My name is Haley and I’m 19. I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Chapter 7Tumblr (3.0; @waitingforhaley)http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m24x7vUw4p1qzib5qo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><a href="http://www.desiretoinspire.net/blog/2012/4/4/enrique-menossi-part-1.html">Enrique Menossi</a></p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/21123940210http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/21123940210Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:01:15 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1piyulgiO1qhk04bo1_500.gif"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1piyulgiO1qhk04bo2_500.gif"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1piyulgiO1qhk04bo3_500.gif"/><br/> <br/><p>Written on <strong>April 13, 1989</strong>, this letter was sent from second-grader Kelli Middlestead of the Franklin School in Burlingame, California, to Walter Stieglitz the Regional Director of the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, lamenting the Exxon <em>Valdez</em> oil spill of March 24, 1989.</p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/21096340727http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/21096340727Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:46:12 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m254pxlcWP1rt0bf2o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://ourafrica.tumblr.com/post/20699121437/fuckyeahafricarocks-africas-second-female">ourafrica</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://fuckyeahafricarocks.tumblr.com/post/20691756541/africas-second-female-president-and-southern">fuckyeahafricarocks</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Africa’s second female President and Southern Africa’s first, Malawi’s new President Joyce Banda is a fierce advocate for the rights of women, particularly marginalised rural women as well as the education of young girls. She was sworn in as President on Saturday in the nation’s capital, Lilongwe, following the death of President Bingu Wa Mutharika. She will govern until the next election, which is scheduled for 2014.</p> <p>To a many people, a peaceful succession in Africa such as this one is impossible. Over the last week, the international news focus was on Bingu’s health and of course peppered with predictions of a power struggle in the country, and further predictions of an imploding Malawi. Once again, we show that African Democracy can and does work. Onward to prosperity, Malawi!</p> </blockquote> <p>This is Africa, our Africa</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Congratulations Malawi!  </strong>I hope Joyce Banda brings nothing but good things to the Warm Heart of Africa.  </p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20699269973http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20699269973Sun, 08 Apr 2012 01:24:13 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxlyukGLsb1qbbr7xo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20612250392http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20612250392Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:49:37 -0400<p>If I could say one thing to you, it would be that you were the one that always made me feel like someone cared for me. </p> <p><strong>Thank you. </strong></p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20457326676http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20457326676Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:13:45 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1tcljklda1rsm71qo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Ireland</p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336558818http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336558818Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:20:29 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0gf9oUTcX1qbhog9o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Nairobi</p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336501104http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336501104Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:18:52 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ty3dMcTg1qao000o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Tanzania </p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336347216http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336347216Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:14:32 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1u5cdejHC1rt0ugdo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Coliseum. Rome, Italy. </p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336142900http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20336142900Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:08:59 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzu77mrdsG1qm7ee3o1_500.png"/><br/><br/>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20210780630http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/20210780630Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:46:50 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1g61faOil1r0f569o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19919942386http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19919942386Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:42:20 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1bnvgUT4D1qb30dwo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><em><strong>Shrouded</strong><strong> Tree, Seville, Andalusia, Spain</strong></em></p> <p><em><strong>photo via <a href="http://dontcallmebetty.tumblr.com/post/19314487225/astardanced-sean-mchugh-spring-at-cambridge">rusted</a></strong></em></p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19919693896http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19919693896Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:38:07 -0400<p>designing my largest research paper yet.  </p> <p>as in 30-40 pages. </p> <p>kind of stoked. </p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881691548http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881691548Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:29:42 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1dkhelJX61qzjztqo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881449775http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881449775Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:22:01 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1f78nGbgc1r0d65jo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Cobh, Ireland</p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881414971http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881414971Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:20:55 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrnbab0FZE1qjmu3so1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881263442http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881263442Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:16:17 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lziqvlJCA61qaxz9bo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/3308864106/" title="Veiled woman in front of a door in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania">Veiled woman in front of a door in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/">Eric Lafforgue</a> on Flickr.</p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881098410http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19881098410Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:11:19 -0400<p>I just read my diary from when I was around 13.  Half of it was about boys.  The other half was about healthcare reform, illegal immigration, my own spirituality, how worried I was about the tsunami, and my opinions on foreign aid (no matter how ill-informed they were at the time). </p> <p>And I thought things change&#8230;.. </p>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19824687112http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19824687112Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:03:43 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ilp54VI81qc4zlpo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19775970978http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19775970978Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:04:57 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m18quzhNV11qattv1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19681832172http://waitingforhaley.tumblr.com/post/19681832172Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:56:38 -0400