Midterm Update: Spring Edition

Hi everyone!

I'm back with my midterm update. I have followed through with the plans outlined in the last post and have been very successful in focusing on myself. Honestly, when you're working 30 hours a week plus taking on 18 credit hours, there's not much else you can do besides focus on yourself and grow.

Like the clipping split ends of my hair, I cut all potential sources of pain, anxiety, and stress out of my life. When I do face emotional challenges, I talk it through with my friends and people I know have my best interest at heart. I'm thriving in my new independence and it makes me a whole other level of beautiful. I am practicing taking life day by day and spending time with the people that make me smile the most. Being surrounded by my friends and people that love me is the best way, and in my opinion most efficient way, to spend my rest time when I have it.

I have friends ^_^

I am still on my quest to save up the $33,000 needed for graduate school and it's a lot of hard work. However, I'd much rather endure and work hard now so that I don't have to worry about starting my adult life under the weight of debt and student loans. I want to be able to comfortably attend graduate school and have the option of working rather than attend graduate school with a mandate of working. 

I C O N I C

As I look towards the future, I can expect academic excellence in all day classes, exceeding the expectations on all my jobs, and surprising myself with new tidbits of self-discovery. I, personally, am most excited for Spring Break, my birthday ( March 7 ❤️), and my upcoming TedTalk! There are so many amazing things ahead of me and this is just a sample of what greatness is to come. 

"SKY'S THE LIMIT"

Next Steps for 2018

Hi everyone! 

I hoped you've had a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday season. I'm grateful to say that I truly have enjoyed this winter break and all of the festivities. This month has been absolutely crazy; I've never been so busy. At the start of the month, I was preparing for finals and starting a new job while playing in the Powderpuff championships and maintaining my other two jobs. Although, extremely busy (and sometimes stressful), my first semester has been nothing less than eventful and noteworthy. I've learned so much about myself—my strengths and my shortcomings—and I've grown to appreciate myself more and fully understand how I should be treated. Looking back at past behaviors and relationships make me laugh sometimes because every time I think back, I ask myself,

What were you going through? Where is your self-love?

After completing a full semester of classes, clubs, coaches, sports, tests, quizzes, multiple jobs, and a romantic interest, I am completely exhausted. Yes, I did arrange the semester and choose to be super involved because I wanted to be busy and have the complete college experience. However, despite my appreciation for all the smiles and warm memories of late night snacks with my study buddies and spending time with my friends, going forth I have a different idea of how I want to live and what I want to focus on. Instead of dividing my attention between exploring the new city, making friends, and all the obligations previously listed, I'm going to bring it back to square one and just focus on myself. I'm going to focus on my mental health, taking care of my body, and pay attention of my feelings.  More than anything, I want to focus on loving myself.

Next semester is about constantly doing acts of self-love. I’m ready to get back to working hard and trying to earn a little money in the meantime, but more than anything I’m excited to spend time with my friends, explore more of the city, and build new relationships.      

University: Midterm Update

Hi everyone!
I know I haven't posted in a while, but that is because life has been so busy. All this change --new city, new school, and so many new adventures--has been very time consuming. Since move-in day and post Harvey cleanup, school has been in full swing. When I'm not in class, I'm usually in a meeting, or doing homework, or going to a school sponsored event. I've already attended 4 career events, 3 school-wide social events, I have two jobs on campus and one special someone off-campus.

4 Career Events

So far I've been to an Accenture recruiting meeting, an investors lunch, an event hosted by the Global Forum for Engineers, and an etiquette lunch. The one that left the greatest impression on me was the etiquette lunch. It was not only about which fork is for salad or which spoon is for soup. It was about how to better present oneself when eating food. Our speaker and teacher was Diane Gottsman and she was amazing! It was clear that she was well-versed in this area and she pointed out small things that potential employers would look for when taking a potential employee out for lunch. She taught me to pay attention to how I  stir sugar into beverages and the angle that I bring the fork to my mouth. It was very interesting and my body remembers how to eat just from that one 2-hour session. 10/10 would recommend.

