Category: Uncategorized

May 10, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone! Especially to all the mothers out there that I’m your actual or spiritual pediatrician. You deserve a WONDERFUL FANTASTIC SUSTAINABLE MOTHER’S DAY! Your pediatrician is cheering you and your children and your family on! I’m a bit self-serving though since your family keeps me employed!

I realized today is a big day, or an important Mother’s Day because I am done with my mothering of minor children. Our last child turned 18 before Mother’s Day and is now officially an adult. I know we never finish mothering, and I hope to be at some point in the next 10-15 years to be grand-mothering. I will of course continue doctoring and pediatrician-engineering (or is it pediatric-practicing?). But it’s a major milestone to finish raising minor children as a working pediatrician mother.

THAT WAS HARD!!! Trying to figure out work schedule with another physician parent with two minor children WAS NOT EASY! We had to leave Boston/Harvard and find a more manageable system, so landed back in San Diego where we had more family and enrolled them in prep school. We had to combine our household with my in-laws (and we happily have a three generation household now) so that everyone could take care of each other. We had to sit and coordinate call schedules, and I can’t tell you the number of times I almost quit. There were times things were so stressful that I wasn’t sure if we as a family would make it out on the other side of raising children, intact. It was super frustrating shipping my kids to relatives during school holidays or enrolled in another camp so that I could work and adhere to the rules of our organization. It was not easy and I look at the younger physicians in our office, and know it is super difficult for them and they don’t have as much support as we both had. I’m usually open hearted but this is my blog and an emotional journal of my climate and health journey, and I can just say here honestly – PHEW! I’m DONE! Good luck to you guys! LOL. It wasn’t easy and I don’t want to ever repeat the stress of the last 18 years when they were sick, hospitalized, college application season, emergency funerals where the grandparents had to suddenly go to Korea and on and on and on. I remember when Mr. Plastic Picker had back surgery and I wasn’t sure if we would be able to continue with the kids schooling without his income, and thought of so many alternatives. It was upsetting to me that I had to first figure out finances and not get to worry about my own husband’s health. He figured out his own health, as I sat and made contingency plans financially. It all worked out but it was stressful.

Now the children are 18 and healthy, and admitted or enrolled in good colleges. Their college accounts are fully funded, so they will be college-educated. And everything else is icing on the cake, and they have health insurance until 26. We did our duty, and I have finished my mothering of minor children. I told them both they need to get jobs and health coverage by 26. I expect both to go to graduate school.

Now I’ll just try to save the earth, which honestly will be much easier than mothering minor children. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone! Isn’t she cute? And she doesn’t want to be a mother yet – THANK GOODNESS! And it’s her choice. I’ve evolved in my thinking. I LOVED being a mother, but you can have a fulfilling life without being a mother. It’s less stressful and easier, and it’s a choice.

May 9, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I’ve been thinking about this concept a lot, the feeling of awkwardness. Relationship awkwardness mostly. Doing climate work and really trying to help get things done, has involved me meeting a lot of new people, new personalities and pushing myself to accomplish new things. New projects. New partners. New ideas. And putting the climate and the environment at the center has required personally growing, and redefining myself – and also growing closer to who I was originally in my purest form as a child. Being joyful and productive, this is something that comes naturally to toddlers and children! I’ve gotten to know so many people at different levels and learned how to have productive relationships with them, and also learning how to draw appropriate boundaries. It’s all led to this reoccurring concept in my daily life that it’s all just very AWKWARD.

And I’m okay with this. Sometimes people text you things that make me angry and sad, and I ignore it and things are just left hanging. Sometimes people cross personal boundaries, and it gets incredibly awkward because we aren’t really family.

I think it’s due to change. As one person changes, the others around them have to accommodate or make way for that growth – and there is that awkward stage. Eventually the relationship can continue and you can grow together, or it can remain awkward. Awkward is that in-betweenness in a relationship. It’s that pause that each other is not sure how the other one is going to move. The moment seems so long, but it’s brief. But that mindfulness of that moment and how incredibly long and AWKWARD it feels , is really interesting to me.

So if you are feeling AWKWARD. That’s okay. That’s a completely valid feeling! It means someone is changing and growing in a relationship, and sometimes others have to step back and let it happen. It can feel lonely at times. It can feel awkward.

