Allyinspires
this weather is a blessing from the frigid December of New York….
i don’t have too much to say about these photos other than that today was a beautiful day of being a tourist in Puerto Rico, filled with colors and picturesque streets
-A
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…I’m back from my week-long and a half trip, which was a cruise on the Royal Caribbean followed by a few days of free-roaming in Florida. With me at UCLA for the past few years, and now in New York, while my sister is a freshman at NYU, we’ve been doing vacations over winter break….
My sister and I realized that we’ve celebrated the past five New Year’s Eves together, which is quite a feat considering we’re four years apart so our schooling is always off by a chapter. Three years ago, we spent New Year’s together at her best friend’s house, empty for the night. I tagged along because when my sister and I are together, at home, we end up going to all each other’s engagements like it’s not really a big deal. The three of us took turns using the massage chair, I listened to their high school woes and felt deep sympathy, we ran around the kitchen island and ate bites of cake with a spoon directly from the box. It was a New Year’s sleepover.
The book I’m reading on this trip is the Hollywood Daughter, a riveting and relatable story about a girl with a Catholic upbringing and her admiration and awe for Ingrid Berman, even though the scandals later in her career. The city of Los Angeles was a great inspiration for my debut poetry collection, LA baby... and so I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Give it a try if it sounds intriguing.
Love,
-A
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…I attended Octoly’s holiday party in New York for the first time two weekends ago. (it was an eventful weekend, following my company’s corporate holiday party, and preceding my roommate’s rugby team holiday party.)
Much to my delight (as I decided to pop out some meek heels) the Octoly party turned out to be only a few blocks from my apartment in Midtown. It was a fantastic event! I had so much fun speaking to all the marketing teams and managers behind the brands that were working with Octoly, and being able to meet the people from the Octoly team in person was also very enjoyable.
I was excited up from the moment I got the cute, glittery digital invite in my Wednesday inbox during work. Octoly sent the invite through the platform that I personally use for digital cards, Paperless Post. They have a ton of cute holiday cards running so be sure to check them out at https://www.paperlesspost.com/.
When I was in Paris for spring break, I discovered some of my Parisian influencer friends also use this platform! (Paris already feels like a lifetime ago, the only tangible reminder for now is a beautiful winter coat picked up at the Le Bon Marché shopping gallery as a birthday present that I’ve been sporting around the city.)
How many holiday parties have we attended so far? And what would be your dream holiday party to attend? Do let me know. Hope to keep all the good times rolling as we rapidly approach the end of 2019 and much love!
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It’s been almost six months since I graduated from UCLA as an Economics major and moved to Manhattan to work as an Associate. I want to share some reflections on what this experience has felt like for me, and maybe you can relate to it if you’ve moved cities or move around often for travel, school, or work.
Since moving to New York, I’ve learned a lot and the learning curve was unexpectedly steep. Enter me five months prior, a young, optimistic, and (I’ll say this truthfully) naive college senior with a habit of building dreams around cities. I won’t say that it’s a terrible thing to be guilty of, but with change comes circumstantial challenges and obstacles. Adjustment is a process for me. I think of myself as an adaptive individual, but I have a tendency to run straight into the cyclone heart of situations where the path pulls away and disappears into thin air as I’m walking. I love to broaden my horizons, so I have this element of courage in jumping into new countries, cities, and roles, often alone. I don’t always have a plan. I run with the wind, and as an optimistic don’t foresee that the wind could very likely blow in the direction opposite of my hopes.
Do you relate to what I’m about to say? Even with a full circle of support (which I count my lucky stars for every single day), I can’t help but feel overwhelmingly alone at times with all my thoughts, frustrations, and worries. Have you ever had this thought or worry? Growing up, I’ve struggled in sharing my thoughts and fears with my loved ones. I didn’t want to admit to my problems because I was afraid that would make them real when I wanted to pretend they weren’t there lurking in shadows. Vulnerability is like a muscle that you can flex and strengthen over time, and I’ve learned to be more vulnerable. But at the same time, loneliness is a word that comes up often these recent years as I move from city to city, community to community. Loneliness is common in our modern world, especially amplified by big cities filled with thousands of busy people.
Now, I’m in New York. After all these years, I’ve finally made it here, and I’ve put a cherry on top of my own sundae and scooped it out with a shiny spoon, popped it in my mouth, and chewed and chewed and chewed victoriously. Then I think to myself: now what? I’m left with the aftertaste of maraschino and a bit of confusion towards what I had been exactly expecting.
New York is it’s own beautiful beast. Today I had coffee with a friend who told me she had considered moving to New York after graduation, and didn’t, because she knew she was the type of person who got FOMO. For those of you born before 1995, FOMO means fear of missing out- a real and prevalent phenomenon, might I add! My head was nodding in response and in that moment I fervently wished I had had this conversation earlier. “I can’t look at people doing all these fun and fantastic things while I’m stuck at my nine to five,” she continued. We were going up an escalator but ironically I felt my heart sinking a step. In college, I hadn’t had the foresight to fully understand what my working life would look like and now I often found myself in this situation that she was contemplating.
Yet, part of me knows that there is something meaningful in this city that I want to find. Although my path is still not clear, I am setting out every day to find it. Since the very first time I came to this city, I felt this feeling of greatness, and upon revisiting through the years, I always believed that there was an original and intensely artistic and passionate energy in New York that I was drawn to.
So in a series of posts, let’s unravel the experiences of this 22 year old girl (aka me), first from the Bay Area, then to the concrete sprawl of Los Angeles, and finally landing (but not resting) in Manhattan. I can’t say that six months in, I would call myself a New Yorker or feel that this is my city yet, as I am still in that hazy period of swimming through the stimulus and establishing my footing. I wouldn’t kiss the ground (it is very dirty) but I am terribly, terribly excited to be here, vulnerability and all.
thanks for sharing my experience through this post! please do let me know if you’ve experienced any similar feelings so we can facepalm and tap our fingers together trying to think of some ways to expedite the adjustment process… xoxo
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