Jasmine D. Lowe

Art, Writing, and Intersectional Feminism is my jam.| jasminedlowe.com

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Preparing For the New Year

October is the transitional time of death and rebirth as the summer fun ends and a new school year begins. However, many treat this time of change as a last chance in the calendar year to make big life changes.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com October, for those who find themselves in the northern hemisphere of the planet, falls in the middle of a season of change. It’s when we all marvel at the beautiful shades of gold and rust that decorate the dying appendages of our deciduous trees. It is the time when we grab our cozy sweaters out of the back of our closets for cooling temperatures…

Preparing For the New Year

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Earthquakes, fires, and summer rain 😱 Here's the vlog where I hike Mount Baldy and try avoiding a thunderstorm. https://youtu.be/D9ZneX0Qiwc

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Why You Should Just Do It Scared

There are no guarantees of safety outside. The wild can feel unregulated and unpredictable at first, but like most things in life, there’s a pattern, and preparing for what you know, anticipating, and adjusting around what you don’t can take you places.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com I often have people come up to me and become genuinely confused when they find out I have anxiety but that I still do things like climb literal mountains. It sounds so contradictory. How can someone have anxiety and still find the space to do seemingly crazy things? There are no guarantees of safety outside. The wild can feel unregulated and unpredictable…

Why You Should Just Do It Scared

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What I Learned from The Hypnotherapist 

After the assurance from the hypnotherapist that I would not be hypnotized without my consent, I agreed to help. My random internship did expose me to the world of hypnotism.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com I have been known to work with a number of different clients in my professional life. My resume has a varied history of pairings from nonprofit and for-profit experiences to food, medicine, technology—you name it. I tell all of the people who ask me about my work in communications that you can enter into any space with writing and marketing because those…

What I Learned from The Hypnotherapist 

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Here's What I Get Out of Backpacking

There is something about having to carry all that you’re going to need to live in the wilderness for days on your back that makes you question your entire life. Hiking heals, but backpacking takes it up a notch as you discover what is most important.

There is something about having to carry all that you’re going to need to live in the wilderness for days on your back that makes you question your entire life. You begin to whittle down what you’re going to need to just the essentials as you pack. You find out what is important to you and in life in general as you carry the heavy weight of all your packing choices on the trail. You realize that…

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My First Civic Season

Civic Season is the time period between Juneteenth and July 4th, uniting our oldest federal holiday with our newest, mobilizing a movement to understand our past and shape our future. Have you heard about the movement?

Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com My sister and I love to visit historical sites and museums and take random road trips across the country to learn and celebrate history with a hands-on approach. It’s no surprise that two sisters who work in education get a kick out of learning for fun in their free time. However, it was a surprise that we had not heard about Civic Season until this year’s…

My First Civic Season

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The Living History of Allensworth

My grandma told me about the time she lived in Allensworth in the 1960s and that the town was founded by a Black man for Black people. I was able to visit the historic site this year for its Juneteenth celebration.

I grew up in the San Joaquin (or Central) Valley in California. It’s incredibly rural and feels like you have dropped a Southern or Midwestern state in the middle of SoCal, the Bay area, the ocean, and some ridiculously tall mountains.  I learned to drive on all the back roads connecting the rural towns, mostly with my grandma. She would sit in the passenger seat, not allowing the radio to be on…

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Crushing Creativity In Apple's "Crush" Commercial

Is Apple crushing what’s left of human creativity, or is their new ad a signal of the beginning of a new way of life in the digital world?

Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com A fallout of negative tweets (I’m still calling them Tweets) erupted after the “Crush” Apple ad landed last Tuesday on YouTube and CEO Tim Cook’s account on X, the social media platform formerly Twitter. The video of a giant hydraulic press crushing things like paints, a piano and other instruments, pens and paper, and other physical analog items was meant to…

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In The Age of AI and Machine Learning 

In this age of advanced machine learning, how do we prepare for a world where computers learn to the point that they are making their own decisions?

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used for completing complex human tasks with efficiency, and Machine Learning (ML) is used for identifying patterns in large data sets to solve specific problems. Evolution is on the precipice of the journey towards singularity, or the event at which computer intelligence surpasses that of humans. AI hasn’t taken over yet,…

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How We Should Observe International Women’s Day

In 1973, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 and Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 expanded women’s rights when the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the Constitution protects women’s right to terminate an early pregnancy, thus making abortion legal in the U.S. However, in 2022,  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. ___ (2022) saw the Supreme Court overrule both Roe v. Wade and Planned…

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Changing Your Reality By Shifting Your Perspective

The whole world seems as though it’s currently being tossed around like a pile of wet jeans on the heavy duty setting in a commercial dryer. We haven’t even exited the second month of the year and the general sentiment from the population is that life is rough at the moment and there are so many things at stake. Everything from the economy, the environment, and the recent and upcoming political…

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What I Learned From Facing Winter Winds At The Summit

Not everyone needs to be on the same level of agility to enjoy a hike. You are never obligated to finish every hike, and you can be proud of wherever your feet eventually take you.

As Published on JasmineDLowe.com I have the beautiful privilege of witnessing the majestic mountains that frame Southern California. This opportunity to view the earth’s greatness is also a seductive temptress that lures me into the woods and above the clouds each week. This weekend, I found myself drawn to the top of Mount Baldy, the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains at 10,068…

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What Makes A Hike A Hike?

As posted on jasminedlowe.com This weekend, I visited another nature-loving friend who recently brought forth a new human into the world with her partner. We spent the weekend chatting about her birth story, her baby’s firsts, and how much the new human has grown in such a short time. However, I sensed a little drop in enthusiasm when the conversation focused on me and my ongoing…

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My New Year At Lowest Point

I always try to guess where I’ll be ringing in the New Year in the next year on New Year’s Eve. I like to reflect on where I thought I actually would be celebrating and think back on all the events of that year that have placed me in an entirely different space. Last year, I guessed I would end up at some dive bar in the city, but I found myself 282 feet below sea level with a friend, staring up…

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What I Learned From Accidentally Climbing Another Mountain

The Cucamonga Wilderness is a National Forest in San Bernardino County, California, that I have been frequenting since the beginning of the pandemic. I have hiked many of the peaks in the surrounding area on my own, and I have recently been tackling the few I haven’t summited. I had it in mind that morning before leaving my house to climb to the top of Etiwanda Peak. It’s the next mountain to…

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Stay Ready, So You Don't Have To Get Ready

The more you know, the more you have time to prepare for a situation mentally. That’s why I try to arm myself with knowledge. Here's why you should too.

I’ve seen many things out in the field in my time. You’re bound to see some things when you start out camping during your younger years with fellow college kids and adult beverages. I was always left with a cautionary lesson and an insane story. So, naturally, when I decided to venture out on foot into every type of natural terrain imaginable and lead other people, I became interested in learning…

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The Birthday Writing Retreat 

For the last five years, on my birthday, I have ventured out into nature to write and meditate. It’s my own personal low-budget outdoor writing retreat that gives me a moment to reflect on my past and look to the future.

Birthdays are the one day a year when people are reminded to self-reflect. It’s a chance to review life and your accomplishments and re-assess how you would like to move forward in life. For the last five years, on my birthday, I have ventured out into nature to write and meditate. It’s my own personal low-budget outdoor writing retreat that gives me a moment to reflect on my past and look to the…

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