May 8, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I appreciate all the time our speakers spent speaking at our H3SD 2025 Summit last year. We are in the midst of planning of H3SD 2026. I got to tell two captivated UCSD students the true origins from my point of view of the original summit at the Starbucks at Price Center and why I’m a Muir Provost Innovation Fellow. LOL. But it’s my take on the last few years, and just my perspective. But like your own children, these are my own students who belong to UCSD Revelle college, and I’m allowed to have my own perspective on events. That was super fun! My two students were so enthralled in my made up drama, but they are also doing real climate work through their UCSD Academic Internship with us.

They are officially interns through the American Academy of Pediatrics and Kaiser Permanente. This years internship has been so fun, and I’ve gotten to know the students better. I met with two separately yesterday and these are young kids struggling through midterms and academic stress. So it was good just to sit and listen to them share their stresses with classes. They are going to do great! I really want to give them a little gift bag after they complete their internships maybe get some free swag from AAP and from Kaiser? I’ll ask! It never hurts to ask!

Otherwise I’m oddly tired today. I did do a lot of walking last night and fell straight to sleep. I’ll try to walk at lunch today. Our 18 year old (OMG I can’t believe she is 18 already!) was up late last night making yummy short bread cookies for her last Library Ambassadors meeting at school. She’s president! She is packing me 6 cookies to split between the 3 nurses that I made gift bags for. It’s nurses week and it’s honestly been fun but nonstop eating in our clinic. I’ve been good and partaking just a bit, because it’s actually not the best-for-your-health food. But I’m present and enjoying everyone’s company mostly while drinking my tea. I did have a yummy KFC biscuit and 1 drumstick that was warmed up in the air fryer by Leilani one of our nurses. It was really yummy! I also had a sausage patty one morning, and there were nachos several times. OMG, nurses week needs to end! LOL. I have to give 3 wonderful nurses their gift bags. Nurses Week was a bit disorganized this year, but it all works out. Everyone gave out of love. I’m trying to show love through bookstore purchases! I think our nurses are going to love our gifts!

That’s it! I just wanted to remind myself to send out the H3SD 2025 video links!

April 14, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It’s 6:44am and I’m having some of my coffee (I’m back on coffee now and have ended my matcha era), and I’m blogging upstairs these days. My brother designed for me a custom built-in desk area and that’s where I’m blogging. I’m lucky.

The little one who is almost 18 ran out of the house without her shoes, and into the car with her father. Her Honors Ceramics class is going to LA on a field trip to the American Museum of Ceramics Arts (AMOCA) so they have a catch a bus from school, and had to leave earlier than usual. I wanted to see her outfit and see her off, but she was rushed and yelled from upstairs “Mommy, I HAVE TO GO!”

A teenage body in a blue hoodie and jeans rushed out and gave me a hug and apologized briefly, but was off before her grandmother and I could fully appreciate her. She’s off to a field trip, and soon she’ll be off to college to Harvard and Cambridge – where we are so happy she’ll be nestled for the next four years.

But I’m allowed to wallow. “Mommy, I HAVE TO GO!” And I stay at home with grandmother and grandfather, and the black poodle mix and her childhood memories. I stay home and keep myself busy taking care of other people’s children and continuing to work on climate projects. But my heart is with that teen and a twenty-year-old up at Berkeley.

It’s the universal truth of parenting in that when you succeed, you lose. You lose them to the world. As it should be. “Momma, I HAVE TO GO!” And mommy is crying on my blog because I don’t get to go with you.

April 12, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

The two photos above are separated by 13 1/2 years. The first I was holding our youngest who was 3 after her Saturday ballet class in Liberty Station, and we jetted over to a Harvard Club of San Diego admit event for early admitted students at a Chinese Restaurant in town that has since closed. She was obviously exhausted and I’m sure I was exhausted too, because I was (and am still) a working doctor mother. The 2nd image is our daughter at the Harvard College San Diego Club admit event we attended yesterday.

Most of her college journey is her story to tell. She was a reaction video that would 100% go viral! But we are saving it just for family and friends and not even sharing it (you never know these days about other people sharing your videos), because she doesn’t want to be remembered for a funny reaction video. It’s really heart warming though especially her father’s response at the end. If you know me in real life, I’ll show you on my phone. She won’t be sharing her essays nor her application, because they are so intensely personal to her. She’ll just go to college, and continue her journey and figure out life.

But I did want to share a fun moment yesterday when I think I won in life! The event was at the local public library in a very nice part of San Diego. The kids were mingling and sizing each other up, and the parents were more relaxed in the corner. I was sitting with the other Asian mothers or different variations, and actually most of them were more recently immigrated. This makes sense because the immigrant work ethic is a very real thing. It was super fun for me because I got to speak Korean with someone who is fluent, and Vietnamese with another mother. I talked to another “Asian Auntie” who drove one of the students over (her parents were out of town) and she was a physician too, so we talked about doctor things. One mother is married is my older brother’s high school best friend. San Diego is a very small world when you are born and raised here, and doing community focused advocacy. I really like that small town feeling.

The parents were chatting and the students were mingling, and my daughter came over to hug me. She is a quieter person than the typical Harvard student. She said her MBTI is Introvert, Intuitive, Feeling and Perceiving. I think she is the polar opposite of what I was in high school. Now that I’m reading about this personality type, that is her precisely.

So my INFP daughter after hugging me, brought me a plate of food and she whispered something to me and we had a quiet mother-daughter moment. When she brought me a plate of food, there was a collective moment of quiet when the other Asian parents noticed and smiled. That’s it! We chatted about raising kids afterwards and I told them, that her Korean grandparents live with us so she’s a quieter person because she was raised by older grandparents. It was a beautiful moment that I wanted to remember.

I really can’t take credit for her being an INFP, or for her bringing me a plate of food. But I can take credit for yielding to a quieter personality type as I was raising her, and realizing that often the INFPs in the world are the ones who need to be heard. The rest of us just need to quiet down a bit, to see them and give them room to express themselves. I never thought I’d have an artistic daughter, and it has been one of the biggest gifts climate work has given me – the ability to recognize how special every single being in this universe is. To quiet myself to try to understand better others, and to realize that just existing is enough. Does that make sense? She brought me one brownie, a cookie and a tangerine. She was very impish afterwards when we were talking about the gathering afterwards, that she purposefully added that fruit to make me look healthy in front of the other parents. The girl knows what she is doing! LOL

April 6, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It’s 6:04 am and I’m blogging upstairs at my desk. It’s a built in office space which I’ve reclaimed. I had given it up for my daughter, but it ended up being just a storage area and a few months ago I cleared out all the excess things that accumulated and made it my desk again. She never needed the desk area, and after I offered it to her – never claimed it. It’s mine again, and she continues to study and create in her room.

She creates in the ceramics studio. She creates in her bullet journal. She creates on her ceramics instagram account. And she creates within herself. There is so much creativity in that 5’3″ being that it sometimes amazes me.

The above are screenshots of the new and 2nd to final pot she is creating, before she takes herself to Harvard.

It’s on motherhood, and it’s a work in progress.

It creates overwhelming emotion in me, this pot. It makes me think of myself, my daughter, my own mother. And that makes me remember moments, and understand better past instances. It’s really remarkable what raising an artists has done to me. It’s transformed me, as a mother, as a woman – especially since I was lucky to be gifted a daughter.

Isn’t it remarkabl?. She’s really remarkable the artist, but I’m a little bit biased. I really hope she is able to continue her ceramics during her college years. That’s the plan, but we have to go to admit weekend and figure it out. She’ll figure it out. I have confidence in her. She’s really pretty to look at too, so I think one wouldn’t mind having her in the studio with you. She doesn’t make that much noise when she is creating, but her pots take up lots of space! She likes to make super big pots. Fair warning.

April 3, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Our little one is headed to Harvard for college in the fall. It was an exhausting application season for us honestly. We are alumni of the college, and she was initially deferred and then after applying to over 26 schools – ended up accepted during the regular cycle to the school she initially applied to early. She is actually a far superior student than both of us – so we were surprised. It was hard to see her go through this application process, 26 schools in addition to extensive art portfolios which required her being in the ceramics studio (which she loves) to work on additional pieces to submit to the art schools that she was also considering.

