Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH!

I hope those who are on Spring break get as much rest as they need, and I hope those who celebrate Passover or Easter have a great holiday weekend!

It’s been a hot minute since a Self-Appreciation Saturday came out, and half of that reason was that I simply had nothing to discuss. It wasn’t until I went to school this past week and found some inspiration.

This past week, I bumped into an old friend of mine who I had a couple of classes with during my undergrad years. It’s never common for me to bump into anyone while I’m on campus because 85% of the people who go to CSI are out for the day by the time my class starts at 6:30pm. This day, I was on campus earlier than usual for a thesis meeting, and I was surrounded by the majority of students who attend CSI, so it wasn’t a surprise that I was going to see someone I know. So whatever, we had a brief conversation and when I asked this person if they keep in touch with anyone else from our old classes and she simply said no. I pretty much said the same thing with the exception of my college best friend who I keep in contact with frequently. Although it was very sweet to see this old friend, it made me think about my life during the time where I had friends that I thought were going to be my friends forever. Some of these people were the legit reasons why that particular year was amazing. I sometimes have to tell myself that life happens and that people got lives to live, and I can totally respect that. So, I don’t hold anything against that group of people I was once friends with. What we all had was great, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

This is where the inspiration for this post comes in…

Continue reading “SAS: Friends Who “Ghost”. (3/31/18)” →

Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH!

Let’s jump right into it: I bought a blank journal at the beginning of May 2017 and decided that with that journal, I would start bullet journaling. Bullet journaling– in a nutshell– is pretty much a decorative planner that you create yourself. Depending on the type of person you are, the pages in your bullet journal are made according to relevance for you and only you. In other words, it’s a planner that is unique to you and you only.

After sharing the many decorative mini to-do lists and monthly goals poster on my social media platforms, many people suggested that I look into bullet journaling. I knew just the concept of it by seeing artists create them and posting theirs online, but I never knew that after watching a couple of girls with their bullet journals that it would make me want to be about the bullet journaling life.

I’ve been an active bullet journal user and I now feel like bullet journaling keeps the order in my current hectic life.

Continue reading “SAS: How Bullet Journaling Helps Me Balance my “Controlling” Habit. (2/24/18)” →

Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH.

I’ve always been a firm believer that no matter what in life, you should always be yourself. Sometimes, you’ll find yourself being someone completely different in order to feel accepted or you’ll believe the environment you’re in isn’t going to accept you for who you are. I still believe, in any circumstance, you should tend to always be yourself.

Even if you don’t know who you are exactly (I mean, who really does?), at this age, you should have a decent idea on who you are and the things that make you, you.

But, what happens if you change? What happens if the band you liked a couple of years ago isn’t your cup of tea anymore? What happens if your beliefs as a teenager change when you become a young adult? Are you considered fake or dishonest? People often think that those who “change” is always for the worse, and never the better. Like, everyone’s favorite negative thing to say to another person is “you changed.”

What’s so wrong about maturing, growing up, and changing?

Continue reading “SAS: People *do* & *can* Change, Despite Popular Disbelief. (2/17/18)” →

Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH!

In all honesty, I had no idea what to write for this week’s SAS and it was frustrating because in the year I’ve been faithfully posting one, I never had a time where I didn’t know what I wanted to talk about. And I guess this is the SAS discussion: having a feeling of disconnect and uncertainty in life. But, this isn’t what ultimately inspired the writing of this post, it was a tarot card reading.

My college friend, Tori, has been known for being spooky and witchy and she’s definitely into all of the things that are deemed with a bad reputation. She just recently purchased herself a deck of tarot cards to perform readings on. Before going to my class this past week, she texted me in shock telling me how accurate her cards were in her readings were. Now, I became curious for her to do a possible reading on me via text message, and I pretty much asked her why do I feel this disconnect within myself, with my family, my personal life, and my professional environment. After following the steps she gave me, this is what the cards drew out:

Now at first, I was terrified at the death card because that means something ultimately needed to die, but when she explained each card one by one, she ultimately said that the cards were reading more about me personally than about me in these environments in my life. Ultimately, the reading reads as follows: I tend to mourn and dwell on the negativity without noticing the things I already have in my life. Because of this feeling of disconnect, I either have to confront and change something, or ultimately end something; either way, the death card represents the anxiety I am having of confronting this disconnect and will only seek relief from it once I become aware of what I’m being disconnected with. The third card, representing balance, is the outcome or new beginning after I change what’s making me feel disconnected. Once I overcome this obstacle in my life, I’ll feel a sense of balance and relief with myself, being able to be connected with those around me again.

Now, this isn’t something completely new to me. I knew for a fact that whatever I was dealing with was a result of me. It wasn’t set off by an event or a series of events, but it was mainly just my perspective and a trait that I need to work on because I’m possibly growing out of it? It’s still very foggy and I’m still not sure what it may be about, but I still found it crazy that a deck of cards came out to say the same exact thing.

