Welcome to Mara's Megabyte Monthlies!📣
Mara's Megabyte Monthlies! - October 2023
Hey! For those of you who don’t know (or remember) me, I’m Mara, a 16 y/o trying to figure out how to navigate the crazy adventures of life and make the biggest impact I can. To everyone reading this, welcome to the first-ever edition of Mara’s Megabyte Monthlies, the one time a month that I do a deep cleaning of my room thoughts and organize them all into a life update for all of you! Through these newsletters, you will be able to join me as I explore this wonderful world and reflect on my personal growth in the process. Alright, let’s dive in!
ASAP. Website Is Out! 👩🏻💻
A few months ago, at the end of August, I attended the Young Women’s Leadership Institute and met a group of incredible young women with a passion for fighting climate change as strong as mine. Together, we decided to create the organization ASAP to help educate people in the various causes and effects of climate change and how they can take action in their individual lives and communities to save our planet. This week, I am so excited to announce that we have officially launched our website where you can learn about everything from food and water waste, to sustainable eating, to legislation and ultimately how these all relate to climate change. If you want to get a better understanding of any of these topics, check the website out here and please share it with others!
Debate Season 👩🏻⚖️
As many who know me well know, I LOVE debating! Lucky for me, these past few months have been debate season! This year, my debate season started out a little rough. After moving from Washington to Texas this summer, I joined a new debate team and had to compete in a debate event that was entirely knew to me. For the first three competitions, I didn’t make it past preliminary rounds as I was just getting used to this new style of debating and I began to doubt my own debating skills. However, I soon realized that moping over my losses was not going to help me get better and succeed in the long-run. So, as I got ready for my 4th debate tournament, I took note of the feedback I had gotten in past tournaments and worked to implement it as I prepare and practiced my new speeches. Additionally, I paid careful attention to other speakers I knew that were finding success in my event and took note of what they did that I needed to incorporate into my own debating. After three weeks of focused preparation, my debate competition came around and I was ready to give it my all! For the first time all year, I broke to both semis and finals in congressional debate and got 8th place out of 104 debaters! Although I am proud of how I placed, I am even prouder of the resilience and hard work I put into preparing for this tournament. Now, I am excited to take what I learned while preparing for and competing in this tournament and use it to push myself even further at the next one!
Garba 🎉
Every country and group of people around the world has unique traditions, beliefs, ideas, and celebrations and they are always incredibly interesting. One of my favorite things in the world is exploring and experiencing these different cultures from around the world to understand how others live and look at life. This October, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Garba, a Hindu dance festival (often done in Northwest India) in which people come together to dance, celebrate, and pray. I went three times, with three different groups of friends and had so much fun! It was really interesting to see how although this festival was incredibly different from anything I had ever experienced, it also had some similarities to the Ferias in my home country of Spain. If any of you ever get invited to Garba or get the chance to attend it, I highly recommend going!
Music, Podcasts, and Quotes 😍
Music
Album of the Month: 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
It’s finally out! This is my all-time favorite Taylor Swift album so I am so excited she has finally re-recorded it and brough it home. The “From the Vault” tracks like “Now That We Don’t Talk” and “Say Don’t Go” are amazing on this album so I highly recommend listening to them if you get the chance.
Genre of the Month: Spanish and Latino Music
This month, I have been listening to more Spanish and Latino artists and songs because I realized I don’t have enough of them in my playlist! Artists like Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato, Aitana, and Bad Bunny are among the many artists that I have listened to a lot this month. Right now my favorite songs in this genre are “Never Be the Same” by Camilla Cabello, “Bam Bam” by Camila Cabello, and “La Bachata” by Manuel Turizo.
Song of the Month: “Dial Drunk - Noah Kahan
Now that I’m living in Texas I’ve started listening to more country songs and this is one of my favorites right now!
Podcasts
Podcast of the Month: How I Built This with Guy Raz
Episode of the Month: Reclaiming Food Waste With Jasmine Crowe-Houston Of Goodr (How I Built This with Guy Raz)
Quote of the Month
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
— Winston Churchill
A Glimpse into October
🌳ASAP. - We are going to add a “Community Voices” page to our website where people can write articles about areas of interest to them in climate change and publish them so keep a look out for that! We are also going to continue growing our Instagram. Go follow us at @change_asap_org!
🌿My New Focus! - In October I decided to choose Artificial Photosynthesis as my technology of focus for TKS (The Knowledge Society). I am currently working on an article about how Artificial Photosynthesis can be used to produce greener fuels so keep a look out for that on my LinkedIn! Soon I will also begin building projects in this area so be ready to hear about that in my November newsletter.
👩🏻⚖️More Debate Conventions! - I will be traveling to the Austin State Capitol for a debate convention next weekend (that I helped plan as Texas JSA Chief of Staff) and I will be competing at another debate tournament later in the month.
Thanks for reading Mara’s Megabite Monthlies (October Edition)! Since it’s the Halloween season I am going to end this with a fun little Halloween joke :)
When do cows turn into werewolves?
Want to know the answer? Come back in November for the big reveal in my next monthly newsletter! (See what I did there! I learned that trick from telenovelas 😎)
See you in November! 👋🏻
Are you stuck on the answer to this month’s joke? Do you have a friend who could help you figure it out so you don’t have to end on a cliffhanger until next month? Share this with them so I can meet some new people and you can get the answer to the joke early — it’s a win-win!
Great newsletter Mara, I enjoyed reading it and cool pictures that you added!🔥