3 School Wide Events

My school has some pretty interesting social events including a Texas Party, Screw-Yer-Roommate, and a very popular intramural sport, Powderpuff. I'm on the Powderpuff team and I love it! I didn't really understand football until I started playing and now I get it. Football isn't about the players; it is more like a chess match between the coaches/quarterbacks. I've never played sports competitively so this should be a nice introduction into the competitive sports world. It is also a great way for me to stay active and involved. My team is pretty great too ^_^

2 Jobs

I work very hard in school and in the workplace. I work as a telephone fundraiser for scholarships donated from alumni and parents. I also work as an assistant that helps set up events hosted by the Global Forum of Engineers. I really like my jobs. They're both fulfilling and entertaining.

1 Special Someone

In my couple months living in this new city, I've met a really kindhearted guy. He's smart, he's a hard worker, and he's always making me smile. When we first started talking, I told him I wanted to get to see more of Houston. Not to say my school isn't amazing, my school is great, but I think it is important to go beyond the hedges. So on one of our first dates, he took me to see the skyline uninterrupted and pictured below. It was a wonderful night with a beautiful skyline and a great guy.

First Week: Harvey and Other Things

Hi everyone!
 My first week in college will go down in history. On my first day of classes, we had a solar eclipse and yes, I did take the time to go to the roof of my dorm and stare at it (with protective glasses). A few days later we receive some warnings regarding Hurricane Harvey and the damage it may cause. Classes get cancelled and everyone bunkers down. It rains for five days straight--day and night--without revealing even a hint of the sun. I suddenly had an influx of calls and texts asking if I was doing okay and if I was safe and/or if I had photographs of the flood. To be honest, up to that point I had the luxury of not even thinking about the flood; I was able to just regard it as heavy rain. But the more pictures and videos I saw of people's homes underwater or people trying to climb on top of their roofs to avoid drowning, the more my heart would hurt. It hurts so bad to know that no matter how much I wanted to help these flood victims, I couldn't
 help them without putting myself in danger. My campus was flooded in a way that kept us in and kept everyone else out. So even if I did try to go help some people, I'd probably end up hurting myself in the process. So, I waited and waited and waited for the rain to stop. As soon as a ray of sun broke through the shades of my window, I ran outside. Just that a little bit of sun completely brightened my mood and made me realize that everything would eventually get back to normal; it would just take some time.
Even though it was dry enough to walk outside again, my heart was still heavy for those who'd lost something in the flood. I just felt like I really needed to do something to help. So, I did. Today I went with some other volunteers to help members of the community. We drove to a woman's house and on the way there, all you can see is the streets lined with mattresses, couches, bed frames, pillows, and ruined items of sentimental memorabilia.
We get to the woman's house and she asks a few of us to wrap up a few canvas photos she salvaged. Then, she asked me to go outside, take pictures of all her damaged clothes, and then throw them away. I went through every article of clothing and took pictures of every label. These clothes belonged to her, her husband, and a young boy (presumably her son). I sort through all of it and it is in a trash pile and right when I'm ready to throw everything away, I come across her wedding DVD. I stopped everything and just looked at the remains of it. It crumpled in my hand and it broke my heart.
I brought the lady the remains of her wedding tape and she just smiled and tucked it away. She just said thank you and asked me to put some stuff on the curb that said, "Free to Take". This woman really amazed me. She lost everything she had and still found a way to give to others. She made me remember the value in giving my time to help someone else. And that's what I'm going to urge my readers to do. Take some time to help someone else, even if it's just making them smile.

Summer '17: O-Week

Hi everyone!
The college experience always comes with the very popular orientation process. My school takes orientation very seriously--so much so that they've turned the orientation process into a whole week of jam packed information sessions, outdoor activities, late night outings, and college traditions. The process itself is very energy consuming and can become tiresome, however, I wouldn't trade these experiences for the world.