What I’ll remember most is how sick she was during the application cycle. She had cold on top of cold, had to have several urgent care visits and treated with antibiotics and steroids. She had a minor surgery and the healing process was long and arduous, and we had her post-op appointment and all is now in the clear. She was so tired and her father plied her with more Starbucks that I was happy with. We had some tense moments about the amount of caffeine she was taking to make it through application season while still keeping her grades up. Grandmother was hospitalized several times during this time, and her father was also starting his responsibilities as chief of the radioactive doctors department.

But all in all, she made it through and she got into several excellent schools. But she wants very much specifically to study East Asian Studies and Ceramics, and Harvard is actually one of the few programs that has Korean, Vietnamese and a strong visual arts program. The other option was Tufts BA/BFA and she was lucky enough to get into that program as well, and we had a wonderful few weeks watching her talk to their director and interview and fall in love with that program. But in the end, she made it through the application process and got the YES to come to Cambridge in the fall.

We are relieved because there really isn’t much of a decision to make, so we’ll skip the college tours/looks for the other schools and just go one weekend to the Harvard early look weekend. Did you see the plane ticket prices have skyrocketed???!!! It used to only cost $275 on TWA (which does not exist anymore) to fly round trip from San Diego to Boston. Now it is $650 one way, and Mr. Plastic Picker used our saved up miles for the return trip. I haven’t bought any clothes for almost 5 years, but a I bought a new shirt at Macy’s (and signed up for their reward program) for our weekend! I’m really excited about that weekend.

I’m actually really excited for our youngest as she enters this next stage. We never pressured her and never expected this for her. There was just something in this tiny being from the time that she was conceived that kept on fighting and living and breathing, and creating. She was so sick as a preemie baby in the NICU. So many hospitalizations and surgeries, and now she has been fine. This application cycle was a little reminder to those early years when I worried mostly about her health and not about her SAT scores.

This is our last child that has gone through applications, and both Mr. Plastic Picker and I agree – THAT WAS SUPER STRESSFUL and WE ARE DONE! We helped her because she wanted help, and she had certain goals for herself.

But she did it, and she’s healthy again. She’s finally caught up on some sleep (although her father AGAIN TOOK HER TO STARBUCKS THIS MORNING!!!! ARRRGHHHH). She’s been eating more vegetables and working out. She’s a normal teenager and worried about prom dresses, and how her acceptance to HAAARVARD is playing out in her social circle. She’s a typical teenager and for that I’m so grateful. I remember when the high-risk OB asked if I wanted to terminate her at 19 weeks and was slightly encouraging me to do that, I became a mommy bear and decided to fight for her the rest of my pregnancy and actually for the rest of my life. I told them no termination, and that however she came – that we’d love her and provide for her.

And that’s what I’m going to do. At my heart, I’m a simple person. My parents gave me everything they had. If there was not enough food, the children got the food. My mother-in-law is the same way. The children get the best pieces of food of any dish that is made at home. And for the rest of my life, I will just work and pay her tuition. I’ll wait for crumbs of her attention. I’ll try to help save the earth. And everything I have will be to help save the world so that my child and all our children can breathe and have a livable earth. I’m so grateful I got to be her mommy! She’s really a remarkable child for living and breathing, and now she gets to go to Harvard. She has big ambitions, but I really hope she finds a cute boy to flirt with. Thank you for cheering on my child, and I’ll continue to cheer on yours. But mostly save the earth for all of us.

March 21, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I usually chatter on about my own children or just life, but this blog has always been about environmental health and climate and health. What I’ve learned in activism, is everyone activates differently because everyone is different. For me, I like to focus on individual students and specific projects. And in this weird world of mine, I was lucky to meet a young first year medical student at the beginning of her training at UC San Diego School of Medicine. I was able to pair her with an environmental health project that she was passionate about, and connected her with a team that got that legislative project done. She was so incredibly easy to work with and the project was so very impactful for the state of California. And now she matched at UCSF Oakland which was her top choice.

I have a letter of recommendation that details her journey, and we have so many emails going back and forth over the last 3 years. And I’ve come to trust her, and believe in her future. She is so very capable.

But I just wanted to remember this day. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her, because initially when I started this work I worked with very young premedical students. With an actual medical student especially from UCSD, I can be much more effective. Actually we all can be more effective with our time. She dropped off a private and very heart-warming note to our house.

