Leave it to Leonor #458

This week’s takeover is by Amanda Saviñón. Amanda is a Dominican-born, New York–raised photographer and photo editor. In 2024, she moved to the Pacific Northwest and stepped away from the corporate world to slow down, settle into married life, and create space for new pursuits. Today, she works from her home studio, occasionally taking on photography projects, creating lifestyle content, and developing her next chapter as a life coach. Amanda also founded Loyal Nana, a lifestyle blog where she shares interviews, reviews, and essays.

You know and love her from previous guest newsletters. She is bold, brave, talented and kind. The Pacific Northwest is SO FAR — I miss her terribly.

This week I am thinking about the power of telling your story. I met my mom for the first time when I was eighteen. Born in the Dominican Republic, I was brought to New York City at two years old by my dad, then left to navigate adolescence largely alone and undocumented after he was incarcerated when I was nine. My mom remained in Santo Domingo.

The follow-up question is always, “Who raised you then?” The answer: the village it takes to raise children like aunts, uncles, neighbors, teachers, basically whoever was around when I needed a permission slip signed. I can’t remember much about how I felt back then, but I do remember school quickly becoming my favorite place, sports my favorite extracurricular, and the newly released McDonald’s Hot N Spicy McChicken (with cheese) my favorite food. At nine, that was my definition of fine dining.

Even as a child, I knew I was missing very important things in my life like a trusted adult noticing how I was changing through the seasons, someone saying, “You belong here” or “You can be whoever you want to be.” I didn’t have a bedroom of my own, or a safety net. For years, I carried these gaps like invisible wounds and just focused on the daily work of keeping going. I didn’t even have an idea or an example of what a complete life might look like, and if I did see it, I couldn’t have known whether it was worth aspiring to.

Whenever I sit down to write about my story, I tell myself I’ll keep it matter-of-fact and get to the point. But then I wander back into those memories, realizing how absurd and heartbreaking it all was, and wondering how that younger me managed to find joy in anything at all. When I think of her, I want to give her a hug, a McChicken, and a really long nap.

The truth is, you don’t get through that kind of childhood and end up okay by accident, you decide to be okay. And I made that decision at some point and after years of healing work, I’ve finally moved beyond survival mode. 

This summer, I shared my story on social media through an Instagram reel, and since then, SO MANY PEOPLE have reached out with their own stories of pain and resilience, immigration and abandonment, self-discovery and healing. These conversations have reawakened a calling I’ve always felt: to help others through their own healing and hard seasons. Not because I’ve conquered everything, but because I know what it’s like to stare down the possibility you might not make it, and still choose to build a meaningful life anyway.

That pull has been strong enough that I’ve started the process of becoming a certified life coach. I don’t know exactly where it will lead, but I do know that the parts of my story I once wanted to hide are exactly what someone else might need to hear to believe their own healing is possible.

And your story matters too. Whatever chapters you’re still writing, whatever wounds you’re still healing, whatever dreams you’re afraid to speak out loud,  they all have power. Not because of how you struggled through them, but because of how you’ve chosen to meet them.

This week in reading. . .
Days of Abandonment might have been the most emotionally draining and honest book I’ve ever read. I couldn’t put it down, but I also couldn’t wait to be done.

I just finished my first YA graphic novel, Fitting Indian. Seeing a story unfold through illustrations makes every emotion hit even harder! 

Margo’s Got Money Troubles is coming with me on my family vacation tomorrow. A recommendation from Leonor’s Troll Nicole!

This week on TV. . .
One Hundred Years of Solitude was beautifully shot and I am already ready to rewatch it even though I just finished it.

I’m surprisingly okay with The Pitt focusing only on medical cases and hospital protocol, and this is coming from someone who was skeptical about a hospital drama without all the messy relationships and personal lives a la Grey’s Anatomy.

I laughed so much watching this season of And Just Like That…  and that it is being cancelled makes sense even though I am a fan of  Sex and the City and Carrie and the whole thing. I mean where else could this story even go? I’ve had a crush on Sarita Choudhury since Homeland and will miss watching her the most.

The first season of Wednesday was great, but I keep falling asleep watching the second season. I will try again tomorrow. 

Megan Stalter was so good in Hacks that I had to press play on Too Much… and, well, it really was too damn much so I gave up. 

This week on the internet. . .
Everything I know about The Devil Wears Prada 2 has been forced upon me. Can we all just wait for the dang movie to drop?

This is how I chose the color for my most recent manicure!

This week in a GIF. . .

This week in one good thing. . .
I’ve been soaking up as much nature as possible from sunbathing and reading in my backyard to a 6-mile hike around Mount Baker. Being in nature more than usual has made this week feel like a full reset.

This week in artsy stuff and photo things. . .
This gorgeous photo series of teenagers in their bedrooms in the 1980s and 1990s.

Excited for the Studio Museum long awaited comeback!

This week in games. . .
I’ve been playing Disney’s Dreamlight Valley on the Switch for about eight months. It’s one of those pick-up-and-put-down games, except lately, I’ve been picking it up and not putting it down for hours.

Wylde Flowers is my next game. It is fully downloaded onto my switch and I can’t wait to start!

This week in restaurants. . . 
My friend of 20+ years visited us in Seattle, and we took him to two of our favorite local spots. At Harvest Vine, we never skip the gambas al ajillo or the ibérico de bellota,  a grilled, acorn-fed pata negra pig served with panadera potatoes. And at How to Cook a Wolf, we’ve fallen in love with a deceptively simple, spicy pasta made of conchiglie with prawn, tomato, Calabrian chili, and pangrattato.

This week in Google searches. . .

• Mana tour dates

• Boeing 777-300ER (77W)

• How do password managers work?

• ICF coaching certification

This week in a recipe…
I made the 12-hour Modernist Cuisine compound butter this week. I doubled the recipe so I can send my friend home with some and give my personal trainer some too. I tried to find the recipe online, but it is nowhere! This recipe seems like a good close second, and this one a good third and not 12-hours.

This is the only way I make smashburgers at home. 

My husband and I cook from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook often and since we made the Gratin Dauphinois, it has become one of our comfort foods. 

me, experiencing overwhelm and gratitude at the same damn time, 
Amanda 

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