Hello friends and family,

After 9 years apart, Los Angeles and Melissa are getting back together thanks to our old friend UCLA. Except this time rent is much higher, and Melissa will be paying a considerable amount of tuition to attend UCLA full-time as a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning Program (MURP). Moving cross country is expensive (selling and giving away my stuff) and craigslist and buy nothing groups are time consuming and nearly impossible without a car in LA. Your support of this big moment and move would be much appreciated and support me in starting off grad school this September. I’m excited to make it through the next 2 years so one day I can refer to myself as a “murp,” just like how some out there call themselves doctors and lawyers. But seriously I’m hoping to complete my degree to hopefully be able to get my foot in the door for jobs with social justice funders, which has a strong network, and hopefully job opps on the west coast. After many years of nonprofit work serving many communities, I hope to be able to level up so I can serve them better during a cultural shift toward more racial (and hopefully economic) justice in this country!