As soon as I pulled up to campus, a flood of very enthusiastic people approached my car and immediately started removing my stuff and bringing it to my room. They were holding signs, already knew my name, and had a custom-made button for me.  There was very little time to actually set up and decorate my room before going to have family lunch. I went to meet some other friends who I knew were going to Rice and hugged my mom goodbye before being fully engaged in college (our residential area) activities. There are seven extremely long gold sheets of paper hanging from the second floor with all the events the student coordinators planned for us. First, we officially meet up with our O-Week groups and play awkward ice breakers. As the week goes on we sign up for classes, attend a several talks regarding sex, alcohol, drug usage, diversity, and college life, we play games, and participate in different traditions.

My personal favorite tradition was McGuffin. On the 3rd day of O-Week, a bunch of posters of McGuffin memes were posted all over the dorms and lounges. I assumed it was a prank from another college called McMurtury. Then, I looked up the term McGuffin which refers to a point in the story that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot, yet guides the plot. So I thought something was going happen, but nothing did so, as any rational person would, I went to sleep. At precisely 4:00 am, all I hear is people yelling "This is the best day of your life!" and banging on doors. They did this until they got everyone outside to an hour long dance party. This of course was followed by our healthy breakfast of Poptarts and RedBull. Then, we proceeded to run to different parts of the school doing activities the advisers had set up. It was a lot of fun and I appreciate that I got to reap the benefits of someone else's hard work.

I would like to thank all the advisers, co-advisers, RAs, H&D, and everyone who was involved in my RetrO-Week. It was an amazing experience and I appreciate every single minute you all put in to planning and executing it.  Also, feel free to say you're welcome if you see me in person ^_^

Summer '17: New Orleans

Hi everyone!
Even though I'm in the process of moving and am a few days away from starting school, I'm still a teenager and I like to have fun. I think it's important to make the best of these last few rays of summer sun, so I stopped in New Orleans!

New Orleans is a lot of fun with lively people and a bursting energy. It looks like an old fashion French town dressed up in Caribbean colors. There's this appreciation for individuality and creativity that I haven't seen anywhere else. There are lots of mom-and-pop shops with little to no mainstream fast food places. There are small stores that sell custom made masks and bustiers. There are legendary restaurants with delicious creole food and specialized treats. Even the living spaces are built upward in layers with different tropical plants on each floor. Everything is a piece of art and everyone here has some sort of talent. The smooth, mystical, hypnotizing vibe of  New Orleans is really something one can only truely understand through personal experience.

Sometimes the beauty of New Orleans can be so captivating, it can make all other things disappear. I had been walking up and down Bourbon Street for a long time constantly looking up at the European architecture. When I looked down, I was finally able to see the line of homeless people and their various scattered items all over the sidewalk. I could finally hear them calling out to other hypnotized tourists for help; I could finally see them creating little scams to trick visitors into giving them money. It was saddening and added one more thing to the list of things I had never seen before. Although homelessness to this extent is disheartening, I still have pride in the street performers, street merchants, and -- yes -- even the scammers of New Orleans. Instead of sitting at home doing nothing or stealing things, they work their hardest to earn cash through tips. That is so admirable and displays honor and mental strength. Even those struggling in New Orleans add to its Creole charm.

Summer '17: Moving Out

Hi everyone!
As most of you know, I'm moving to out of state university and today is the official day of the move. It's such a bittersweet moment. I feel sad because I know I won't see my friends and family for a long time. It kinda breaks my heart. I also feel happy because I know I'm going into a new chapter of my life where I will be literally unstoppable;it's the portion of my life when I fear nothing, can achieve anything, and will have everything. It's just so bittersweet.

I'm so grateful for Summer '17 and all of its experiences. I've been having so much fun spending time with my friends and loved ones that sometimes I'd forget to write about it. This summer I've graduated from high school and college, went to my future roommate's home, hosted two out of state visitors that I met in China, quickly befriended people that I've known for 2 years (but didn't know they were so amazing until these last 3 months), designed some collegiate gear, changed my hairstyle, and packed the beginnings of my new life in a few boxes. This summer came and went so quickly and fortunately I can say that I lived in every moment of it. 

To my friends and family, 

Thank you for supporting me in all my dreams and endeavors! I appreciate it more than you'll ever know. I love you all sooo much and I can't wait to come back and see you during break <3