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USA250 Journal Project
Personal Chronicle: July 4, 2025 – July 5, 2026
A gift for reflection. A record of now. A story for what’s next.
✍️ “Who am I?”
I’m Lena Torres. Partner. Scholar. Mom. Fire escape.
That’s what it feels like some days—like I’m the one holding open the only door no one else sees.
I grew up learning how to stay calm in chaos. How to read people fast. How to keep the plates spinning.
Now I research systemic health disparities by day and warm bottles by night. And in between? I try to get Rosa to talk. Not in code. Not in metaphor. Just… talk.
I’m not afraid of the world. I’m afraid of letting it shape us without a fight.
I believe in practical change. In community. In getting up and showing up and saying what you mean.
But I also believe in Rosa. Even when I don’t understand her silences. Even when love feels like an encrypted signal I’m locked out of.
Who am I? I’m the one still trying. Even when I’m tired. Even when I’m scared.
Especially then.
✍️ Lena Torres – Prompt Two: “How did I get here?”
I got here by believing that care is an act of resistance. And that public health is about more than data—it’s about dignity.
I was raised in a family that didn’t always have access, but always had each other. Abuela used to say, “No te quejes sin hacer algo.” Don’t complain if you’re not doing something about it.
So I studied science. Community systems. The ways bodies—especially Brown ones—get neglected, erased, made invisible in the very places that are supposed to keep them safe.
That’s how I met Rosa—at a university lecture on digital privacy and health access. She sat in the back, quiet, eyes scanning faster than her fingers could type. We started talking after. Then talking turned into late nights. Then a life.
Now there’s Ember.
And my days are diapers, deadlines, and trying not to snap when Rosa disappears into her encrypted world.
I love her. God, I love her. But I also need her to see me. To see us. To stop thinking she’s the only one holding the world on her shoulders.
I got here by caring too much. By believing that love was a renewable resource.
Lately, I’m not so sure. Lately, I just want to breathe.
What has life taught me?
That no revolution lasts if it burns out the people lighting the torch.
That intimacy and activism can’t survive on theory alone.
And that if we want our daughter to believe in freedom—we have to model it, not encrypt it.
Family
Rosa Nguyen – Partner.
Ember Nguyen-Torres – Daughter.
Mai Nguyen – Partner’s mother.
