occasional essays and reflections — sent when there's something worth saying. No cadence. No hustle. Just words.

the in-between moments

Fragments, feelings, and the stuff that doesn't fit in an essay. Come find the messier version.

@significantlyothered →
"a regular gyal seeking love & liberation in a time of neoliberalism."

— from the bio, and also, from the heart