Marina Jo's Place

Category: Lifestyle

  • We did it!

    When I was in high school, I got to give a speech at my graduation. It was great. I remember I was able to get some laughs and felt good about it after. My favorite part of it was by far the last line that I blatantly plagiarized from one of my favorite movies, Legally…

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  • Pruning

    Pruning

    When we moved into our home, one of the things I knew I wanted to do was start growing my own produce, especially tomatoes. I love tomatoes. On a sandwich with a little salt and pepper? Perfection. But my first year of trying to grow them was pretty much a failure. I planted them in…

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  • I’ve had 3 miscarriages in 1.5 years. Here’s what I learned.

    Some girls dream about their wedding or a specific career or just living a lovely life. I dreamed about being a mom. I used to tell myself that if I didn’t find a partner by the time I turned 35, I’d either get a sperm donor and do it myself or adopt. That’s how much…

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  • 30 things I learned in my first 30 years

    I turn 31 tomorrow. For a girl who thought at one point that the world would end the second I graduated the 6th grade, each birthday seems insane and a little bit not real. But it’s definitely real. And it’s definitely here. I love getting older. Each hair that grays and coils closer to the…

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  • Main character? No thanks.

    If humans had taglines, what would yours be? I am not the main character and I don’t want to be. God did not put me on this earth to suffer.

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  • The Beauty of Free Will

    A couple of months ago, I started to feel like something was missing from my life. Not a person. Not a hobby. Just… something. A quiet ache I couldn’t quite name. After a bit of a crash out and a heart-to-heart with my love, the fog cleared: I was missing writing. I’ve been a “writer”…

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  • We Don’t Outgrow Girlhood — We Expand It

    My husband and I had a large wedding party — 14 people, plus five honorary members. Nineteen in total. And I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Because at the center of all the planning, DIYing flower arrangements and group texts, there was something truly meaningful: the women in my life. My big sister…

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  • The Beauty of Grief

    When my mind needs a jolt of emotion — usually hope — I have a few videos I return to like touchstones. They ground me. Reset me. Among them, two stand out: Jill Scott’s 2014 commencement speech at Temple University and Andrew Garfield’s interview with Stephen Colbert in 2021, where he speaks candidly about grief…

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  • The Beauty of Doing Less

    When I was younger — let’s say five years ago — I used to believe a person’s worth was directly tied to how busy they were on the weekends. How many events they had lined up. How many people they were seeing. How often they left the house. Looking back, I was naive — and…

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