Paige Graffunder
Bio
Paige is a published author and a cannabis industry professional in Seattle. She is also a contributor to several local publications around the city, focused on interpersonal interactions, poetry, and social commentary.
Stories (99/0)
No Justice, No Peace
As I sat down to write this, I searched on Unsplash for BLM, specifically looking for Black Lives Matters Signs wielded by Black protesters. It was important to me that none of the images contained the full faces of protesters and that the sign in question was in the hands of a Black person. As you can see the image I found contains no sign, but it does center a Black person and features no full faces. Why is this? Because through the thousands of images that I went through there was not a single image of a person holding a sign that wasn't white. Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to diminish the importance of Non-Black POC or white folks in this fight, because it is a fight that we are here to offer aid to, not to center ourselves in. It is vitally important that we remember that for the duration.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in The Swamp
Love in the Time of COVID
I am particularly lucky to be able to share my home with people who know and value me as a person, from the soul and heart, and mind. One of them is my partner in life, and the other two are our friends. But friend doesn't begin to describe our relationship. We are a family. We maybe don't look like the nuclear family that was popularized in the media, but we are a family none the less. We take care of each other and talk, and laugh, and play, and comfort each other. We support each other when we are going through the hard stuff, and have learned over the last year of living together how to lean on each other.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in Humans
Wages in the Time of COVID
I was laid off from my job in April, and while it was in no way a pleasant experience, it has given me sometime to reflect on the job market as it is now, and as it has been. I am not going to disclose what I was making, or what I am currently making on unemployment, however I am going to throw some numbers around based on averages and input given to me by my friends who were also laid off. I hope that this serves as a wake up call for all the people who are currently looking to employ people. It is really important that we do not allow ourselves to sink into predatory practices like we did after the 2008 collapse.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in Journal
I Hate To Say I Told You So
On March 11th I published a thought piece telling people to stop telling me to calm the fuck down about COVID-19, and largely I was ignored. I kept getting told to calm down, that it wasn't that bad. Now there are over 200,000 people dead and over 3 million cases globally. Nearly a third of those are in the United States cases and a quarter of those deaths are in the United States. Why? Because you chuckle-heads thought that this was some liberal hoax, spun up by the main stream media?
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in Longevity
Losing Your Place
I'm a millennial, so I know what being laid off is like. I have been laid off from over 80% of the jobs I have ever had. I have been laid off due to economic crisis, failed company models, startups going bust, and embezzling executives. Being laid off because of a global pandemic is a new one, but not an unexpected one. The United States' response to COVID-19 has been abysmal at best, and because there is still no federal mandate on shelter in place orders, companies have scrambled to work out their new paradigm in this world where closeness can be the death of you.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in Journal
An Unexpected Glimpse
I feel like this all needs some explanation. There were no smartphones in 1999, and yet that's when the original picture was taken. However, this photo, was taken with a smartphone, more on that later. Believe me when I tell you that there are four extraordinary things about this photo, probably more, but I have time for four. Maybe this will never mean anything to anyone except me, but I need to put it out there anyway. To me, this picture, this story, means everything.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in Families
A Modern Proposal
2020 It is a melancholy object to those who walk through the streets of America when they see the state of things. Enormous houses, fit to house 10-20 souls, occupied by a single couple, the garage packed full of vehicles that utilize too much of our finite resources to build and maintain, and yet are never used. They are there for status and ornamentation only. The walls of these houses erected by laborers who are frequently underpaid, their unions having been dashed by the very politicians the residents of these monstrosities have bought and paid for. Diamonds mined by children in countries that the inhabitants of these houses can not pronounce the names of, nor point to on a map, adorn the limbs of these people. They think only of the weight of the stones, never of the blood spilled to obtain them.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in The Swamp
Je T'aime
He couldn’t believe his luck. Brian had been in Paris for three weeks and, after being shot down half a hundred times, he was now following the most beautiful woman he had ever seen up the sidewalk back to her apartment at four in the morning. To think he almost hadn’t gone out tonight. Only the insistent urging of his best friend Stefan had convinced him to go. Of course, by insistent urging, he meant Stefan had promised to buy him all his drinks. So, he had gone, reluctantly perhaps, but he had gone. He had sat at the bar as the bass-heavy music pounded into his ears, drinking expensive drinks his best friend was paying for. Eventually, he had wandered on to the dance floor to sway alone, as he had all the nights before.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in Filthy
Nobody's Hero
The news was released today that my hero had died on Tuesday, after a battle with brain cancer. Neil Peart, arguably the most talented drummer, and lyricist to ever walk the earth in the entirety of human history succumbed to his illness. The news did not break until Jan 10th, which to the millions of his fans came as no surprise. He died in the way he lived, quietly, privately, and without the fanfare we would all like to give him. Despite his rather quiet nature, he did author 6 books that were a glimpse into his life, his process, his pain, and his deeply introspective nature.
By Paige Graffunder4 years ago in Beat