The words I wanted to remember on this emotional internet rambling is this. “Your fierce support for medical and premedical students is an inspiration.” “I am so grateful to have met you early in medical school because you have opened up the world of advocacy and shaped the type of career in primary care that i hope to have.”

I am thankful to my good friend and advocacy partner Dr. Luis Castellanos for invited to speak with his medical class many years ago. Maya helped make the entire state of California healthier for our children by reducing leaded aviation fuel, and banning it effective 2030 in the entire state. We are the first in the country, and she is the first medical student that I have mentored through most of her medical school career and supported through the residency match process. Our own daughter is doing very well in the college admissions process as well, and she will find out in 1 week where she goes for college. But today, I wanted to remember Maya’s journey. She’s going home to the bay area too, and this all feels so very right.

March 14, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I don’t think people really get me? I have had multiple people ask me if I’m leaving my clinical day job which actually pays me money to go do climate activism full time? I don’t think those people really understand. I don’t mind because I’m the only one who really needs to understand myself. This is a hobby! I’m not giving up my day job. Not one person can solve the climate crisis, and it’s more efficient for me to motivate and inspire others to join in on this monumental tasks than do it myself.

Plus I’m not financially stupid. There is no money is activism that is sustainable. Everyone wants to change the world. Politicians, cult leaders, nonprofit leaders, stay at home parents – but the problem is that you have to feed yourself and your family. I don’t really want to change the world, I honestly don’t think I have that power or that is my destiny – does that make sense. I just know my role in the world right now is to do what I can, have fun, meet some people, and still be a pediatrician.

It’s really powerful to have a hobby that helps the world, and you can do it freely and voluntarily. Plus it saves you money if you are donating your time to help others and not spending money on frivolous things that cost money.

I have more time to do climate work because I’m not really into shopping. I don’t really have a lot of friends I care to socialize with (we have a very close family so I need to just spend time with my actual family). I’m not really into personal beauty other than looking good on camera. I don’t really like collecting things. And I have a lot of imagination because when we were young we didn’t have a lot of material wealth, so you had to kind of use your imagination

Right now I’m studying Vietnamese by myself, and improving my medical vietnamese and bothering my mom every day about different nuances of Vietnamese vocabulary. She gets annoyed sometimes, but she’s my mom and that’s her job to teach me Vietnamese. And it’s a free hobby that makes me super happy! It actually might make me money because if I can pass the Vietnamese language test (which I missed by 1 point 16 years ago), I think I get like $300!!! If I pass the test, I’ll take my mom for lunch of something with that money.

I’ve really enjoyed this hobby of mine for 6-7 years now. Has it been that long? I forget honestly. It’s still fun because it’s volunteer. I’m glad I didn’t make it my job because I actually love being a pediatrician. I have to do my MOC questions this quarter!!!! I want to get my score up! My brain still works! It’s great! I’m getting older now and I want to try to prevent dementia!

March 13, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I’ve been reading medical /pediatric Vietnamese. It’s a publication from the State of California for the Vietnamese-American population. It’s been good for me. Practicing reading, and writing again and listening to myself. Language is complicated. And I’m at a place I realize how complicated Vietnamese is when we are 50 years removed from the Fall of Saigon, when an entire people were spread across the world. And then now with social media and reconnecting, language becomes even more complicated. Word orders. How does one use loan words from other languages, or change them? What social class one is from and how formal one’s language is. What regional accents does one has. And language itself diverges and merges when populations split and reform. I don’t really question any of this anymore. I just now what feels right and reading and thinking and writing down vocabulary feels right, and it’s good for my brain.

We are at the first quarter of college admission season for our youngest, and I wanted to remember two phrases she mentioned to me. She formed at the end of our senior year with AP test looming and still maintaining top grades, a Shakespeare book club to review Hamlet with a few select classmates with her beloved English teacher. She is loving Hamlet and they are reading King Lear right now. Her father was a Shakespeare concentrator in college, so this seems right. One of her childhood friends and classmates called her a “Shakespeare mog” which is a compliment. Her reading is eloquent in class. And she was recounting to me some of her friends’ musings about life and adulthood, and I thought it was incredibly sweet and innocent their conversations among friends. And she told me, “Mommy. My friend group – we are ponderers.” I wanted to remember that.