January 25, 2022 My 2022 Mantra: Unapologetic Everyone talks about the negatives associated with the pandemic. Yet, I haven’t seen so many people talk positively about what changed for the better during this time. Of course, I can only speak from experience, but from January 2020 until now, as I wrote in the last post, I can only really describe the previous two years with one word: unapologetic.
January 25, 2022 A Shift in the Tides Two years ago, if you asked me where I would have seen myself in 2022, I don’t know what I would have said. I probably would have laughed a little, joked about owning some business, and said that I definitely wouldn’t be working as much as I was at the time. Two years ago, I was finally out of my grocery store job, into an office, and I thought I had it made. But I was working long hours, working a side hustle that was going nowhere fast, and just engaged. Now I’m married, living in a different state, and working more, but the catch is that I work for myself. So, in essence, half of the time, the work is just me flexing my brain, learning something, and conversing with one of the many dozen of clients I handle regularly. Life looks completely different in 2022 than it did in 2020, not just for work and personal reasons, as the tides have shifted for us all.
August 6, 2020 A Change of Pace Laying in the saltwater on the beach two Sundays ago, my fiancé and I were chatting while we watched the clouds passed overhead. The topic of the conversation was the same as it had been for the last few months: my job. I was experiencing the Monday Blues, real bad. We talked and talked–for hours–at the beach, until we came to a decision that was both risky but responsible.
June 8, 2019 New Mental Push-Ups It’s Friday, April 26th. My alarm goes off at 4:30 AM, and I rise out of bed rather easily because this isn’t my first time getting up before the sun peaks above the horizon. I throw on my Aldi work t-shirt, a pair of beat up black jeans, and make sure my hair is tied back and I am relatively alert. Then I put on a podcast and go to make breakfast.
May 4, 2019 What Friends Are For It’s weird to think that a little under two months ago, I was living in Taiwan still working as an English teacher. And now I am in Florida, working and mostly settled into a new pattern and a new set of routines. While so much has changed, I was recently reminded that really, when it comes down to it not that much has altered.
October 14, 2018 Out of the Box As a young girl, I spent the majority of my time dirtying myself up in the woods of Wisconsin. I loved playing make believe, cutting hair off my Barbie dolls, or jumping off the pier and into Lake Geneva. I was not shy to being dirty, nor was I shy to getting rough with the boys. From a baby to age fourteen, the question of love and who we fall in love with never really bothered me much. As far as I knew during my grade school existence, I’d crushed on a few boys. A few boys had crushed on me. And of course, there were one or two girls who seemed to have feelings for me, but as far as I knew, I didn’t seem to like them back the same way. Over all of that, I played on two hockey teams, so the idea of trying to date was totally off my radar. So I placed myself in the first box: straight. Straight as an arrow. Or so I thought.
September 30, 2018 兩年: A Year of Habits To be honest, I thought that my second year would mirror a lot of my inaugural year abroad. I really accomplished a lot during the first three hundred and sixty five days. I’d participated in producing a short film, went on a short vacation to Mazu, and not to mention all the little trips around the island exploring. But then I look back now at the end of my second year here and I’m even more surprised.
