Lexi
Zotomayor
After years spent hunting rogue commas in the Philippines and chasing daily deadlines as a Saipan journalist, I traded my press pass for nursing scrubs. The adventure continues—just in much more sensible shoes.
Work History
A nurse friend first coaxed me into healthcare, and I took to caregiving slowly, learning the ropes one home at a time. Over the years, I’ve cared for retirees with vastly different medical histories and needs. Every client was a unique story, but the lesson went both ways: while my job was to help them navigate their infirmity, they were the ones who made me more patient, dedicated, and skilled at the craft. I set out to care for others, but they ended up changing me.
Core Skills
Clinical Skills
Ten years of hands-on patient care as a certified nursing assistant, grounded in empathy and steady hands.
Writing & Editing
Just over a decade of reporting, proofreading, and copyediting across print newsrooms and publishers.
Web Design
Building clean, personal sites and layouts that tell a clear story, like this one.
Content Strategy
Shaping a publication's voice, from research and structure to the final published page.
Blog & Articles
Dispatches on reporting in the Northern Mariana Islands, caring for clients at home, and everything learned in transition. Fresh essays every few weeks.
The Armor
A journalist-turned-nursing assistant looks back on thirty years of heavy words, big armor, and the art of finally learning to say what happened.
17 days ago · September 15, 2026Pieces Yet to Be Collected
In "Pieces Yet to Be Collected", a silent meditation on memory and place, the essay explores how the rooms, streets, and haunts we leave behind remain quietly tethered to our former selves, waiting for us to return and claim what we left.
30 days ago · September 2, 2026The Weight of the Final Chapters
This is a quiet reflection on the quiet stewardship of end-of-life caregiving, reframing the surrender of adult autonomy not as a second childhood, but as a sacred trust. Through personal detail and deep empathy, it honors the profound weight of protecting an aging individual's dignity as their story draws to a close.
30 days ago · September 2, 2026When Life Gives You Calamansi - Part II
The writer relates deeply with the Netflix hit show, "When Life Gives You Tangerines", finding parallelisms with her own life, how she has been a disappointment for falling short of her filial duty, and of expectations.
34 days ago · August 29, 2026When Life Gives You Calamansi
A reflective personal essay that uses the Korean drama When Life Gives You Tangerines and the sour Filipino calamansi to explore pivoting from newsroom journalism to caregiving, navigating accumulated grief, and finding resilience, purpose, and renewal after personal loss.
35 days ago · August 28, 2026The Layout of Things
In this essay, the writer shares her discovery of the quiet sorcery of graphic design in a print shop, and how a newfound love for grids, fonts, and layouts reshaped her path.
37 days ago · August 26, 2026The Disquiet
The ache of loss never leaves us entirely, but by leaning on old prayers, quiet wisdom, and a deliberate reason to keep going, we learn to walk softly through the changed landscape.
41 days ago · August 22, 2026Close to the Wire
When a routine casino excavation in Garapan unearths an unexploded WWII sea mine, the newsroom goes into overdrive. Reporters mill about the site, brave the perimeter fence to get a good visual of the operation.
43 days ago · August 19, 2026Tales from the Bedside
The writer takes you to a warm, sharp-witted reflection on stepping away from the newsroom to become a private caregiver, where listening to the extraordinary lives, quiet resilience, and lasting wisdom of aging clients reveals that the finest stories are found right at the bedside.
43 days ago · August 19, 2026Memories Without an Address
This is a short reflection on a late-night WhatsApp chat between two former Saipan-based reporters on their time in the islands. It's a story about vanished hangouts, scattered friends, and the quiet realization that we can't buy a return ticket to a past that now lives only on a phone screen.
69 days ago · July 24, 2026In the eye of the pension storm
Fourteen years ago, I watched from the front row as the CNMI pension system collapsed in court, forcing retirees to accept deep cuts. This is the story of how a desperate gamble on casino cash temporarily saved the fund.
200 days ago · March 16, 2026Small island, big ink
Reflections on reporting for community papers in the Pacific.
235 days ago · February 9, 2026The Uninvited
Whaling ships of the 19th century breached the Pacific's ancient isolation and turned their warm hospitality into catastrophic biological exposure, with historical echoes that still reach from Guam to Queens, NY.
260 days ago · January 15, 2026Hello, World — Starting Fresh
A new beginning: why I built this site and what I hope to share here.
Podcasts — Tune In
Conversations on journalism, caregiving, and everything in between — recorded between newsroom deadlines and hospital shifts.
From Newsroom to Nursing Station
How two decades in print journalism prepared me for a second career in patient care.
▶ LISTENWriting Under Deadline
Lessons on clarity and speed from years of covering breaking news in Saipan.
▶ LISTENBonjour, Hola, Mabuhay
On language, migration, and building an identity across three cultures.
▶ LISTENCaregiving as Craft
What proofreading a manuscript and caring for a patient have in common.
▶ LISTENGet in Touch
My door is always open. Say hello in any language, pitch a collaboration, or ask a question. I am also actively open to international job offers and fully prepared to relocate.