Whether you believe in tarot readings and follow the results in your own lifestyle, or you take the reading like you would do for a horoscope reading, the outcome of the cards and relevance of the reading should say something about the importance of the issue that I’m having: something within my mindset and lifestyle has to change in order to obtain balance in my life.

It taught me that we as individuals really need to become more aware of our instincts and how we’re feeling. Sometimes, it’s weird and hard to feel negative things and when we feel like we’re doing the right thing to shove them away, you might actually be giving the negative vibes more power and control of your own life. People think that it’s good to only think about the positive things and neglect the negative things but when you have to focus your energy on eliminating those negative things, you’re giving it the unnecessary power that you are trying to avoid. That’s why it’s so easy for people to forget or neglect the positive things they have because we tend to focus on getting rid of the negatives. I feel like I just said the same thing three times, but you know what I’m trying to say. 

Personally, I feel like it’s harmless to go for a tarot card reading. It simply tells you what to expect in the future, whether you chose to believe the reading or not. Personally, I took my reading as a sign of immediate change. This disconnection I’ve been feeling in my life could simply mean that there is this trait about me that I’m growing out of. I feel like it’s a good way to get some guidance on a thing in your life that you feel stuck in or uncomfortable dealing with. Again, this isn’t meant to solve all of your problems and it doesn’t provide you with a guideline of things to do to overcome your obstacle, but it does give you some perspective on how you dealing with things and what needs to happen in order to get a positive and content outcome.

Give it a try!

-Liz. (:

Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH!

As a student in college or in grad school, we sometimes go to family gatherings and one of the most common questions that your extended family will ask you is “so what do you want to do after you graduate?” During my undergrad career, I had that question asked to me as early on as my sophomore year, and as a student with many years to go, it creates unnecessary worry about your future.

When I started college, I knew from the start that I wanted to study English. English was the subject that I loved the most in public school, and most importantly – I wanted to write. Many people thought that I wanted to study English to become an English teacher, which is honestly the last thing I want to do. I would continuously joke how teaching was my “plan Z”; if all else fails, I would settle with teaching. With the many highs of my English major career, there were many lows, and every time I expressed those lows with those around me, their first suggestion would be to go into teaching. At first, I would ignore those comments, but as I’ve gotten into grad school and almost completing it, the comment frustrates me. It makes me feel like the degree that I worked hard for and earned was all for nothing if I’m not using it to go after my dreams. I don’t have anything against teachers; my college friend and my partner are both teachers within their respected field and I commend them for what they do.

I’m simply saying stop trying to “box me in”, as a colleague of mine expressed once.

And it’s the truth. As college and grad students, we are expected to know what we want to do, how we are going to do it, and how bad we are willing to work for it. Just because a classmate of mine wants to teach ESL to third grade students and is getting her degree in English Linguistics doesn’t mean she has her shit together more than a student who doesn’t have a plan. Plans are nice to have — trust me I use to be that type of student — but what happens when your life takes another direction? What happens if you can’t do what you want to do because life happens? Do you just give up and say “well, screw it” because you’re not going to do what you planned on doing? Why put yourself in that box in the first place?

I went through most of my undergrad career wanting to be a scriptwriter. I took two courses to help further prepare me for the industry and instantly fell in love with it. When I was applying for grad school, I specifically wanted to apply to a film school to get my MFA in Screenwriting. The reality of getting accepted into such a competitive industry (especially for women) are slim to none, and sadly I got rejected from the school I applied for. The college I did my undergrad studies accepted me into their Masters program and being in it for almost two years have taught me a lot about how life really works.

Plans are great to have, but goals are even better. Plans don’t have any sort of direction leading to them; essentially they are ideas that we want. “my plan is to move out of my parent’s place by the time I turn 22.” After that, what else do you have in order to follow up on that plan? Yeah, it sounds nice and it may be what you want, but by planning to move out by 22 puts yourself in this box that you HAVE to be out of the house by 22. Setting minor goals like getting a job and finding friends who may want to be roommates of yours are steps to take in order to achieve that “plan”. There’s a reason why people say that it’s easier said than done.

Going back to education: telling yourself that you want to do a particular thing when you graduate sets you on a path where you ignore everything that’s around you and only focus on what you want. Meanwhile, on your journey towards this “plan”, you could be encountering opportunities that you might find yourself wanting to do. While being close-minded to everything else around you, you could’ve lost the opportunity to do that one thing that you actually like doing.

All in all, I’m saying that limiting yourself (especially in your 20’s) shouldn’t be the way you live and explore your life. You’re young, and the world is full of different things to explore; why not see what’s out there? Why lock yourself into one occupation choice if you haven’t seemed out other options? Why settle for something you aren’t sure you still want to do in a couple of years?

Don’t just do something just because everyone around you is doing something similar or if you’re in a place where you aren’t sure what to do with your life.

Use that as inspiration to find out what it will be.

-Liz. (: