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But yeah, one time I went kayaking in Seattle with my girlfriend. And we were in a tandem kayak. So we were both on the same kayak, both trying to pedal. And as a joke, I started pedaling backwards, and she was confused as to why she wasn't moving forward.

A couple of months ago, I started going on wilderness adventures with my family. It was amazing to go, just my girlfriend and I, but it was even cooler when we were able to take the kids. My girlfriend and I found this amazing river with beautiful plants and unique rocks along the shore. The water was very clear and calm, and we wanted to take the kids kayaking and for a picnic. When we arrived, we had the kids assist in helping set up the inflatable kayaks, and then we broke off into two teams to head down the river. My girlfriend and our daughter were in one kayak, and I was in the other with our son. We had a lot of fun racing down the river, checking out the landscape, and watching fish jump out of the water. We got to shore at a great picnic area and spent the afternoon eating lunch and fishing. Sadly, we did not catch any fish, but it was fun trying. We also found and explored a nearby cave. The kayaking trip back to the car was a bit tougher as my arms were tired and our son was just relaxing in the back of the kayak. My arms started to get pretty sore, but we managed. Once back, I carried the kayaks and everything back to the car so that we could load up and head home. During the drive home, my girlfriend and I discussed brights and why they are needed. Sure enough, we ended up having to stop due to deer being in the road! We were able to navigate down the mountain safely and then got home, showered, and went to bed.

I don't know if it's interesting. I'm kind of gearing more towards emotional triggers in my storytelling. I guess this one is going to be about having to work with a really aggressive coworker and kind of working through how to handle it. So I have a product manager who is, I can flat out say, the most aggressive teammate I've ever had to deal with. And I've had a broad range of collaboration with various stakeholders. The way that I started to handle it was first to kind of be overly appeasing and make sure that she felt included. Then it just kind of continued, this perpetual sort of notion of resentment towards me, which I'm not really sure where that's founded in. I think it's kind of just she just had something she didn't like about me and she just brought it to a personal level rather than keeping it professional. I definitely tried to have heart-to-hearts with her and it seemed on the surface that everything was fine. But it's really just constant and perpetual sort of condescending tones, outright aggression, and honestly, very childish behavior. And I'm not really sure at this point, and I think the outcome is just that thankfully the teams have shuffled and I shouldn't have to have any overlap with her, which is probably the best resolution to this situation. I've definitely brought it up to my boss, my manager, and he's fully aware of it. It's just that we have such a limited fund and appetite for going out and hiring new people. We definitely don't want to have a churn with our internal teammates. So honestly, the only resolution is to basically not have to overlap her with her in work.

She moved across the country and for the last year, we've remained really close, and she would always be the first person I'd want to talk to and vice versa. But lately there's been a shift in our relationship, and I just don't feel like she actually cares or is interested in me as a person anymore. We used to talk all day every day about anything, and now she only engages in conversation if it's for advice or for her to rant about something that's bothering her. I try to engage in more lighthearted conversations, and she immediately switches the topic to be about her. And she always says she has my back and I can tell her anything, but as of lately, I don't feel comfortable approaching her with anything that's bothering me because she either ignores me or switches the conversation. The thing that really bothered me, and I think started the shift, was when I was going through a rough time and really needed a friend to talk to. I tried telling her about some things that were bothering me, and she said it wasn't healthy for me to be so negative and that I should see a specialist or doctor - so it's okay for her to complain to me daily about her issues but tells me I should find a specialist? That rubbed me the wrong way, especially from someone I've built a lot of trust with. I'm just feeling like we're drifting apart, and I can't keep putting in the effort for a one-sided friendship. I'm afraid that will just be the end of the friendship.

I just told you my story from the last time, but I can just summarize. Essentially, my middle school best friend and I reconnected, and I don't know how to feel about it because there are a lot of mixed feelings. We ended up breaking off in a pretty harsh way way back when, and we don't really remember how it happened. But it seems like we would get along pretty well nowadays. Although, yeah, this seems like life probably would have been different if we had stuck together. Because I remember it was something like a third party that ended up breaking us up, so technically, it wasn't even between us. But I think my life would have been a lot more different if we had stayed friends.

Well, I think that I just lost my best friend. They haven't spoken to me in some time, and I don't quite understand why. I'm so confused because less than a month ago, we were fine, we weren't fighting, or saying anything stupid. We were just existing and being best friends. I had a weird feeling just before they stopped talking to me, like something was off. I figured it was nothing and chose to ignore it. But now I'm convinced that it wasn't quite like that. They told me that they had been avoiding people and trying to just live, that they had been tired and busy all of the time. This makes sense, but I don't know when you stop being busy or when you're too busy for someone you care about. I always figure it takes just a minute, even less, to answer someone's texts or to say, "Hey, I'm sorry, I'm a little busy, I'll let you know what's going on later." It's bothering me so much. I'm stressing about it almost constantly. I can't get it off my mind. I'm really hurt because I don't know how it goes from being best friends and always talking, to this. I don't know where that friendship goes? Where do you draw the line between always wanting someone around, to completely ignoring them and deleting them from your life?

Okay, so yesterday, well, I guess for the last couple of months, almost a year, six months to a year, I've been trying to find new work, new jobs. And it's been difficult. Yesterday, I actually had an interview, and it seemed like it would have been good. But then we got on, I kind of explained myself. And then she got to the point where she wanted to know salary expectations. And I said what my salary was. And it was at the high end of what they had listed on the website. And then she immediately said that's not going to work. That what they actually could offer was way less than what they had actually posted on the website. So that wasn't great.

I just gave my 4th round of interviews and was pretty sure I wouldn't clear it, so wasn't even nervous in the slightest. Went on call, the interviewer gave a problem and said we will try to solve it in 50 mins. I gave the most optimal solution in 7 mins. He was thoroughly impressed and told me this was a new record. We wrapped up the one-hour interview in 20 mins. I have two more rounds before getting an offer. I have a fever today and thought of postponing, but I've been giving interviews for this company for over a month now and didn't want to delay anymore. Will start preparing for the next round from tomorrow. I've never been rejected in any interview in my life, and thought this would be it, but I'm so lucky.

When I was back in undergrad, I was in my first year living in a dormitory for the first time. My roommate did not show up on the first day that I started living in the dorms, nor the second day. But suddenly, when I came back from shopping on the third day, he was standing there in the room. And as I walked in, we looked at each other, we sized each other up. And he was like, you know what, this will do. And what I mean by that is, when you meet someone, I think there's energy, there's a vibe they give out. And it was very interesting to see my roommate, and the moment I saw him, to know that I was like, this guy and I are going to get along very well. And we did. We made it through the next six years throughout undergrad in Glasgow. And to me, that is remarkable.

I'm very independent, been dating around for a little bit here and there. I'm a comedian/filmmaker, and I'm almost always busy, which is why I never prioritize dating anyone. In the past, I've always dated other creatives—musicians, filmmakers, comics, etc. However, I always felt like I was in their limelight, and they never truly believed in me. I always felt like a "groupie" of sorts. But it's only been a couple of weeks since I came across this guy, and I feel like my whole world has changed. The first night we met, we walked around the city for about 6 hours, just talking about our past and future ideas, making jokes, and even coming up with our own sketches on the spot. I never had that immediate of a connection with anyone. He watched some of my short films (on his own time) and told me he's making it a goal of his to showcase my talents. For the first time, I'm with someone whom I feel truly believes in me. Now, I've been in love before, been in relationships, flings, the whole nine yards. They've always felt very disposable to me, though, like in my head, they all had an expiration date. But with him, I'm already fantasizing about the future, which is something I've never done with anyone.

But yeah, one time I went kayaking in Seattle with my girlfriend. And we were in a tandem kayak. So we were both on the same kayak, both trying to pedal. And as a joke, I started pedaling backwards, and she was confused as to why she wasn't moving forward.

We live in Canada, and sometimes the winters can get long. November is gloomy. December is usually cheerful just because of the holidays, good food, and people, and then it drags out with freezing temperatures, dark nights, and crappy driving conditions from January through April. I find I get sad around February since I'm just wishing for sunlight and for my face not to hurt when I go outside. We finally got a huge dump of snow, and my husband and I picked up our season passes and went snowboarding for the first time. Did I fall an insane amount? Yes. Were some of my wipeouts spectacular? Absolutely. Do I know what I'm doing? Not particularly. Am I in pain? My butt is so bruised, I'm looking like a plum. But man, did we have fun. When I first brought it up in October, my husband said he wanted to go with me, and I was thrilled. He's a bit of a homebody in the winter, so I was just excited to be able to share a sport with him. We bought all of our gear without even having tried the sport and just waited for the perfect time to go. We had so much fun, and I'm really looking forward to hitting the hills tomorrow and again later this week too! I get to spend quality time with him, we're being active, we're learning something new together, and we're spending time outdoors—it's the best of all the worlds combined. It's making the winter seem so much shorter since I'm actually wishing for winter to stay and more snow to hit. It really helped change my attitude on winter.

So, yeah. So basically, it turns out since I last told you about that person who just kind of showed up to the World Building class that I'm in, how I felt a little bit off about that because it was something that I waited three years to take and then never got in until now. So, it turns out that she also got in, even though she didn't sign up for it and then just kind of showed up to class because a friend told her about it. And then yes, she's a senior. But, I'm pretty sure there were people on the waitlist that also wanted to go, but I don't know. It just kind of sits wrong with me that can happen, right? I could have done that, right? I could have done that last year or something, just kind of showed up to class even though he said not to. And then I didn't get to take the class, right? Probably I couldn't have, but it just kind of sits wrong with me that she was able to do that, right? And that's just how the world works. Yeah, she got in. I hope that doesn't affect the rest of my attitude towards that class because I really have wanted to take that class for a really long time. And I don't want to build up resentment, if that makes sense, over something like this. Yeah.

I went to Mary College on a basketball scholarship. I played ball for them. But I would still party, pretty crazy back then, and I flunked out. I started looking at what I was going to do in the parks, and it really, really made sense to me. By the time that I got through with that first summer, I realized this is what I want to do for a career. I really did. Two days before my graduation, I was told by this nun -- I went to a Catholic boarding school -- she said, "You know, the best thing you can do with your life: get a good job pumping gas. At a gas station. And stay with it. That's your life.'' The highlight of my life was going back to that same school and being the last graduation speaker they had. And I got to tell the whole audience, "I'm not working at a gas station, by the way. I'm a park superintendent.''

I did a lot of swimming this past week. It's been really nice to take advantage of the pool at my mom's development while I'm visiting. It gives me a lot of agility in how I want to stretch and exercise, and I find it really nice. And then, it's also just a nice change of scenery. My mom and I have just been really enjoying the jacuzzi together as well. It's good for our circulation, and I think also, it's just really pleasant. That would have been nice.

A memorable recent time was when my wife and I recently went to the beach and had a real relaxing day after finally moving and switching jobs. It was a while since we had done anything together and relaxing. It was memorable because I felt so content and happy, which I have not felt in a long time. The best part was the ride back home with my wife leaning on me, taking a nap. This was special to me because it was a lover's embrace while I was driving and how we were both super warm, tired, and content. This stands out to me because of the reasons I mentioned, but also because my wife is my best friend and with the move recently and school, we have been super busy. This made doing anything fun or relaxing quite difficult. Also, being closer to a beach now compared to before is nice. We are able to do more. The first thing we needed though was a beach day. The swimming and tanning was wonderful. It was nice and quiet. No loud music. Just the sound of the waves and wind. It was a really nice day.

Hello, Hi jivo. I'd like to share a quick story about a conversation I had this morning on the ride to drop off my son at school. We were chatting about other planets and the atmospheres on other planets, and the living conditions on other planets. And I shared with him that perhaps within his lifetime, there will be humans starting to live on Mars. And we talked about what that might look like and how some of the introductory things humans would need to do to have a survivable climate and habitat on a different planet. It's an interesting thing to think about, especially for a young mind. And I find myself enjoying seeing questions like that through my son's eyes at the young age that he's at, because largely it's a blank slate. But he's very curious about the world, and he's learning new things. And I find that to be a nice perspective to try on, to remind myself of. So we had fun chatting about that.

Our mission is that we want to soften mankind's footprint on the sea. We've been doing experiments like a drifter cage. That was just an experimental pan of 2,000 fish out here on the back of the big island. It drifted around for eight months, just in the eddies. If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? A lot of what really excites me, it is to figure stuff out. There's a potential for things to go wrong, and we have in the past had some things go wrong. It's like anything else in life, you have to learn from your mistakes. Don't make the same mistake twice. We as a community, we as a nation, we as a planet can get caught up so much in the mindset of let's not do anything wrong, that we don't do anything.

I'm going to tell you about a really, really, probably just magical moment in my life. And when I look back at one of the fondest times, that's the memory that comes right to the forefront. So the story is, I lived in Savannah for about four to three years, from 2016 to about 2019. And so my husband, child, and I used to go out to Tybee Island every weekend, all weekend. And it was just so liberating. There's an area where you can go, it's the Back River, where the Back River meets the ocean. And it just gets these tidal pools in low tide where you can go out. I'm not even exaggerating, a mile in just water that is only about ankle deep or knee deep, and it's warm, and you can see all these sea creatures. And there was just this one time that stands out. And it was just absolutely beautiful. We went all the way out to the edge, seriously probably about a mile out, and there's a breakpoint there, where there's a sandbar. And we went all the way out there and it was just a treasure trove of all these sand dollars. I remember those moments with me and my child and husband. And we saw one, and then we looked up and it was just covered in sand dollars. So we were just running around collecting as many sand dollars as we could. We were filling our hats and our buckets and anything we could use to hold the sand dollars. And it was so magical. And just the breeze and being out in the middle of nowhere, it felt like the edge of the Earth. And then on our way back, we were walking back towards the land, and this flock of pelicans just came right, just swooshed right past us. And I just closed my eyes and it's probably the most at peace I ever felt in my life. And I just try to go back and look at that moment. And I try to bring it back, almost meditative, at any time, even good times, bad times, or just quiet times. And I'm really trying to figure out how I can just find that utmost inner peace when, just in the future, whenever I just need those moments.

I recently went on a swimming trip with a group of friends. It was after a Sunday religious service we are all a part of on a hot summer day. We all arranged together how we would get there and where we were going. We drove in three separate cars. We arrived at an area of a river where there was a canal that had deep and slow moving water. It was a short walk to the area, and we had to climb down a rocky ledge to reach it. I decided to go in fast while the others were tentative because of the cold water. When getting in, I scraped my arm on the rock I was holding while lowering myself. It made me feel rather clumsy, and then I started worrying about if it might get infected. I didn't make a big deal of it because I didn't want to ruin anyone else's time. We all swam for a little while, then gathered in a shallow area and just sat and talked for a while. At one point, I decided to get up and explore some of the rocky area around the swimming hole. Being with the group was reminding me of times as a kid when I went swimming in these kinds of places with friends. It was making me sad that I don't do it that often anymore. So I felt that going off on my own and gathering my emotions would be best. I walked around on the rocks and looked at the trees of the forest behind it. Then I found a spot in the shade and laid down for the remainder of our time there. A friend yelled up to me that we were leaving, so then we all climbed back up the ledge and got in the cars and left.

Okay. So, unrelated to art, but last night I was going back to my car in the parking lot of A Whole Foods. As I was walking back, right as I was walking up to my car, the lady who was pulling in next to me rammed into it by accident. And I felt very frustrated because as I was dealing with that today because it's like relatively minor. No one was hurt fortunately, but still have to invest a lot of time and energy to go get everything resolved, including stopping by the Police Department this morning and also having to call the lady as well as my car insurance several times. So all in all, an unfortunate circumstance but tough day dealing with it.

This happened about 3 months ago. I was driving with my brother back from the movie theater when we were sideswiped by another car. It spun us around into the median and was completely terrifying. It really came out of nowhere and gave me no time to react or take any preventative measures. We both looked at each other shocked when we came to a stop. We checked on each other to make sure we were both okay, which we were. We got out of my car to assess the damage and make sure the other driver was okay. The other driver got out of their car and was obviously under the influence. You could see the wobble in them from 20 feet away. My car, which was pretty new, was smashed in the rear driver side, but not as bad as I would have thought. The other driver looked to be in his mid-20s and started to freak out a bit when he realized that we were calling the police. The police got there really quickly and gave the guy a field sobriety test, which he failed miserably. I exchanged information with one of the officers while we waited for a tow truck to come. The other driver was arrested and my car was towed away. It is the only major accident I've ever been in besides one or two small fender benders in parking lots. Surprisingly, my car was mostly okay. It's a 2012 Subaru Legacy that I spent a lot of time saving up for. I'm not entirely sure what happened to the other driver, but his insurance settled out with us. Ironically, my car was salvaged out about a month later due to hail damage (somehow that was more costly than this accident).

So, I think I've mentioned that I have a cat. His name is Zoro. I adopted him when my other cat was about ten years old. Sadly, my other cat passed away a couple of years ago. I had him for 15 years and he was just super, like the best cat ever. And we were super close, definitely bonded. But when I adopted Zoro, he was only five months old and a couple of weeks in, my ex-husband, he got home before I did from grad school and his brother had come over and he was careless, and Zoro slipped out of the front door. He must have been extremely careless because the doorway is very narrow, so you really have to not be paying attention to have something like Zoro just slip by you. And I came home and I was terrified. He was only five months old. I was living in Florida and my apartment was adjacent to a nature conservation area. And in Florida, there are a lot of dangerous animals that would be predators to Zoro. Gators, alligators, venomous snakes, even hawks. He was small enough for him to be prey for a hawk, and that was all just feet away from my door. So I was really scared and I looked on the Internet. I looked at all the advice that people gave. I was searching everywhere. I stayed up all night. He didn't come to the door. And the next day, I finally got enough courage and was exhausted. I put on my rain boots, I tucked in my pants and put on a sweatshirt and a bandana over my face, and I went into the nature conservation area to find Zoro. It had been about 18 hours since he had disappeared and I happened to get close enough to the bush that he was hiding under for him to feel safe enough to meow. And I found him. But it was terrifying. And I did run into a gator at one point. Thankfully, I backed away slowly and the gator didn't present any aggressive behavior towards me, but it was scary. I was really worried. But I found him and Zoro is with me today, so I'm very glad that it worked out.

I was driving home and I noticed an old dog trying to cross the road. The dog was clearly old by the way it moved, and it was not even wearing a collar. I got worried about its safety, so I jumped out and got a collar and leash I had in my trunk. The dog seemed friendly enough, but they were clearly scared of me and I didn't want to put it in more danger, so I kind of shepherded it towards the side of the road. From there, I was able to approach the dog and get close enough to put a collar and leash on it. The dog had no collar or tags, and it was slightly past 9:30 at night. Thankfully, my house was close by, so I walked the dog into my garage and gave it some dog treats and water as it looked exhausted. This gave me some time to figure out what I would do next. I ended up making a big sign that I could post on the street corner nearby, thinking that its owners would be out looking for it. After the dog was refreshed a bit from some food and water, I got a new idea. Since I couldn't call animal control at that time of night, I was left with a few options. Keep the dog for the night and call for it to be picked up in the morning, or put the leash back on the dog and see if it would try to walk its way home. I chose the latter, so off we went in the dark, following the road until we got a few blocks away from where I lived. At this point, the dog was trying to turn off of the road into some very dark paths, and I was hesitant to go off the beaten path with my new friend. At this point, a car turned onto the street and pulled into its driveway. I thought it would be a good chance to ask a neighbor if they had a clue whose dog this was. As luck turns out, they knew the dog and pointed me to the home where its family is. Other than an awkward door knocking situation late at night, everything went well, and I was able to reunite the dog with its family.

Okay, so I guess I\'m going to talk about risk and the risk I take in my life. And I\'ve been wondering, what\'s the next step? And I always consider myself not a big risk-taker. I\'ve always considered myself someone who plays it safe all the time, who chooses the safest option and just security, just because I struggled to find that in my childhood and growing up. So I guess I made that, like, I don\'t know.\n\nI always just search for stability. But when I think back on my life and major changes I\'ve made, it\'s all been because I\'ve taken risks. And I guess that\'s a little scary. And I\'m wondering where that leaves me now that I\'m in this weird spot in my life where I\'m in between careers and trying to get my footing back in Phoenix. And learning new skills at the same time. So I guess that\'s what I\'ve been thinking about.\n\nThe first risk I took, if I could trace it back, was moving - transferring schools. I wanted to transfer to a school in my neighborhood that supposedly had better education compared to other schools. So I guess that was the first risk that I took. I made the initiative and encouraged my parents to take it on my behalf. It was when I was around nine or eight. And that was hard because moving schools was hard. I felt dumb at that school. I had a lot of imposter syndrome because I felt like it was much more advanced than what I knew, even though I was technically a very smart kid growing up. But then I adapted and made friends. It\'s funny to think that the friends I have now in Phoenix, that I\'m really close to, all kind of came from that elementary school experience, from fourth to eighth grade. So I think it\'s funny that that was the first risk I considered taking.\n\nAnd then another risk I guess I\'ve taken was changing schools again. I think the risks I\'ve taken have just been changes of environments. So I changed schools again in high school because the first school I went to was a complete culture shock. It was a predominantly white school, upper middle class or upper-class backer, on a different side of Phoenix. So it felt weird trying to adjust to that. And I felt like the coursework was weird, and I didn\'t feel challenged. So then I went to this internationally rigorous school. I decided to move to the internationally rigorous school, and then I had to make friends again. Maybe some things don\'t work out the way you want them to, because I felt like I had no life. Okay, I kind of did. I hung out a lot, like I had a lot of good friends for the time. Friends that got me through college, I mean, fucking school.\n\nAnd then I took another risk when I went to Alaska for a summer. I was offered an opportunity to go to Alaska, and I was like, yeah, fuck it, I want to go because I\'m from Arizona. What the fuck do I know about oceans and mountains of snow? So I went, and that kind of sucked a lot. I liked the nature and the exploration part of it, and I liked learning new skills. But I had a really hard time with the group I was with, the pod I was supposed to be with all the time. They were very negative, very picky eaters, and they were expecting Alaska to be a vacation. I was like, "Y\'all, what part of shitting in the woods made you think that we were going to be at a five-star hotel?" I don\'t understand what happened there. It was a really hard time because I couldn\'t escape them. They were my main group, and even when I switched, I was still kind of stuck with all of them. So I guess another risk that didn\'t work out in my favor. But it made me learn more about how to deal with people who have different viewpoints in terms of food or in terms of what we were expecting out of the experience.\n\nAnd then I guess another risk was when I went to university far away from home as the first person in my family to go to college. And I was like, I need to escape, I need a change of environment. And I got it. It wasn\'t paid for fully. I had a lot to make up, but I constantly applied for scholarships to make sure I could afford to go to that school. So ultimately, I got it paid off - almost a full ride. I want to say like, 95% of my schooling was paid. So that was another risk I took.\n\nSo I guess a lot of the risks in my life have been just changing environments. Because there was little to no hope in studying abroad, but at the last minute on the last application date, I decided to go to Greece during the pandemic, like the height of the pandemic, because I really wanted to live abroad. And I was like, it\'s probably now or never. And that also didn\'t work out. It didn\'t work out the way I wanted it to. I wanted it to be more fun and exciting in a fun way. But it was exciting in a stressful way because what was I expecting? The pandemic resources were scarce. Greek people didn\'t even want us there because they were like, "You\'re using up our resources," which is very valid. But I realized that at the time, I was just like, I want to change my environment. If I\'m going to be stuck in my room, I might as well be stuck in my room in Athens.\n\nAnd then another risk was also going to Denmark because I didn\'t know how it was going to work out with my degree. But I was like, I really, really want to go abroad. I want to keep living abroad and experiencing different ways of life and incorporating that into mine. So I went, and that was a lot better. Denmark was actually one of the safest risks I\'ve taken, one of the risks that took that came out the best way possible.\n\nCome on, Elvis. So that was actually one of the better risks that worked out where I got to learn, make new friends. But then it was really hard towards the end because of certain accidents that happened and people that died. But it worked out for the most part.\n\nAnd then I find myself in the latest mini-risk. I\'m still getting over my trauma with my last job, my last full-time job. It took a lot of energy and peace of mind from me, and I knew it was risky going into it. I went still because I was like, what other job offers do I have? And I just wanted money. I was just like, I want to graduate and I want to have money. I don\'t want to work through this whole stressful process. I don\'t want to relocate. I was tired of constantly changing locations. So I guess now, and then, I guess the irony. I\'m kind of like, how do I take a risk without always changing locations? I can\'t just keep moving and not running away from problems but running towards problems in a different location. Hey, don\'t do that.\n\nSo I guess whatever risk means in the context of staying in the same space for a long time. Because now I quit that job without a backup plan. Well, my backup plan was to travel. My plan was to quit this job, travel for a couple of months, come home, apply for a part-time job while I get my footing again. And that\'s exactly what I\'m doing. So I take these risks, but I take them with plans that I have in mind. But now I\'m in that weird spot where I\'m like, well, I\'m doing according to a plan. What do I do now? Or do I want to take another risk? Or do I just want to play it safe? I have this bakery job, but it doesn\'t pay well at all for the dreams I have and the hopes and the degree I have.\n\nYeah, just wondering, what does taking risk mean now that I\'m in one spot? And I see myself in the city for the next couple of years while I build up savings and build up a safety net, so that when I do leave, I can mitigate necessary risks.

We are creating soft multi-layered forms that interact with environments and create a space in cities that open up our imagination, and allow us to think about a different way of being. So, I had $300, and for graduation, I got a plane ticket to Bali. And I went off on my own and started walking through the rice fields until I found a little house to rent. I went as a painter, I shipped all my paints, and they got lost, and that is how I became a sculptor because I had no paint. I was in a fishing village. They had fishing twine and began just experimenting. And from there, I had this dream of bringing it back home. I applied to seven art schools, and I was rejected by all seven. And that turned out to be the luckiest thing ever in my life because it forced me to have to learn how to teach myself. The education to do what I do, there is no program. If I had gone to a program, it might have led me somewhere, but it wouldn't have been as authentic a direction. Any kind of life where you're trying to do something new and creative, you're gonna hit rejections all the time. My mom had a saying for that too. It's like just toughen up, let it come at me. Just because you're rejecting me from every single art school I've applied to, that doesn't mean you get to say that I'm not an artist. The thing I had to teach myself after college was how to hear my own voice. Like honestly, I just didn't even know it to recognize it. Making decisions is gonna happen to you your whole life. They are always hard. You've got to figure out how to make them. And you have to listen to yourself and get to know yourself.

Blue. Today, I attended the first lecture of one of my classes this semester, which is quite fun. The class is about J.R.R. Tolkien, the famous author of The Lord of the Rings. He was also a great scholar of medieval literature, languages, philology, and stuff. He had conversations with friends like C.S. Lewis, who, at least in the beginning, was an atheist and didn\'t believe in the value of things like God and metaphysics. But he later changed. He later converted. But that\'s not what I want to talk about. Today, we read a part of a poem written by Tolkien, which wanted to explain why metaphysics are important, because C.S. Lewis was of the opinion that metaphysics are just beautifully crafted lies. They have no truth in them, and therefore, they\'re not worth anything. And Tolkien\'s response was to compose a long poem about why metaphysics are useful. But one part that particularly caught my attention was the beginning, where Tolkien describes this fictional character called Miso Metis, who doesn\'t believe in the value of metaphysics. He says the person looks at natural objects like trees and just labels them "trees" and walks across the Earth as though everything is determined mathematically. Atoms move as they\'re expected, and every outcome is predictable, as if the world is just code regimented in a way where destined atoms are each moment\'s flame. So, it\'s like a very lifeless worldview. And he contrasts this with a different one in which he believes in a God and has a belief that there\'s some purpose beyond our comprehension, and God who made everything in the world. And these are not merely just objects that work according to mathematical principles, but more than that. I think this struck me because, like the professor mentioned, MIT students tend to have this worldview. And I think he\'s right. I think many people tend to view the world, at least here, as deterministic, a bunch of things that have predictable outcomes, and they can try and optimize for plans within their control to take advantage of this nature of the world. And they treat life as sort of an optimization problem, trying to get the maximum or some sort of maximal outcome. I don\'t think all MIT students are like this. I think a large chunk of them aren\'t, but there\'s definitely some subset which does think like this. I disagree with that worldview. I agree with Tolkien, and it seems very cold and regimented because if you treat life like an optimization problem, you would miss many things like art, which, in some sense, is a completely useless expression of the human spirit. But somehow, we need it. We need it in our lives. Although maybe a lot of it would never have been created with a completely scientific and rational point of view of the world. I also think it might not be worth micro-optimizing things and that part of life is experiencing imperfections and decisions. But maybe that\'s just me. I\'m not sure.

I like numbers. I like math, and in middle school, I found chemistry very interesting. There are so many elements in this world, and people use them wisely and they create a lot of components that don't exist in mother nature. And so, I think it is pretty cool. I think it's very important to do what you are good at and find your own talents and enjoy your work. No matter what you are doing, as long as you enjoy it, you will be very good at that because you devote a lot of your thinking, your energy, your time to there and you can be better and better.

So, my parents have never, ever gotten along. They knew each other for a year, ended up finding out they were pregnant with my sister, and got married. Probably shouldn\'t have. Then had me two years later. And then pretty much were never happy with each other and I just remember one particular night where they were fighting. They would have these really brutal fights where they would just yell at the top of their lungs at each other. And sometimes it would get physical. And I was in, I think, first grade. And I woke up to one of these fights.\n\nAnd I got out of the top bunk of my bed, walked out into the living room, and saw my dad on top of my mom, biting her. And then I went back to my room because I was scared. I mean, and they were equally yelling at each other. And then I heard a loud noise. And more yelling, and I walked out, and my mom had run into a room, locked herself in there, and my dad had punched the door. And I asked him what was going on. And he bent down and was like, "It\'s okay, Madison, go back to bed." And I was like, "Why did you punch the door?" And he was like, "It\'s okay." There was clearly a hole in it. It was really scary. And I just went back to bed.\n\nLots of these situations happened when I was a kid. Something that my sister and I have come to discover through therapy and talking is that the reason we\'re not so mad at our dad as much as we are at mom. It\'s because mom. She would instigate a lot of these fights. I don\'t think my dad should have been doing a lot of these things either, but I think the reason that I hold more of a grudge towards my mom is because she took it out on us, and my dad never did. And my dad was equally violent and shouldn\'t have been. But my mom, when they did finally divorce and separate and my dad moved out, my mom started treating us how she treated my dad. And it took a lot of therapy to not feel like it was my fault.

My mom has always been a good mom. She took care of 2 kids going to 2 different schools, with one of them having half custody with her dad. When I was 5, my mom met my stepdad and soon enough, they had another boy. Up until this point, my mother had given no reason for me to dislike her. But this all took a turn for the worse when COVID came around. My mother lost her job, but because of non-COVID related reasons, and she got off her anxiety medication because it was starting to make her lose weight. Once, when my mom was arguing with my stepdad, she started bawling her eyes out, and I asked why, and she admitted she had depression. That's all I know about her medical conditions. In 2020, she started being horrible to my sister, even though she was the oldest sibling and did the most around the house. And a few months ago, my stepdad and mom fighting became a biweekly thing. She threatened to break up with him almost every time they got into an argument. About 2 months ago, we moved into a better house that could better fit 5 people and 2 dogs. It only gotten worse from there. She would get mad because the house was going to be under my stepdad's name until they got married in about 6 months, and she said she would move back into her old house and never see him again. But instead of it being a biweekly thing, it now happens every single day. And I don't know how to deal with it. My sister and I have to just sit in our rooms and hope our little brother isn't hearing every word they say. Even though we know for a fact he is. I hear her threatening to commit suicide, to give us away to our grandmother. I don't know what to do. I'm still a minor and can't live without my parents. I can't even stand to look at my mom anymore. I hate her. And I don't think I will ever take that back. No matter how many "heartfelt" apologies she gives me after literally threatening to kick me out in a way where she doesn't have any repercussions.

Okay, so we are now on the third generation sent us. And my nephew Sam had dated several girls that we really didn\'t think too much of. Those seem to be like they just wanted him to buy them stuff. But lately, we met a few years ago, we met a woman that we really like. She was from Puerto Rico, and she was a switch therapist. And sure enough, she and Sam kept dating. And then the next thing we heard, they were moving in together and buying a house together. And now they had the most adorable little girl named Liliana. And a few minutes ago or about a couple of hours ago, I got a phone call from Sam. And he said, "Do you mind if we stopped by? We need to have a place to change a diaper." So they came by and Elia walked all around and took nuts and gave them to everybody in the house. She calls my husband TIO Upuelo, and she calls me TIA Apuela. And we think that this is a great couple. Unfortunately, they\'re not going to have a destination wedding in Puerto Rico, but they might have a party there.

I have been dating Michelle for nearly three years. In June, we went to Rome, Italy for a week-long vacation she had booked for us. It was a trip of a lifetime for me as I had rarely traveled anywhere outside of the United States. We left Dallas and flew to London for a 6-hour layover. It was long enough where we could leave the airport and experience a little of the area before flying on to Rome. After a few days in Rome, touring all of the sites I had only read about, we had dinner at an extremely fancy restaurant. It was there that my life changed for the better. I was widowed about ten years ago, and I didn't think I would ever marry again. Much to my surprise, Michelle proposed to me. I know it isn't the traditional way this was supposed to work, but I was floored. My heart and mind were racing that I don't even remember saying yes, but she said I accepted right away. The look on her face made me the happiest man in the world. I truly believe we were destined to be together, but it took me some nudging to make me realize it for real. For the rest of the trip, I was walking on air. I have finally found happiness in my life again. I felt like the luckiest person on earth.

Yesterday, my daughter and her friend made their first ever lemonade stand. Together, her mom (I mean, the friend's mom) helped them. She helped them make lemonade, create a sign for it, and even got text messages from the mother. So, I went to the town and the lemonade was super delicious. I was so proud of them.

On Thanksgiving Day -- that's the only day my parents would take me out to dinner -- there was this woman going through a garbage can, with her little daughter, about three or four years old, picking out her Thanksgiving dinner out of a garbage can. At that point in my life, I began to think, it's not as good on this planet as I think it might be. One of the things I wanted to do when I grew up was to try to make the world a better place. But I didn't have an awful lot of confidence getting there. Because as a Puerto Rican kid in New York going to some terrible schools, nobody ever told me as a kid that I could really amount to much at all. But finally, I met someone who helped me and I was able to make the leap. And then when I got into college and met some professors that had some faith in me and encouraged me to go to graduate school and so on and so forth, I always pointed my life in that direction.

It, yeah. So, I guess a story I have is I will introduce the iMac that I grew up with. This wasn't my first iMac, but this was the iMac I got going into junior high, and I used it throughout high school. And it's one of the early generations of iMacs that came with Intel processors. At the time, it felt like a huge leap forward in technology. Considering the Apple PowerPC processors had limited capabilities with certain software and also processing speeds could be kind of weak with the older iMacs. This was like truly a new generation of computing. This is when I first started getting into virtual reality. The 2009 iMac, that was around the time when internet speed started increasing. This computer is where I moved from dial-up internet over the phone to actually, high-speed broadband internet. And this was like the first computer I was able to have large group chats with lots of people. I was able to do AOL group chats before, but this was the first time I was able to have Skype and be in a Skype room with 60 or 80 plus people. And sometimes these chats would go on for months, where people are logging in and out of these Skype rooms. But it just keeps going. So, I got to meet people from all over the world and just jump back into these conversations that have been going back and forth for sometimes weeks of that month. So, it showed me a new way to connect with the world. Also, having access (a faster processor) for Photoshop or video editing or music editing. All of that you were able to do before, but this was a lot faster, a lot more efficient for me. As a young teenager, I was able to just sit down at the computer and start doing this stuff. And that's when I got more into programming robots and writing code. And when I guess I started getting into computational social science and human-computer interaction. I mean, I was always into that, but this computer was the first one that made me feel like I'm in the future. This is like an advancement. This is where we start making crazy cool technology that becomes wearable and whatnot. So, I felt much more connected to the world around me in terms of like the humans. But I also felt more connected to other technology. And I guess like the Internet of Things kind of set up through this computer. So, this is where I truly feel like I decided that I am into computer science. I like computers and robots and all this. I just felt so much more powerful with this blazing fast computer in front of me. That I was able to do things that I could have only dreamed of doing before.

I'm a designer and an engineer. My work has really focused on blending electronics and computing with art and design. I've done a lot of work in combining textiles and fashion with electronics and computer science. I developed a kit called LilyPad Arduino that lets you sew electronics into your clothes. Kind of like robotics, except for soft, stretchy things. So it's this incredibly mathematically rich thing, but culturally, we don't think of it in those terms. So what I needed to do for myself was discover that I could combine art and design with computer science and with electronics. I just started to play and build stuff with electronics and textiles. And that was really, really fun and really exciting. It was this tremendous "a-ha" moment where I felt like I could connect all of the crafty stuff that I had always done as a hobby. And then, using that blend as a way to get new communities of people engaged in electronics and computer science.

Or, wait, is he too loud? Okay, so, my story... I guess I just wanted to talk briefly about my driving experience. So, I previously have driven throughout the years, just not well. I've always had a challenge driving. I think it was mostly the lack of desire to drive. So, I've always had smaller experiences here and there, but I never went on the main road. So, I finally decided I just need to pay for driving school. I figure, if I put money into it, that's going to force me to have to do it and get my license because as I'm doing my job search, a lot of jobs I'm looking at are requiring an Arizona driver's license. So, I figured I just need it. I don't have to use it necessarily. So, the courses I paid for are four courses and let me see if I can recall the courses I paid for. My last lesson, I basically get tested and if I get 80% or higher, I get my license which I actually feel confident about because today I was driving on the main roads and I was maintaining a conversation with the driving instructor. So, I feel like that was already multitasking. And just from the preliminary grade that she gave me, I got a 60%. I didn't even know she was grading me. So, I feel like if, on my first lesson, I got a 60%, I should be able to do well next time. So, I'm on track to get my license and next time I get to do the freeway. So, yeah, I'm reaching my goals little by little.

I took auto-shop in high school. And I loved it. I knew I was gonna be somewhere. I knew I wanted to race cars. I got out of high school, and I went to work for a Dodson dealership. I started delivering parts for the parts department at the Dodson dealership. And while I was racing and taking cars apart, restoring cars, racing, all of that, I couldn't get enough of it. I went on to the import car and parts business. I bought and sold a few companies over that time. I ran a few companies. And here I am 44 years later, running the SEMA Garage. Along the way, I had lots of struggles, sure. Everything from racing and crashing or blowing up engines. You've got to just keep trying. You can't let things let you down. When we were building this Maverick, we got about three quarters of the way through the project. You get to a point where you're laying awake late at night, saying, is this thing ever going to get done? And you really just got to wake up every morning and push through it, and say, I'm not gonna let these things get in my way. You're gonna fail. But you're gonna pick yourself up and keep going.

So, I guess, just to kind of start it off today, I wanted to talk about work. I just recently completed a research fellowship and it was really exciting. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone because I've never done anything like that before, nor do I come from a research background or know a whole lot about the subject matter, which was artificial intelligence within the military setting. And so, it was a really interesting learning experience for me. Also, really interesting and something that I was not expecting, the community of people that were there to run the program were also very accepting of people who do not have a technical background, which is me, and then just in terms of the openness and willingness to share all their knowledge and wisdom and really their patience because, like I said, I don't come from a technical background. So, a lot of, well, just about everything that I learned, I was learning for the first time, which is very scary but also really rewarding. I'm excited that I finished the program and really exciting is that after that, I got extended in the program, so I'll get to do some more research stuff and work with the team a little bit longer. This is just really an awesome experience that I'm really proud of. I feel like I haven't work is just typically work and I can't say that there's a lot of things that I've been proud of in terms of my work life, but this is something I am really proud of.

I've really liked Math and Science. So I thought, hey, maybe I should go into engineering. I also liked medicine, so the summer before my senior year of high school, I did a summer program and got to explore different types of engineering. I found Biomedical Engineering and it was the perfect marriage of what I like to do. I went on and pursued my PhD, and I'm currently the Director of Research and Development for Sports Medicine. The biggest thing to keep in mind is just having an open mind. Be open to everything. It doesn't mean you have to agree with everything, but just see it from that perspective. It'll change the way you think, it'll make you more innovative, it'll make you more creative.

So yesterday, I made madeleines for the first time, but interestingly, I don't have any eggs anymore in my fridge. I stopped eating eggs maybe a month ago because I got a blood test and the results came back, and the doctor told me I have high cholesterol, which is really stressful to hear because I'm relatively young. So one thing I did was to cut down on my egg consumption. So all my baking recently has been very experimental, but I made my madeleines without eggs, with half the sugar and half the butter in the recipe. And they turned out okay. Like visually, they looked pretty, but taste-wise, they were just mediocre. But I brought them to lab to celebrate a friend's birthday and everyone seemed to enjoy them. So that made me really happy because I don't have a sweet tooth, but I do enjoy baking things for other people to make them happy. So yeah, that is the story of how I made madeleines last night without any eggs.

Today I am happy because I finally weighed myself. I've lost 30 pounds in the last 4-6 months. I've been watching my food intake and trying to exercise, though COVID has derailed those exercise plans. I've been overweight for my entire life, and after months of avoiding the scale since starting renewed efforts, I finally took the time and courage to check. From 260 to 228! I can do this! I can reach a healthy weight, and I am so, so happy that this is finally working.

But one of the props mentioned a song that was meaningful for you, and I have one, nothing special, because I\'m sure that millions and millions and millions of people share this same exact experience. But when I was around 40 years old, the song "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac really spoke to me. I started to listen to the lyrics, and the part that goes, "Time makes this boulder, even children get older, and I\'m getting older, too." It hit me like a rock to the head, and I realized, well, yeah, this is pretty much it. It\'s going to be downhill from here. But fortunately, now that I\'m almost 69 years old, I am reconciled to getting older, and I know that there are still many wonderful things in store for me.

There are songs that are generally motivational, moving, and happy. The ones that give you a confidence boost or tell you it's going to be okay. Basically, the ones that relate to mental health overall. Those songs used to make me cry, and I never understood why because they're supposed to be motivating. I went through something really bad recently, and that event kinda opened my eyes a bit, helped me learn to love myself, and helped me see things clearer. Now I'm smiling as I listen to these songs because I know I've achieved the positivity the songs promote. And I now realize I used to cry listening to them because I was hoping for a positivity I didn't have. Loving yourself is a core part of self-care and good mental health.

This isn't really a story about one of my travels, but I was thinking I would like to talk about collections today when I was a little girl. We lived in Tennessee. My father had been a botany major at the University of Tennessee before he went to dental school. And in the fifth grade, we had to make all kinds of collections. We had to make a mineral collection. And my father helped me with that. He went to a friend of his who was a geologist and got a bunch of samples of things. It wasn't really much work on my part because the geologist just gave me the bunch of samples, and I put them in a box and turned it in, but I got a really good grade on it because there were a lot of them.\n\nAnd then the next thing we had to make a collection of was leaves. And I decided that one I was really going to do by myself with help, but not like I had done the minerals. So we were required to have 20 leaves, and I ended up having over 100 leaves. One of the most memorable was going to the University of Tennessee campus, where there was a ginkgo tree; echos didn't grow anywhere else in our area of Tennessee. And we got the leaves from that. As you can imagine, in East Tennessee, there were many, many kinds of trees, so it wasn't hard at all to come up with 100. And I also got a good grade on that.\n\nFunnily enough, when we moved to Texas and I got to high school and was in high school biology, they also required collections. And I'd saved my mineral collection and my leaf collection because one, because it was pretty, and the other because I'd worked so hard on it. So what I did as a sophomore in high school was just basically take out the exact same things I'd used and put them in a new presentation format and turn them in. And I also got A's on both collections. That time, we also had to make an insect collection. And I had fun doing that because I like insects. And I collected maybe 50 or 60. My method of collecting insects was to capture them in a jar and stick them in the freezer until they were frozen. And I thought that killed them. Well, it turns out that freezing does not kill all insects because in the middle of the night, I had used the desk in my little brother's room to put my final Styrofoam board with the pins through the insects. And in the middle of the night, he started yelling, and we get running in there. And many of the insects had revived and were hopping around the room. The grasshoppers came loose with their pins. They were hopping around. The wasps were flying around. So I learned the hard way that freezing is not a good way to kill bugs.

I'm a hands-on guy. I could never be a good boss because I can't sit at a desk and manage. I'd hire someone to manage, and I'd rather work on the cars because that's what I like to do. I like to work with my hands. Ever since I was five, I was working with my hands with my father. He's a cabinet maker. I did every job under the sun when I was in high school. I worked at restaurants, I was a bartender, I volunteered as a mechanic cleaning parts when they were changing engines. Time went by, I helped them with this, with that. Next thing you know, I got a job at an auto repair shop. They said, "Why don't you take that engine out?" And I'm like, "I don't know how." He's like, "Just start unbolting it, and we'll take care of it, we'll help you along." And the next thing you know, 20 years later, I have my own.

Yeah, so the first time I moved out of my house was my sophomore year when I went to MIT. And the first week, I felt pretty alone. It was like a new place and it was my first time outside my house ever. And it took some time to get adjusted to living there. So like the first few weeks, it was pretty sad and lonely, but I adjusted to it. And I ended up liking my living arrangements. And so it took a little time to get over homesickness, but it worked out.

3 months ago, I moved out of my old town into a new city. I had lived in my college town for a year after graduating, and in total, I had lived there for 6 years. It's a small town, and all of my friends and people I knew had moved away. I finished a music degree and had applied to some graduate programs because I didn't know what else to do. Luckily, I did not get in to any program, and I felt an immense sense of relief when I was forced out of this path I had made for myself. Though I was relieved, I didn't know what to do with myself, and I quickly fell into a rut. I felt very mentally and physically stuck in a place that started feeling foreign to me. I made the decision to move to a new city, and I saved enough to make a deposit on an apartment. I spent weeks packing all of my belongings, and this was particularly stressful because I was also dealing with a mouse infestation. I rented a truck and put everything inside, then drove to my new home. I was scared of leaving a familiar place and moving somewhere where I didn't know anyone or even have a job yet. After I unpacked my belongings into the new apartment, I returned the truck and went to the grocery store. Even that felt foreign to me since I had been going to the same few in my small college town for years. I got enough food to eat for a while and went home to make dinner. The new apartment and new city didn't feel like home, but my old town definitely didn't either. I felt a lack of belonging on that night, and though it was scary, it was very liberating to not be surrounded by old attachments and memories. I felt free from some old patterns and able to start fresh. This was the first move I had made on my own.

Okay. So, this story is another story about a pet, and this one at the time, I was dating this girl. And she had a dog, and we both enjoyed playing with this dog. She was really nice. And one thing that was really memorable for me was when we would take her to a park and let her off the leash. And then we would play hide and go seek with her. So, typically what would happen is one of us would hold the dog on the ground. She was seated, but we would cover her eyes with our hands so she couldn\'t see. And then the other one would run and hide behind the tree somewhere far away. And then when they were well hidden, whoever was holding the dog would let her see and then ask questions like, "Where is she? Where did she go?" Something like that just to get the dog excited. And then the dog would look around and not know where the person was, and then she would get excited and she would go into a hunting mode. And then she would start sniffing around on the ground and looking around and trying to check everything. And then when she finally found the other person, she would get really excited. And then the other person would laugh and get her all worked up. And then it would be really happy, and then she would run back really excited. And we would do it again, just changing roles. But it was a really fun moment and it was an enjoyable memory.

The only memorable event that occurred in the last six months was my first day volunteering at the local Humane Society. I have quite a bit of free time since I am disabled, so I thought I'd put some of it to good use. I really enjoy being around animals, and they needed volunteers at the Humane Society, so I thought it was a perfect fit. I had never done this before, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but I didn't know that that particular Humane Society treats animals very well and is a no-kill shelter. So, I went down there, and there were five or six other volunteers there, and we had to go through a brief training class about how to handle dogs. After that was over, some of us stuck around and took a tour of the whole place and checked out some of the animals that were there. Not only did they have dogs, but they had a lot of cats and kittens as well as other small pets like rabbits, guinea pigs, and even a rat. Since I was already down there, I thought I would go ahead and take a dog out for a spin. I found a really cute pitbull by the name of Dolly. Most people think that pitbulls are mean, but Dolly was anything but. She was one of the friendliest dogs I ever met. If I was able to have a dog at my apartment, I would have adopted her for sure. We went on a walk in the adjacent park and stopped a couple of times to look at flocks of birds or people having a picnic, or we just sat by the pond. Every time we sat down, Dolly would start jumping up and licking my face all over. It took a little bit to stop, but eventually, she did. She was very animated, and it looked like she was even smiling during this whole time. I've taken plenty of other dogs out for walks, but so far, Dolly has been my favorite for sure. She wasn't at the shelter very long since everybody enjoyed her company. She got adopted pretty quickly. I was sad to see her go, but there were plenty of other dogs that I could take for walks and play with in the shelter's backyard.

So yesterday, I went into a lab. It was a Saturday. At first, I was a little bit annoyed because I have to work a lot of weekends. And there are times where I really don't want to work on the weekend. But I was also able to schedule a social moment, which helped because after I finished my work, I had a good lunch, took a little break, and then I went to meet up with some people for a birthday party.\n\nAnd at this birthday party, there were a lot of other PhD candidates. And it was interesting because you could see everyone would have these conversations and complain about working on the weekends, about their PIs, about all the stress that comes with being a student. And it made me realize that, yeah, life will probably be very tiring, very rough. But I'm not alone with this. I have a lot of other people going through the same thing, and if anything, they probably work even harder than I do. So it's made me appreciate that I am able to work on the weekends a little bit because it helps me get more data.\n\nBut yeah, again today, I also went into lab and I feel like it's tiring. I don't have any holidays off, so tomorrow is technically a holiday, but I'm still going to go to lab. But I'm not alone. This is a way of life that I think is something I need to wrap my head around, and the more I do it, the more used to it I get. So maybe it's a good thing that I'm slowly getting used to working on the weekends, but I will fix my work-life balance, try to have some fun still, but overall, this is a story of how I'm frustrated but accepting that I have to work on weekends.

I found a new job closer to my house that pays more and has better benefits. It's a larger company, so I won't have to deal with the clique mentality that has taken over my current job. I won't have to do the work of 6 people while never being recognized. I won't have to deal with a toxic mentality where my boss pulls me into an office to yell at me for not clicking on one of my screens for an hour when my job requires 14 open. I won't have to listen to my boss say I can't step away from my desk when I'm having panic attacks from my PTSD or hear a different manager giggle about comments that my appointments take me out of the office. I don't have to deal with so much rudeness and double standards, and having me do the work of a department with no recognition, and people whose slack I've been picking up get promoted.

So today, I'd like to share how my perspective on happiness changed throughout my life. Since I was really young, I feel like I kinda knew how difficult life would be. A lot of responsibilities and pain would be involved. After I grow up or as I grow up, since I was a little kid, I really wanted to avoid that kind of pain and pursue only happiness in my life. That is, for me at the time, happiness meant status without pain, and only joy and pleasure exist. So I hated, as a teenager or as a college university student, I hated taking the past or doing stuff that I didn't want to do, like studying a subject that I'm not interested in. And I only wanted to study subjects that I am interested in or do something that I really enjoy. And I think this mindset wasn't helping me to grow because I always try to avoid painful situations or painful experiences. It hindered my growth. Now I look back, I understand that. But anyway, since I was young, I was interested in Buddhism because Buddhism seemed like it talked about breaking out of painful life and going to the status of endless peace and happiness. So when I was in my mid-20s, early 20s, I did practice some Buddhism. Some practices I practiced were meditations and practices done in Buddhism oftentimes. But I don't know when, starting from when, but my perspective towards happiness slowly started to change as I was exposed to military content and army content. There was some popularity towards the ex-Navy SEAL-like ex-army officers that arose in the last couple of years in the US and in South Korea as well. And I've been watching their content and motivational content from the ex-Navy SEALs or ex-army officers or whatever. And it fully changed my perspective towards pain and happiness. They all talked about it. It was interesting to me because I was trying to avoid pain, but they were willingly accepting the pain or even welcoming the pain. And they go through painful situations on their own and willingly. So watching how different they are from me was interesting and I started to learn from their lessons and learn from their stories. And now my interest also slowly shifted to, like, MMA players, you know, mixed martial artists and the UFC, because they're all fighters and they go through a lot of hard training and painful training. It inspired me a lot. I think this kind of exposure to totally different people inspired me and made me think about happiness in totally different perspectives. And I also realized slowly that my level of happiness never changes. I have, for example, this year I achieved some of my goals that I said earlier in the year, but the joy only lasts for, like, 30 minutes or so, and then I'm going back to the same level of happiness that I was before. And also, when my environment changed this year, it was really difficult for me. But after a couple of days, I got used to the new environment and new situation. I thought I would be miserable forever, but I was okay. Actually, after a couple of days, and I restored a level of happiness that I contained before. So this made me realize that actually, happiness is I cannot gain happiness by avoiding pain, but happiness is kind of always there with me. And no matter what happens in my life, I'll be okay. And actually, painful experiences help me to realize that I'll always be okay and I always have the same kind of happiness level. So I don't really need to avoid pain or pursue happiness. So yeah, I think that's how my perspective towards happiness evolved over the last couple of years.

I was born in Kenya. My parents are Indian. Then we moved to England when I was six. So I grew up in England, and this was before there was a big Indian community in England. So I had to try and figure out who I was. College was transformative for me. I hope when I teach, I hope that it's gonna be transformative for my students as well. One of the clips I play for my students all the time, from the Matrix, is where Morpheus is explaining to Neo, "Do you really wanna understand the world we live in? Because the Matrix is everywhere." If you do walk in, here's the red pill. If you take the red pill, then you will see the world in totally new ways. Or here's the blue pill – you can take the blue pill and it will just put you to sleep. It's not gonna challenge you in this world. Advertising and corporate speech have taken over the world in such a way that it is everywhere. We need more and more people to take the red pill so that we can really understand the world we're in and make real choices about where we wanna go.

Okay. So it\'s not really a happy story to tell right now, but I guess I\'ve just been feeling a little overwhelmed. With the current situation, Israel and Palestine in terms of the current war that Israel is waging on Palestine. Yeah, I guess I just wanted to talk about the overall lack of sense of power that I have, which is... I don\'t know. I just feel like I have such little power to do any change and it kind of really just sucks. I feel like the situation just overall really sucks because when I came to the war in Ukraine and Russia, everyone was on the side of Ukraine. They\'re like, "Okay, defend your land. Protect yourself. Your heritage." Vladimir Putin is like the obvious... like the villain. It was very like media always can support of Ukraine, so many countries with Puerto, Ukraine and their sovereignty. And then when it comes to Israel and Palestine, I feel like a sense of loss. I don\'t know, like a mind warp. Because media is sharing one side of the story. So like news, popular news outlets are showing how vulnerable Israel is and how they\'re the victim. But then what you\'ll see on the ground, like a lot of social media, I follow in Palestine and have been following for years. I didn\'t really note too much about Palestine and Israel, but I knew a little bit because I was already following creators that talked about the Palestinian cause. And I guess I\'m just... like baffled at how the media paints one picture of Israel, and then the underground roots of people who are talking and organizing show a completely different side of the story. They definitely show like Palestinians are the vulnerable population. They\'re the ones who like hospitals are being bombed with civilians are being hurt. I guess I\'m just trying to grapple with the mind fuck of it all of Western media showing Israel as like they\'re the ones defending themselves as retaliation. But... it\'s an overkill like in the literal sense. Israel has just been bombing Gaza. Nonstop. And the people there have no refuge from it. And the fact that Israel is actually committing war crimes, like bombing hospitals, bombing safe zones, cutting off power supplies. I guess the final final straw for me where I\'m like, "Oh my God, I guess..." The final point of despair. Like I was already slowly sinking into the form of despair. Of, like, "Wow. Israel is bombing hospitals like they\'re not letting humanitarian aid in." It was like all these... big things Israel was doing that were like little stabs in my heart, I don\'t know, or like in my sanity I don\'t know. I already felt the pain little by little, and I\'m very detached from it like I don\'t have much emotional connection to the region or to its unique problems. But... the more and more I kept hearing about things happening with Israel, the more I was like, "Oh my God, this is bad." But I think the final final straw, where I\'m literally like, "Yeah, I need to be calling representatives. I need to be emailing and sending letters." The final drive for me was that Israel completely bombed and decimated service to the area. So now, like Palestinians and people in Gaza, or at least people in Gaza literally cannot call anyone like they can\'t call. They can\'t text. They have no access to Internet. Like all the news outlets reporting from there have no cell service. I don\'t know how it happened. And I think that\'s the final straw for me where I\'m like, "You literally cut off the last source of communication we have to people on the ground, people who are worrying about their families, people who are worrying about their friends. And these are war crimes. And I just feel like baffled, like we\'re not doing anything about it. The international community is completely failing people in Gaza. It is such a stark contrast from what was happening in Ukraine, how people were sending money in Ukraine, people were like, "I\'ll host you. I\'ll give you refuge in my home." And it\'s like, the complete opposite. And I really don\'t understand how or why. I\'m just baffled. I\'m also like, yeah, I think people see this as like a righteous religious war to some extent, like some people, I think. I don\'t know, that\'s like my very limited take on it. That people see as like, "Oh, Israel, Christianity versus Muslims." And then I don\'t know. I feel like that\'s to some extent, some of the comments I\'ve seen, but I\'m just like, how are we okay with this super powerful country or, now in the comparison like super powerful country completely obliterating another one. How are we as a society okay when someone who holds so much power is okay to take it out on someone who holds so little, like a big guy beating up a little kid. Like how? I\'m just, like, amazed. I don\'t know, amazed. Just baffled that we\'re okay with this. And there\'s really nothing I can do because like the US backs Israel. So I feel like I have no power. I\'m one person, one person who doesn\'t have money. I don\'t have power. I don\'t have money. I don\'t have influence. First Gen in this country. I have almost nothing to my name. What power do I really have to help in this fight? I\'m at a loss. And the most I can do is share posts on social media, and even then, that makes me a little anxious about... the amount of common people have. But I just repost a couple of things here and there. But I\'m like, what good is it? Or like, I try to talk to my parents or to people around me. Let them know, like, this is the other side. Yeah, the media. Western media... is painting it this way. But these are like actual videos and testimonies I\'ve seen from people on the ground. I just feel so helpless, helpless, and hopeless. And it\'s such a complete, stark contrast from Ukraine and Russia. Like so huge. I don\'t even know what to do with this information. And I guess like a part of it, because I feel like I think when it comes to me, whenever I worry about something bigger than myself, it\'s usually... Like a sign of some insecurity. No. Okay. I get you. Like, okay. I realized that whenever I\'m nervous or scared about something way bigger than myself, it\'s usually a reflection of a vulnerability or insecurity I have of myself. In relation to myself. And I think I just come to realize that the US doesn\'t care about its citizens. It doesn\'t care about... I hate think about money and I already knew that. But this is another example where I\'m like, wow, I am a citizen of this country. I\'m paying taxes to this country. I want the best for the people in the country. But the reality is the government, the establishment, people who have power and money don\'t care about me. They don\'t care about people who don\'t have power, who don\'t have influence. They don\'t have money. They don\'t care about... its citizens. It just cares about the bottom line and the profit. I keep thinking about the hostages in Gaza who can\'t leave. I guess Israel too. I don\'t know about that. I don\'t know what the fuck Israel is doing, but I just keep thinking about American citizens and residents stuck in Gaza, and like me growing up and being told that American passport, so powerful, so privileged, like the US people don\'t mess with Americans abroad or anything. Because yeah, because it\'s like the US will get involved. And I\'m like, this is such bullshit. Like I was just fed lies. Growing up. The US isn\'t too shit for its citizens when it comes down to money. Or like when it comes down to money and prestige versus the safety of a people, the institutions don\'t give a fuck. So... Yeah. So I guess I\'m just like, these are all the feelings I\'m grappling with. I have so little power in comparison to this giant ass award as being waged. People don\'t give a shit about minorities. I don\'t know, like non-white minorities. Non-White citizens. People, residents. And that the State truly does not care for your well-being. At least the US doesn\'t. So I guess it just makes me hopeless. So yeah, that\'s what I\'ve been grappling with the last couple of days, weeks. And I don\'t know what to do with this.

Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the world. So when people talk about gang issues or what have you, you can't talk about that without talking about hypersegregation, marginalization, and disinvestment. For me, the driving force is what is that story that we don't talk about? What are those things that have gone missing, and now what is the responsibility to work with others in bringing those things back? To get to that level of critical thinking, I mean, you gotta start asking questions first. What was the moment when you started asking those questions? Kindergarten? Any type of tangible critical analysis, forthright change, is directed by people who have found those conditions intolerable and are working to change those conditions. So that piece, I think, really accounted for my education. So we have to be able to perpetually ask questions, think, and create, and find a community of folks that you can think and create with. I think that's critical in this day and age.

Is a quick story, but an important one. Because I have heretofore not been aware that there was a great deal of bannings of books in library school libraries. And I became aware of the many books that have been banned. A program that I watched called The View has a person on there who likes to. Every week she talks about a book that was banned and then gives a copy to everyone in the audience. And I admire that. I feel it\'s a person\'s decision about whether or not they read a book, not the Government or any organization telling them what they can and cannot read. I think it\'s an important freedom. \n\nSo I was looking for a birthday present for my friend. And I found a sweatshirt, which she needed. And it said, "I\'m with the band B A N N E D," which is a pun for "I\'m with the band." People say that as a way to get backstage to concerts and so forth. Anyway, it says, "I\'m with the band banned." And then it has a shelf full of books that were banned, like Huckleberry Finn and Beloved, and Catcher in the Rye. So many books. And behind them, embroidered flowers on this lovely blue hoodie. And so I bought that for my friend. \n\nSo I think it serves two purposes. It keeps my friend warm and it keeps the joy and the energy alive to keep everyone\'s writings available to everyone.

I come from farmworker parents. It wasn't until I married and I was 28 years of age that I realized that I wasn't gonna go anywhere unless I have an education. I had to turn my life around to do what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to do was be in this world of media. I went to a community college and I transferred to UCLA, and I became a writer. From that to what I do today, I'm an advocate. I do civil rights, specifically in media. When reporting about the Latino community, it was a crime blotter. It was Maria killed Jose because Jose molested her child and the child was doing drugs on the side. It was like that, it was terrible. So we formed the National Hispanic Media Coalition because how we are perceived is always going to be the way that we are treated. If we're perceived as being the laborers out in the field and so forth, you'll be treated that way. And we're that, but we're also a great deal more. Never believe that somebody else is gonna do it for you. You have to take the bull by the horns and make the changes.

So, story from my childhood. There's a lot. I grew up in Ohio, and it's a funny place to grow up. I remember playing in the backyard a lot, of sports and stuff. We used to always go down to Myrtle Beach for vacation, with some of my friends from the neighborhood. I think a lot about those times and just kind of growing up in the Midwest is interesting. Part in the early 90s. It's an interesting time, interesting place to grow up mostly good, mostly good, but just what a life.

My music taste has definitely changed as I grew up, but there are a few songs that always invoke feelings of nostalgia when time was much more peaceful and enjoyable. One of these songs is called "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat, and I heard it playing today at Trader Joe's while I was buying some groceries. It was such a weird and nostalgic experience, and I stuck around even after I paid to listen to the full thing play out. I remember being in kindergarten where we had a designated "nap time," and the teacher would always play this song softly in the background. I remember being picked up by mom and going to get a snack after school with this song playing on the radio. It was so weird realizing that all of this happened and is a part of me, and I know that sounds really dumb, but it's just grounding to notice how far you've come with everything. I'm now in college away from that easy-going life of a little kindergartner, where all I had to worry about was what outdoor game me and my friends would play or what fun things I would do with my family over the weekend. It's just crazy to me how times change, but at the end of it all, I'm still me. It's even more crazy to me how just a simple 3-minute song made me have so many thoughts at the same time.

This is going to be a very empowering story. This is a moment in time in my life when I was crossing and driving into Savannah right before I was about to start grad school. So the backstory of all of this is, I was about 35 years old. I had a four-year-old, I had a job, and I just needed a career path change, so I quit my job and took some time off and decided to go back to school. The difficult time was that we lived in New Jersey, and we were deciding to go back to school, or I was going back to school in Savannah. So we had to plan this massive move. First off, it was just a big life change with having a house and a mortgage and figuring out who was going to rent that. Having a child that I had to figure out where he was going to go to preschool and daycare, and then not to mention my husband relocating too and finding a new job. It was just so much. Sometimes it was unbearable. I just kept telling myself, "One step at a time, sell one piece at a time," and just little incremental steps to get us there. And so the moment in my life that was just really resounding and echoes, and I just remember it forever, was that moment when we were driving into Savannah, had the cars all packed up, all committed, got everything done. And we are driving over there\'s this large bridge that leads into Savannah, and it just has such a great view. And that moment of entering into town was just a moment of no fear and full empowerment.

I went to UCSD to get my bachelors. While I was there, I ran into Teach for America. Specifically, it was this one poster. It said, only one in ten students from low-income communities will graduate from college, teach for all ten. That hit me like a ton of bricks because I was the one in ten. I knew I was the one in ten that had made it. And here was Teach for America challenging me to help change that statistic and of course that got me. When I came to San Diego to start Teach for America, I'd always try to focus on developing my leadership, that was something I'd done for a long time. I thought leadership was about sustaining action in the face of adversity, which is like adaptability. You do something different. You try it again, that's sustaining action. What I didn't realize is the importance of sustaining belief. That's a completely different thing. That's almost not adaptability. That's the fact that once you establish a belief in something you really, really think is important, you stick to it. Because if you're not believing, others aren't gonna follow your footsteps.

Yeah, I\'ve been reaching out to more people and seeing if I can talk to more people in this New York City and get to know more people around here. I had a dinner with a friend last week, which was really nice. It was really good to have common friends and then catch up. We had Korean food, which was really nice. And I think she is Chinese. I don\'t think she ever had Korean food, I don\'t know. It was very new for her, so it was really nice just to explore something new together. She\'s a master student, so she\'s still studying. That was interesting to hear what she\'s been doing and what? Yeah, I just graduated so I could see, I could see whatever she was going through, like how I was also going through the same things and how difficult it is to start studying again, and then be in this new space where you\'re supposed to perform so much, but then you\'re also trying to get somewhere. But it\'s also really confusing and scary. So I could empathize with that, I think. But then, yeah, it was interesting. I did feel like not heard in that whole conversation. It was very one way, she didn\'t ask a lot about me, which is fine. But it was like a network dinner, and not like "Oh, friend" kind of thing, which is also fine. I think not every person you meet is going to be your friend, but it was like a new thing to try, which was nice.

Within this year, I have gone back to college to get my degree in science. For years, I have not gone to college because of my physical and mental health but decided to try because I have always wanted to complete college. It was hard. My skin condition made it painful to sleep, let alone study and attend class. I sprained my ankle, got the flu, and almost quit, but I kept going despite having every excuse not to. Then, by the end of the semester, I was given a "fun" assignment by our Psychology professor to do something that would make us feel uncomfortable and write how we overcame that. At the same time, I had to give a TED Talk-style speech in my Writing and Research class, so this was a great opportunity to do both. I felt uncomfortable, and I even regretted it at first, but I was able to complete both of my assignments and ended up getting a B+ for each of those classes while getting As for my Math and History classes. This was a roller coaster of emotions, but I'm glad I did it. Now I'm stronger to continue on to my next semester, which is just one week away. I was surprised at myself. I quit college three times the first semester before this, so I was afraid I would have to pay for it all again. But it was worth it. Now I'm a step closer to my goal, and I feel that I'm not just learning the subject of each class. I'm learning how to take notes better and how to approach real-life problems with the tools I've learned in Psychology.

so, for the car, I was trying to decide between the Prius and the Corolla. But as you said, the fuel efficiency and the miles per gallon of electric vehicles and hybrids are really nice. So I was thinking about that a lot over the last month or so. And then I learned at the dealership that I went to a few dealerships, and I learned that the shortage of microcontrollers and parts for cars is still pretty backed up, so a lot of the cars that you see on the parking lot at a dealership aren't actually available. And so we got really lucky because one of the dealerships we went to finally happened to have a Prius that day that was in good condition. And so decided to just go ahead and make an offer on that one. And eventually we got it.

I've always been a maker of sorts. And it wasn't until 2006, there was this night and weekend project with my good friend and colleague Alec, where he had seen this little coffee can that had a small battery-powered fan on the bottom of it that you'd stuff wood in. And by virtue of this fan pushing a little bit of extra air into the fire, the wood would burn. And what we learned was that half of the planet is still cooking on open fires and that the smoke from those fires kills 4 million people every year. And it was at that point that we decided to make a company out of BioLite. We did our first venture pitch in 2009, and we were totally shot down, almost laughed out of the room. But the things they laughed at were the things they should've laughed at. We really didn't understand what it was gonna take for us to be successful. So, I think persistence is obviously important, but I also think that you need to balance that with challenging yourself about whether you're hearing what needs to be heard.

About. So. The story is about my friend who just is leaving Cambridge. And. Is traveling like a nomad, like he's going to Italy, and then he's meeting her family there. And then she will be like she doesn't know where is she going to keep traveling. And. I have been regretting not traveling this summer. So, yeah, I just feel like I just had a very busy summer. And I am regretting not traveling.

When I was in my investment banking job, I was thinking about where I'm gonna go on my next vacation. Because now I actually had the money to travel and I had some vacation days. All my friends, my colleagues started coming to know me as the travel desk. I was doing that at work and with my friends, and some of them said, hey, why don't you just start a blog? So I started writing about my own travels, and that's the blog that seven years later, I'm doing this full time now. As I was writing about different restaurants, especially ethnic restaurants in Atlanta, I wanted to know the background of them. That's why I started traveling there. I would meet locals, go to their homes, take cooking classes, and learn more about the origin of those cuisines and then come back and have a different take on it. I've been to about 75 countries, and I only speak three languages. I think you have to be just very humble and open-minded. If you're more accepting, people will just open up, even if you don't understand the language.

So this is my second discussion about my friend Linda, who lived across the street from me for 25 years. She is about 62 or 63 years old. And today she had open heart surgery. She is a survivor of many heartaches, really. Not the least of which, I will say the most of which, is that she lost a teenage son on a beautiful fall day as he was putting up flags for Veterans Day in a car accident. Her other son has spina bifida and has had many, many surgeries and is confined to a wheelchair. Her daughter is a lovely, very bright woman with a beautiful family, busy living happily ever after. Linda is a very special person because she is extremely giving of time and money. She and her husband do weekly pickups from grocery stores to get leftover food and bring it to the food banks. And she runs grief counseling sessions called the Stephen Ministry. So I just found out that she made it through her surgery with no surprises, and she's on the road to a great recovery.

I witnessed something that is utterly heartbreaking. My grandmother was dying from brain cancer. She had a tumor in the back of her brain that was growing and causing slurred speech, vision issues, and balance. I was at work one day and got a phone call from her not making any sense. I panicked and sent my daughter over. She found grandma lying in a fetal position with her head cracked open. My daughter promptly called 911. My grandmother was rushed to the E.R. She had lost her balance and hit her head on the table and caused her to have a concussion. My heart sunk to the floor. The emotions that flooded me are hard to describe. I did not want to see my grandmother in that state. The doctors decided to do an M.R.I. and found out that the tumor spread down her central nervous system (CNS). After this concussion, this had kept her in the hospital for a few days, she was advised to have all-around healthcare. I decided to be all-around health care for my grandmother. I bathed her, fed her, helped her use the bathroom. I was basically watching her dying. Her cancer spread more, and she would have seizures at night. She was scared when it happened. I had to hold her and use calming techniques to assure her I was there. I asked myself why did I sign up for this? Because I cared and loved my grandmother very much. The doctors believe her heavy smoking contributed to getting cancer. However, I was surprised it didn't end up in her lungs, vs her CNS.

Yeah, so I want to just tell the story of the time I went on a road trip in the Southwest. I went with my sister and my nephew. I was in high school, and we flew to Phoenix, and then we rented a car. And from Phoenix, we drove to Sedona. We stayed in Sedona for eight days. And then I got to go to, like, Petrified Forest, got to go to Grand Canyon, got to go hiking in Sedona. And then from Sedona, we drove to Vegas. I got to go to Circus Circus and ride around in the rides that they have there. And then from there, we drove to Palm Desert in California to visit a friend. From Palm Desert, we drove to LA, and we stayed in Malibu for a bit. I had fun at Santa Monica Pier in Malibu. And then from Malibu, we drove down to San Diego, and we actually went down to La Jolla, and we stayed in La Jolla for a bit. I got to see some sea lions there, or the otter sea lions, I think they're called. And that was really cool. And then we drove back to Phoenix and stayed at a resort with a water park. It was a lot of fun. And I got to drive through the desert during one of the hottest days of the summer. I got to experience, like, 122 degrees. I got to see, like, the border of Mexico. It was a lot of fun. And now, I'm flying back to Sedona in a few hours. So I'm excited to go on a trip again.

I recently went to Mexico for my 25th birthday. It was exciting because I haven't been there before, and it was a chance to get a group of my friends together. We spent 4 days over there, and we had events planned every day. It was busy but definitely a lot of fun. The first night, we just relaxed at the resort. The second day we went ziplining, which was extremely fun. We also went to a cenote. The last day, we went on a catamaran to Isla Mujeres, which was breathtaking. Being on that boat and looking at the view was incredible. My most memorable moment was definitely when the tour guide danced around the catamaran and poured us drinks. It was a lot of fun, and I felt relaxed. The view was phenomenal, and just being with my friends was great. The sea was super blue, and it was breathtaking. The whole trip we ate to our heart's content. It was great food, and all of the drinks we could have. It was one of my best trips, and I will definitely remember it for a while.

Okay. So here\'s a story I heard when I was a kid, and I think it\'s from an old Buddhist tradition. But I really like the story, and I still think about it occasionally. It\'s pretty meaningful to me. So here we go.\n\nIn the forest next to a big Kingdom, there lived a huge herd of deer. Their leader was the King Deer, with magnificent horns and a golden glimmering coat. One look, and you could tell he was the King of the deer.\n\nThe deer had one problem. The King of the neighboring Kingdom would like to hunt, and he would hunt with his soldiers, courtiers, and ministers. They would slay tens of deers every day. And to put an end to this madness, the deer came up with this lottery system approved by the King. Every day, the deer would all pick a leaf at random. And the deer with the most holes on the leaf would be sent as a sacrifice to the King. This way, the King of the Kingdom would not hunt the deer.\n\nSo the system is put into effect, and for many days, weeks, months, and years, the deer would pick a leaf every day and one would be sent to die.\n\nOne of these days, the King Deer heard some noise and went to investigate. He saw a few other deer ganging up on one doe and bullying it. He asked them, "Why are you doing this?" And they said, "Today, it is this doe\'s turn to be sacrificed to the humans, and she\'s refusing to go."\n\nThe conscience of the King Deer stirred. Is this an unfortunate fate that has led them to this cruel system? One where, by mere bad luck, one is sent to die? However, the system is the same for every deer, and they can\'t show favor to one doe or another. So, he asked, "Why do you refuse to go to the humans?"\n\nThe doe pleaded, "Please let me live another week. You see, the doe is pregnant, and her child will be born soon. And she doesn\'t want it to enter the world only to die with her. She wants someone else to go that day instead."\n\nThe King hears her, and he realizes that he cannot send this doe and her child to die. Two lives gone where only one should be. But he also knows that he can\'t send any other deer in their stead, for that would be unfair to them.\n\nSo the dear King realizes and chooses to go himself. He sacrifices himself. Once the King sees him, he realizes at once that this is the King of the deer, and he is shocked. And goes hunting no more in the forest.\n\nHe sees the fragility and the vulnerability. And he realizes that the King sacrificed himself to save the life of an unborn child. The human King realizes that he can\'t hunt the deer anymore and is moved by the sacrifice of the deer King. And the deer are now free to live again.\n\nI really like this story because it shows that mercy is very powerful. And sometimes, you do have the power to make someone\'s life better, to help them. And maybe it will not be as hard of a sacrifice as what the King of the deer did. But in our own small way, we can help.

Initially, I did not want to be a teacher. But as I went through school, I realized by the time I was in high school that I needed to be a teacher. The reason that I needed to be a teacher was because I loved school a lot. I loved learning a lot. But I didn't have a teacher that I really liked. I felt, at a young age, that if I had had that kind of experience where I felt connected to my school and connected to at least one teacher, I would've been an even better student, and school would've been a better experience for me. I felt that when it was time for me to become a teacher, my job was not to be your friend, but for you to know, as strict as I was, that I still cared about you, and I cared about your achievement, and I cared about you as a human being. I've gotten to a place in my life where what is most important to me is to make a difference, no matter how small or how big, it's to make a difference. Whatever you decide to do with your lives, it has to be something that becomes your life work. It has to be your life work. Because this world now is at a place where you can make money, you certainly can make money. And you can make a lot of money. But your life's work, a piece of it has to be able to help other people.

So yesterday, I went into a lab. It was a Saturday. At first, I was a little bit annoyed because I have to work a lot of weekends. And there are times where I really don't want to work on the weekend. But I was also able to schedule a social moment, which helped because after I finished my work, I had a good lunch, took a little break, and then I went to meet up with some people for a birthday party.\n\nAnd at this birthday party, there were a lot of other PhD candidates. And it was interesting because you could see everyone would have these conversations and complain about working on the weekends, about their PIs, about all the stress that comes with being a student. And it made me realize that, yeah, life will probably be very tiring, very rough. But I'm not alone with this. I have a lot of other people going through the same thing, and if anything, they probably work even harder than I do. So it's made me appreciate that I am able to work on the weekends a little bit because it helps me get more data.\n\nBut yeah, again today, I also went into lab and I feel like it's tiring. I don't have any holidays off, so tomorrow is technically a holiday, but I'm still going to go to lab. But I'm not alone. This is a way of life that I think is something I need to wrap my head around, and the more I do it, the more used to it I get. So maybe it's a good thing that I'm slowly getting used to working on the weekends, but I will fix my work-life balance, try to have some fun still, but overall, this is a story of how I'm frustrated but accepting that I have to work on weekends.

I am very bad at handling adversity. A slight mishap, and my mind goes haywire. The effect is exaggerated when something happens between me and people I care about. I broke up with my Ex a while ago, and it's been miserable since. I can't take her out of my head. Even when I'm busy doing something, thoughts of her creep into my mind. It's like I can't even think of anything else. While driving, while eating, while talking with people, I just can't get her picture out of my head. I haven't been enjoying my job as well. I don't find any meaning in what I do. The chances that I'll have to work for the rest of my life for 5 days a week got me really anxious. I feel suffocated, burdened, unhappy. To escape all this madness within my mind, I've come to live with my friends for a while. Away from home, I thought my friends being around will help me distract my mind. It did not help. I feel unwanted. I feel miserable around them, and the thought that I'm probably ruining their time as well makes me more miserable. I wanted to cry yesterday but couldn't. We were having dinner, everyone talking and laughing, and I just couldn't even smile. I wish I did not have these bonds. I wish I was alone. I wish I never made friends, never fell in love. These connections bring a lot of joy, but they also add these complications and anxiety which is just worse. There's nothing I want more than peace. I just don't want to have all these convoluted emotions in my head. I try to silence them, but the noise just does not go away. I am tired of these thoughts, the anxiety, the heaviness it all brings. I just want to be at peace with myself.

So, I recently finished at work for a local museum. It's using techniques and technology that I haven't used before, which is exciting for me. So, it was a bit of a challenge to get it done in the month's time that I had to finish it. And, a few days ago, it was really nice to hear feedback about the work. Lots of people interacted with it, and friends came and saw it. All very good. It's a few days later now, and I have this lingering feeling of a bit of a letdown emotionally. Afterwards, it just feels like a lot of effort and, exactly, but there's a bit of an anticlimactic post-called postpartum kind of feeling after creating a network.

I started off in physics, electrical engineering. I got my masters in biomedical engineering. Then I started a construction company. And that was just a result of buying a house I could afford in my 20s, which was really broken down and needed a lot of work. And so I worked on it, and I loved that. I found I had a real passion for construction. So then I was trying to reconcile construction, biomedical engineering, not quite sure how that works together. All of that stopped completely when I had gotten married, and I had a baby three months early with cerebral palsy. He's now 11, so I realized as I was going to physical therapy with my son. I was getting so frustrated looking for things that were really gonna help my son. So we pulled together a team and created a device that I thought was going to help my son. It's a little wearable sensor. And my company Dynofit, that's what we have now. It's amazing, life is long. And you really have the opportunity to do a lot of different things. I don't really define myself as I'm a this or I'm a that. I'm a lot of things, we all are.

Okay. So this trip is from the United States to Brazil. The story is, I was working in a science lab and had a lot of opportunities to work with international colleagues. Generally, they were from India, China, South America, and specifically, Brazil. What really happened was, I just was working with these colleagues and we became friends. And at one point, some friends of mine offered me an opportunity to travel back home with them over a winter break. So, I talked with them about it and I talked to some other friends that were also going to Brazil, to a different city. And, I had gotten it all worked out and I flew down there and met up with one group, one family. And then hung out with them a little bit, went to the beach and that was really great. And then I took an internal flight to another city and met up with my other friends. And then hung out with them for a while and had a good time there as well. And then at the end of the break, I flew back. But overall, it was a wonderful trip, a great experience, trying new foods, meeting new people, and experiencing that different culture. So, yeah, I had a great time.

I enlisted for three years, and two of those years were spent in France. One year in the southwest, and one year in Paris. This is where I really learned to eat. I'm from a Creole Acadian family, and my mother was a wonderful, wonderful cook. So I grew up with good food, which I think is very important if you eventually want to write about food. On returning from France, I went to work as a general assignment reporter at the newspaper, so I went to my editor and I said, "I don't wanna do this anymore, and is there anything else I can do?" When he said, "We need a restaurant reviewer," I said, "Why don't we just stop right there?" And I'm sure of it, there are millions like me, who start a job and find that it's a perfect fit. It's just the greatest feeling you could possibly have.

Wow, it was a beautiful evening and there were thousands of small swallows flying in the sky overhead. The sky was turning red and purple because it was sunset. It was absolutely beautiful, very peaceful.

On July 4th, I was at home in the morning doing nothing and feeling kind of sad. I unexpectedly got a call from one of my friends, and she invited me out with her and her boyfriend. I was kind of surprised and pleased at the same time. We ended up going to the movies to see Spider-Man, and it was such a funny movie. After that, we got dinner at a local Mexican restaurant nearby. I ordered tacos, and my friends ordered nachos to share. We left the restaurant after finishing our meals and saw a food truck selling ice cream across the street. We decided to get ice cream cones for dessert. We walked about for a bit while we ate our ice cream and chatted about different things. About an hour later, we found the perfect spot on the grass near a bridge with an open view of the sky. My friend made a comment that it would be the perfect spot to stay and watch the fireworks. I agreed, and we sat down and waited for the show to start. After the fireworks show was over, we all went home. I felt so happy that my friend wanted to share that holiday with me, and it made my entire day so much better. I was very happy.

Ex. This is not from my exercise class, but this is an important thing that happened to me in February. When I was looking for some volunteer work to do, I was hoping to find some volunteer work that took advantage of the skills that I already have. And so I came across an organization called engine, which joins up people who are Native American speakers like myself and people who live in the Ukraine who want to learn English. And so I was matched with a young woman whose name is Anastasia. And she is 30 years old. She has a dog and a husband, and she lives in Ukraine. She lived in kiev, although during our relationship, she moved to the country when Keith was an especially dangerous place to be. And I have been chatting with her ever since. We speak 1 hour a week. And we used to have to have, well, I should rephrase that, we were told to have an idea of what we were going to talk about. But it turns out that we had so much in common, though our ages and geographical homes are so very different, that we just became very close friends. And we just talk without stopping, about everything. About food and traveling and parents and children. And sometimes, sadly, about how scary it is to be in a war and how nice it is to have peace around you.

When I'd started to go to college, I went to a really big state university. I went to Texas A&M, and I was a marketing major, and I loved the College of Business. But my second education at A&M was all of the activities that I did. Because I was exposed to so many things, I really didn't know what I wanted to do when I graduated. There were a lot of paths. After college, I was a tech consultant. I was there for a few years and decided I needed to take a leave of absence. There was something else out there for me, and 9/11 had happened, and I went to the local Red Cross in Houston. It was where I was living. They put me in the development department, which is fundraising. When I made my very first phone call, the story on the other line was that of somebody desperately wanting to help. And during that call, I just felt like at that moment, we were just being human. My passion and my inspiration switched like that.

I\'m packing. So, my story is that I\'m packing. I\'m getting ready. I\'m wrapping up my class. So, the story is just, it\'s an interesting week. I\'m flying out to Phoenix tomorrow. And I want to start looking at the details of the trip, like things to do with Sedona, things to do at the Grand Canyon. But I\'ve got one more week left of this work to do for this course. So, I\'m deciding whether I\'m going to try to cram it all in before I fly out, or more likely, cram it all in afterwards. But I\'m excited to go out there. It\'ll be a lot of sunshine. And when I booked the tickets, I had to book a red eye. Because it was so last minute. But it was worth it. But those fees, they slam on those fees. It\'s very confusing. The total includes one check bag. And they show you one price on that screen that says, "The total includes one check bag." So, you think that\'s the total. But then you go to another page and they meant the total on the other page includes the check bag. So, there are so many ways that you can confuse consumers. But anyway, it\'s all set, and I\'m excited, and I\'m excited that my friend is going to meet me out there. So, I\'ll get more family time and I\'ll get to see a friend I haven\'t seen in a while. And that\'ll be great.

Two months ago, my partner and I went on vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada. The beginning was rough as we had a two to three-hour delay with our flight. I was supposed to arrive at 8:00 pm local time but ended up reaching there around 10:30 pm. We had problems with our transportation to our hotel. There was a misunderstanding with the driver, who took us to the wrong hotel. Finally, at 11:15 pm, we reached our hotel. We were tired, so we could do nothing except going to bed. However, the next morning we were amazed by the layout of casinos in the hotel; there were hundreds. After having breakfast, we set out to observe the sin city. There were people everywhere. We were thrilled to see amazing structures such as the water show at one of the hotels. We walked all day, observing hotels and casinos and trying out various drinks. The nighttime was even more amazing with music and songs being played. There was a memorable volcanic eruption show at a hotel next to ours. The next day, we took a tour bus and traveled to various parts of the city. It was very exhilarating. We had a great time in Las Vegas and going to cherish it for a long time.

Yeah. So, for today, it\'s a quick story. I have been pretty tired today because I was traveling over the weekend. But going to see my friend and have some fun. And then I got back and didn\'t really have too much time to rest because I had to go to work and there\'s just been a lot of stuff going on at work. And I said, "Because I\'ve been tired," it\'s been extra stressful doing those things.

I was doing a comic book every evening from the point I got home at 6 o'clock. I was working up until two in the morning, doing a page a day to get my first comic book printed. You just have to consider that you may have to be doing a job that is less than ideal to get by, which is a majority of the human race. The thing is, there is always a way for us to participate in whatever creative pursuits that you want to follow. There's an option for us to be part of that.

So, the story that I want to share is related to, also related to the wedding, but just being in San Diego. And so, while I was there, I had a few extra days to visit and sightsee and see some of the old places from school.\n\nAnd so, one of the fun activities was, now some of my friends are still in the area working or finishing up grad school. And then, another one of my friends just started as a professor at UCSD, and so it was really fun catching up with all these people.\n\nAnd, it makes me appreciate the openness and willingness of people to take time out of their busy schedules to maintain these relationships and how much that means to me.

My husband and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. It is emotional for me because we've been together for eleven years, so celebrating an anniversary with someone I love so much makes me happy. A lot of people don't last in relationships, and to have a long-lasting relationship and a great one makes me very happy. My husband surprised me on our anniversary by taking me to the resort that we got married at. It was a very special seafood dinner buffet. It was fancy, and when we go out to eat, we usually don't eat out at places so fancy, so it was very special. I have cherished the time I spent with my husband. We have gone on lots of fun trips together. We have moved cross country twice. My relationship is a very memorable part of my life. It feels very special to get to spend my life with someone. The most memorable part of this year as well is that my English Bulldog celebrated one year of not having aspiration pneumonia. She was very sick a year ago and almost died. She is very important to me and my husband. She makes us both very happy and adds to the joy of our relationship.

Like, I think one story or just like an interesting thing which I observed, I have is, it\'s all important to have representation at work or at the places that you are at because that sort of makes different people feel comfortable and more accepted, and more accepted, that\'s the word. For example, if I\'m in a different country or a different state, which I don\'t know anything about, and if I\'m walking there, if I\'m around people who have different experiences in life, I feel it takes a lot of time to just get comfortable around them, to feel more confident about yourself, to know and see how you can pick one and survive, but also thrive there. It takes a lot of time and it\'s helpful just to be aware of that and not be like "Oh, there\'s something wrong with you," but they\'re just like a different environment and the people are different. Everyone\'s trying.

Nineteen years ago, I started working for SLUG Magazine. The previous owner of SLUG heard about me and called me up and asked me to shoot a cover. That's how I first became a staff member of SLUG. From that point forward, I became a managing editor, and then two years later, I had the opportunity to take over the magazine, and that's when I officially became editor and then publisher. I've always felt different from my family and from being part of the peer group I grew up in, I just always didn't quite connect. But I kind of learned to appreciate Salt Lake City for what it is, and the work here that we could do to find others that feel that way. Where they may not feel that way at home, or at school, or in a lot of other environments. But here in SLUG Magazine, we can really appreciate them for being different. I really love doing what I do and hearing these stories from these individuals that come up to you and say hey, I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for my experience with SLUG Magazine, hearing that feedback and that validation from other individuals about how we've affected their lives in a positive way, that's priceless.

Okay. I was married when I was young, and unfortunately, my first husband had a heart attack at a young age. And I had two young children to take care of. I hadn\'t dated or been out with anybody for years. My children were growing up - my son was in college and my daughter was 16. And she decided that she liked heavy music, so she wanted to go to Ozzfest in Georgia. So, a friend of hers, the mother, and I drove them to Atlanta. And we went to Ozzfest.\n\nI was getting something to drink for the mother, the other mother, and myself. And I was standing there, and I saw this man with the most beautiful hair I\'d ever seen. It was really long and just beautiful, thick, and beautiful. And I told him, "You have the most beautiful hair of anyone I\'ve ever seen. Excuse me." And he said, "Well, thank you." And, "You look like you totally don\'t belong here." So, I said I laughed, and we talked a little more. And I went and sat back down. And a little while later, I happened to look on one of the stages, and I saw him on stage performing with this band. I didn\'t even know he was a musician. And after the set, he came up to me and he said, "Do you have an email?" And I gave him my email address. And we started corresponding. And I married him two years later. And he\'s my current husband. And it was a really strange day, but it was one of the happiest days of my life. So, that\'s how I met my husband. He was playing at Ozzfest.

The day started perfectly, with a great drive up to Denver for the show. Me and my boyfriend didn't hit any traffic on the way to Red Rocks, and the weather was beautiful. We met up with my friends at the show, near the top of the theater, and laid down a blanket. The opener came on, and we danced our butts off to the banjoes and mandolins that were playing on stage. We were so happy to be there. That's when the sunset started. It was so beautiful. The sky was a pastel pink and was beautiful to watch. That's when Phil Lesh came on, and I just about died. It was the happiest moment of my life, seeing him after almost a decade of not seeing him. I was so happy to be there, with my friends and my love. There was nothing that could top that night. We drove home to a sky full of stars and stopped at an overlook to look up at them. I love this place I live. And I love live music. I was so happy.

Yeah. So, for today, it\'s a quick story. I have been pretty tired today because I was traveling over the weekend. But going to see my friend and have some fun. And then I got back and didn\'t really have too much time to rest because I had to go to work and there\'s just been a lot of stuff going on at work. And I said, "Because I\'ve been tired," it\'s been extra stressful doing those things.

I work in the event industry, and Covid did its number on us, but restrictions are finally loosened enough for us to do our job the way we used to. Half my body hurts. I'm definitely not getting enough sleep, and won't have a day off that I can actually spend on my couch for the next 2 weeks. This sounds bad, but it's exactly what I need right now. Having fun work days with my colleagues, who are equally as crazy as I am, doing a job I enjoy, and feeling my sore muscles when I'm back home. My mental health has gotten so much better in the past two weeks. Before that, I was touring with a couple of folks who made me feel unwelcome, and I constantly felt like no matter what I was doing, it wasn't enough. I did overestimate my skill and took over responsibilities I wasn't ready for, so their frustration is understandable, but it still took its toll on my mental health. Hard work isn't nearly as much fun if it's not appreciated. Luckily, I'm back, and everything's gotten better. I randomly smile. I want to remember the day when I go to bed instead of hoping I'd forget it soon. I look forward to tomorrow instead of dreading it, and I actually feel happy. This hasn't happened in a long time.

Winter. I don't like winter. I don't like dealing with snow. I don't like dismal weather. I just don't like it. It must be Seasonal Affective Disorder. Really hate it. I wouldn't want to live someplace with no climate. But I do dread the winter months. So, several years ago, I bought some Crocus bulbs. I'm not much of a gardener, but I thought I would give it a try. So, with a lot of work, I dug a path along my sidewalk and planted these Crocus bulbs. Two different kinds, smaller ones and larger ones. In October, it was a very dismal day out - rainy, cloudy, cold wind. I was miserable doing it. And then, I kind of forgot about the Crocus bulbs. But the following March, I happened to look outside and I saw some of the green shoots coming up out of the ground. And this made me so happy. It made me feel so much better about things in general. And I just had this profound sense that, yes, things will keep on going the way that they should be going. That everything will be all right in the world. And it made me very happy. So now, several years later, I look forward to seeing my Crocuses come up in the spring.

I came from a tropical country where it's always summer. Then I moved and lived in Japan. I can't begin to describe how much I love having the other 3 seasons to enjoy! And my favorite has got to be fall. I came to Japan late summer, and it was fall that was the first "new" season that I got to know. It was magical how the days became so cool, like there was AC turned on everywhere. I can wear thicker clothes and enjoy hot dishes without sweating so much. It was just so comfy; I was so happy I can experience it. But since we didn't have this season back home, I didn't know how to spend it. I had to watch Youtube videos, and it's mostly western people with pumpkins and pumpkins, and lots of sweets and spices. Right now, I bought tiny pumpkins to decorate various corners of the house. I plan to get some dried bouquet flowers too, and a lot of candles. I don't bake, so I got bottles of aromatic oils that smells like pumpkin pie, caramel cookies, coffee cakes, cinnamon rolls, vanilla frosting, etc. Oh, plus movies and books! I'm going through a lot of fun adventure stories. I plan to marathon the Harry Potter movies.

Today, I want to tell about my experience as a medical student. When I went to medical school, I went back after being a nontraditional major of cultural anthropology. Then I applied to medical school and went to Texas Tech, which was in Lubbock. It was a fairly new medical school, and they didn\'t have the hospital built yet. So, for the third year, they shipped the entire class to El Paso, which was definitely high Spanish speaking, and it was there that I actually learned to speak Spanish because my patients also spoke Spanish. Even though I took it in class, I hadn\'t really used it. I\'ve been in the Peace Corps, and that really helped me with knowing how to learn a foreign language with joy, which is to go ahead and use it.\n\nIn my obstetrics rotation, we got to deliver a lot of babies. There were many women who came across the border from Mexico to have a baby because then the baby was an American citizen. So back then, that was a lot easier than it is now. We could walk across the bridge and have lunch and come back to do our afternoon\'s work. We went back and forth really easily. \n\nBut one night, the medical students were a couple of medical students were doing, working in, delivering, and we had had a very busy day with a lot of deliveries. Each one of us had gotten to deliver more than one baby. And a woman came in, and it was my friend Philip\'s turn to do the delivery. And so, he was taking off initial assessments. We played this game where we tried to guess the weight of the baby just by the physical exam. And we were pretty widespread in our guesses, but we were more accurate by just making a guess without even going and looking at the mom than we were in trying to assess, which told us a lot about that. \n\nSo this particular night, it was late at night, and the residents had opted off the bed, hoping to get some sleep when a woman came in. And she was having what we call a precipitous delivery, which means her labor had progressed so fast that she was delivered right on the stretcher in the labor room. So my friend Philip delivered the baby. He barely had time to get off gloves. He actually caught the first baby while putting on his gloves. Got the gloves up, and we were all teasing him, and his friend was teasing him about delivering babies without gloves when all of a sudden, the woman started to cry again, which amused us. She\'s about to deliver, and we thought, "Oh, it\'s a Philip." Went over, and what do you know? It was not one. It was a second baby. So she had twins. Fortunately, at that time, he still had his gloves on, so he caught the second baby. And we still had all of this happen so fast. We had sent somebody to go wake up the resident because we weren\'t supposed to do deliveries without a resident around. But we\'d already done good at that point in the night, two twins. And so the resident hadn\'t even come back yet because we had to get him up when the second baby was delivered.\n\nAnd so, we got the second baby out, cleaned it up, and we were all laughing and teasing about Philip delivering twins. He actually, at that point, wanted to go into obstetrics. So he ended up going into anesthesiology. And suddenly, the nurse came in with the labs from the woman that we had taken initially. We had said, "This has some night, right? We all got to deliver babies, and Philip got delivered twins. What else could happen?" Just at that moment, it was like they\'d been planned. And the nurse walked in and said, "I have the labs at gs, syphilis." The mom had syphilis, and the two babies had to be evaluated for syphilis. I think they turned out to both be okay. But we\'ve teased Philip forever about we were going to tell his girlfriend that he had gotten exposed to syphilis while he was in El Paso, away from her.

Being premed, I graduated with a degree in physiological sciences. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to open nonprofit health centers in inner cities to help my community. And I found myself organizing and doing community service and protesting. I didn't get into medical school, but what I found that I was good at was I'm a scientific mind. I like to figure out problems. And diversity and advocacy. I worked for United Technologies that owns Otis Elevators and air conditioning units and all of that. But what I did was I helped minority women, LGBT, and veteran-owned businesses get opportunities to compete. And so now I'm in this wonderful world of sports. But again, it's a women's professional team, so diversity and advocacy again, but still solving the business problems of what we do. So all that's to say you're gonna have these ebbs and flows. You don't have to figure everything out. There's a rare occasion when someone graduates from school and they're like dream job, done, rest of my life I'm doing it.

Real life stories don't really have good starts, middles, and ends, especially if your day is kind of boring. My wife has been traveling for like the last week and a half, and she's coming home today within the next couple of hours. Actually, I got to go pick her up at the airport at midnight. So that's very exciting. The dog is going to be thrilled to see her. I'm going to be very excited to see her too. She's pregnant too, which is going to be our first child. We got pregnant last year, about a year ago, a little bit more than a year ago, and lost it kind of far into the pregnancy. So that was not great. So we're really nervous about this one and trying to make sure nothing goes wrong. But she was on a trip to Greece with her friends for like the last week and a half, and thankfully all of them are nurses. So that was nice. Nothing really went wrong. She got a little bit sick, a little bit sick, but nothing terrible as far as I know. So that's good. And I guess I'm just excited to see her, have (inaudible), playing video games all day. I did an interview which didn't turn out great and did some work before that. A lot of concepting ideas for marketing stuff.

My daughter and her husband were excited to announce this spring that they were expecting their second child. As a proud grandmother who provides daycare during the week for their first child, I was naturally thrilled. My daughter is a special education teacher. She was very fortunate to have the summer months off from teaching while she was experiencing the tiredness and nausea that early pregnancy brings. While on a weekend camping trip at the Missouri River several weeks ago, my daughter was frightened to discover that she was passing some blood. Her husband rushed her to the emergency room at the closest community. They were immediately assisted by the on-call physician. He performed an examination and lab work and called in the on-call ultrasound technician. They were relieved to learn that she was not experiencing a miscarriage. However, they were shocked to hear that "BOTH" babies appeared to be doing well and had good strong heartbeats! What a change in emotions! We all shifted from fear of the worst to the joy of upcoming TWINS! We are all feeling blessed with the good news. I am now preparing for the upcoming role as a grandma daycare provider of twin babies and a two-year-old! Our family is so blessed with our exciting news. We can hardly wait to learn the genders of the twins so that we can begin preparing for their arrival.

So this past weekend, I went to my first wedding ever. And it was so fun. The groom was my peer mentor, so he was one of the people who introduced me to MIT, to the dorm we were living in. He took care of me and the friends I went with. And, the bride was someone also in my year but, like, one year younger in age. They met through shared interests and it was just super touching. Their ceremony was outside, very cute vows, almost too cute. I feel like I would not want super cringy long vows, but it was still enough to make me cry a lot. But then the reception was what really got me. Both dads gave these beautiful speeches. Their first dance was also just so, aw touching that all of the friend group, except for the guys, were like crying, crying. And it makes me think about what I want in my future wedding, in my future partner, and the marriage in general. But the happy couple is now not yet on their honeymoon because she still has a conference to go to and they'll go on the honeymoon after her conference. But just, it's crazy to think about how life can change so fast. Basically, I flew in Saturday morning, commuted like an hour and a half to go to a really nice udon place. I'm not famous, famous, but kind of famous. And then spent like 2 hours getting ready for the wedding. And it was really fun because we got to dress up and we all haven't dressed up in a long, long time and get ready together in a room, catch up, spill some tea. We made our way to the hotel for the wedding. And then for our first experience, a lot of us didn't know what to do. We got there way too early. But it was still a really fun time. And I also just ran into people. I saw random people that I knew and extended my trip because I knew I loved it so much. I didn't want to come back too quickly. Yeah, that was the story of the first wedding I've ever been to.

My wedding day was at the beginning of the year, and though it wasn't all that I expected, it was still a nice day and one that I will always remember. We got married in the courthouse that my husband worked on while he was roofing. My grandparents were the only ones able to come. They waited in the lobby with our youngest son, who was just 2 months at the time, while we took our 5-year-old upstairs with us for the ceremony. It was short and simple. I wish that more family could have come to share the day with us, but it was special and will be something to beat when we get our vows renewed in the future. When I was younger, I did imagine myself at least having a nice white dress and a bridesmaid in a church. The fact that it wasn't in a church did bother me a little, and I wore a regular but nice red dress I got on sale for $40. I would have loved to have flowers because my husband always brings me red roses. Being that it was in between our birthdays will be nice for an anniversary. I am thankful that my kids were there. I am thankful that my grandparents were present. I am thankful to be able to legally marry my husband. And I am thankful that it was a nice day. In the future, I will be thankful.

Great. Like I just mentioned, I have a story to share. On my new prescription sunglasses that I just picked up in this amazing fuchsia-tinted lens, I bought the frames at Chanel, which I did not foresee myself doing, but I did. And then I bought another pair at Bulgari because I had all this money stuck in my FSA from my last job. So I took this pair of frames from Chanel to LensCrafters, and they put in, first, just a black prescription lens. But it was just so boring looking. It just looked like two black dots on my face. So I went back and decided to try out their pink tint, but it was too light, so I asked them to really saturate the color. And so I went away for a couple of weeks. And when I came back, it wasn't dark enough. So they took them back and said they can saturate it even more. And so now I have this crazy pair of fuchsia sunglasses. What do you call it? It's not bifocal. It's trifocal. But it's progressive. They're progressives. And they're nice progressives. So I've got this fun pair of sunglasses, the progressives, and I got another pair from Bulgari that they switched out for. It's like a gold frame. This is a black frame. This is like a sparkly, well, can you see it? It's sort of a sparkly black frame, like muted sparkle. Like not sequin, but just has a shimmer. And then I've got these crazy fuchsia lenses that they put inside them. And my first pair of custom-made prescription sunglasses. The whole thing. And then the other pair that I'm excited to get back soon are Bulgari. And those are like a gold frame with, what do you call it? It's a brown lens. But it does that fade where the bottom is a bit clear and transparent, and then it gets darker as it goes up the lens. Can't think of what it's called right now. Ombre. I don't know. Maybe it's ombre. I mean, they talk about that with other things, because you get peace, though. But anyway. Those also have that extra feature that a lot of sunglasses have where they block the light, the rays coming at you from a lot of different directions. But they're not as great for, say, digital screens like your phone. So I've got these crazy fuchsia ones now that are progressive. And I've got the other ones from Bulgari that will be progressive. And yeah, I'm just hooked up all of a sudden. The sunglasses.

I've never had a good quality backpack before. I've only ever had cheap ones from the dollar store or Walmart. But my parents let me order a really, really nice one and it arrived today! It's my favorite shade of blue, super comfy, and has so many cool features. It has this little pouch on the interior where you plug in a power bank and it connects to an outer socket where you can plug your phone in! It feels like all the pockets were designed for specific purposes (not just 3 big random pockets, but a phone pocket, a padded laptop pocket, a power bank pocket, a pencil case, etc.). It even has a little lock on the top! It's absolutely awesome.

Okay, so I guess I\'m going to talk about risk and the risk I take in my life. And I\'ve been wondering, what\'s the next step? And I always consider myself not a big risk-taker. I\'ve always considered myself someone who plays it safe all the time, who chooses the safest option and just security, just because I struggled to find that in my childhood and growing up. So I guess I made that, like, I don\'t know.\n\nI always just search for stability. But when I think back on my life and major changes I\'ve made, it\'s all been because I\'ve taken risks. And I guess that\'s a little scary. And I\'m wondering where that leaves me now that I\'m in this weird spot in my life where I\'m in between careers and trying to get my footing back in Phoenix. And learning new skills at the same time. So I guess that\'s what I\'ve been thinking about.\n\nThe first risk I took, if I could trace it back, was moving - transferring schools. I wanted to transfer to a school in my neighborhood that supposedly had better education compared to other schools. So I guess that was the first risk that I took. I made the initiative and encouraged my parents to take it on my behalf. It was when I was around nine or eight. And that was hard because moving schools was hard. I felt dumb at that school. I had a lot of imposter syndrome because I felt like it was much more advanced than what I knew, even though I was technically a very smart kid growing up. But then I adapted and made friends. It\'s funny to think that the friends I have now in Phoenix, that I\'m really close to, all kind of came from that elementary school experience, from fourth to eighth grade. So I think it\'s funny that that was the first risk I considered taking.\n\nAnd then another risk I guess I\'ve taken was changing schools again. I think the risks I\'ve taken have just been changes of environments. So I changed schools again in high school because the first school I went to was a complete culture shock. It was a predominantly white school, upper middle class or upper-class backer, on a different side of Phoenix. So it felt weird trying to adjust to that. And I felt like the coursework was weird, and I didn\'t feel challenged. So then I went to this internationally rigorous school. I decided to move to the internationally rigorous school, and then I had to make friends again. Maybe some things don\'t work out the way you want them to, because I felt like I had no life. Okay, I kind of did. I hung out a lot, like I had a lot of good friends for the time. Friends that got me through college, I mean, fucking school.\n\nAnd then I took another risk when I went to Alaska for a summer. I was offered an opportunity to go to Alaska, and I was like, yeah, fuck it, I want to go because I\'m from Arizona. What the fuck do I know about oceans and mountains of snow? So I went, and that kind of sucked a lot. I liked the nature and the exploration part of it, and I liked learning new skills. But I had a really hard time with the group I was with, the pod I was supposed to be with all the time. They were very negative, very picky eaters, and they were expecting Alaska to be a vacation. I was like, "Y\'all, what part of shitting in the woods made you think that we were going to be at a five-star hotel?" I don\'t understand what happened there. It was a really hard time because I couldn\'t escape them. They were my main group, and even when I switched, I was still kind of stuck with all of them. So I guess another risk that didn\'t work out in my favor. But it made me learn more about how to deal with people who have different viewpoints in terms of food or in terms of what we were expecting out of the experience.\n\nAnd then I guess another risk was when I went to university far away from home as the first person in my family to go to college. And I was like, I need to escape, I need a change of environment. And I got it. It wasn\'t paid for fully. I had a lot to make up, but I constantly applied for scholarships to make sure I could afford to go to that school. So ultimately, I got it paid off - almost a full ride. I want to say like, 95% of my schooling was paid. So that was another risk I took.\n\nSo I guess a lot of the risks in my life have been just changing environments. Because there was little to no hope in studying abroad, but at the last minute on the last application date, I decided to go to Greece during the pandemic, like the height of the pandemic, because I really wanted to live abroad. And I was like, it\'s probably now or never. And that also didn\'t work out. It didn\'t work out the way I wanted it to. I wanted it to be more fun and exciting in a fun way. But it was exciting in a stressful way because what was I expecting? The pandemic resources were scarce. Greek people didn\'t even want us there because they were like, "You\'re using up our resources," which is very valid. But I realized that at the time, I was just like, I want to change my environment. If I\'m going to be stuck in my room, I might as well be stuck in my room in Athens.\n\nAnd then another risk was also going to Denmark because I didn\'t know how it was going to work out with my degree. But I was like, I really, really want to go abroad. I want to keep living abroad and experiencing different ways of life and incorporating that into mine. So I went, and that was a lot better. Denmark was actually one of the safest risks I\'ve taken, one of the risks that took that came out the best way possible.\n\nCome on, Elvis. So that was actually one of the better risks that worked out where I got to learn, make new friends. But then it was really hard towards the end because of certain accidents that happened and people that died. But it worked out for the most part.\n\nAnd then I find myself in the latest mini-risk. I\'m still getting over my trauma with my last job, my last full-time job. It took a lot of energy and peace of mind from me, and I knew it was risky going into it. I went still because I was like, what other job offers do I have? And I just wanted money. I was just like, I want to graduate and I want to have money. I don\'t want to work through this whole stressful process. I don\'t want to relocate. I was tired of constantly changing locations. So I guess now, and then, I guess the irony. I\'m kind of like, how do I take a risk without always changing locations? I can\'t just keep moving and not running away from problems but running towards problems in a different location. Hey, don\'t do that.\n\nSo I guess whatever risk means in the context of staying in the same space for a long time. Because now I quit that job without a backup plan. Well, my backup plan was to travel. My plan was to quit this job, travel for a couple of months, come home, apply for a part-time job while I get my footing again. And that\'s exactly what I\'m doing. So I take these risks, but I take them with plans that I have in mind. But now I\'m in that weird spot where I\'m like, well, I\'m doing according to a plan. What do I do now? Or do I want to take another risk? Or do I just want to play it safe? I have this bakery job, but it doesn\'t pay well at all for the dreams I have and the hopes and the degree I have.\n\nYeah, just wondering, what does taking risk mean now that I\'m in one spot? And I see myself in the city for the next couple of years while I build up savings and build up a safety net, so that when I do leave, I can mitigate necessary risks.

I got jumped into a gang. And I was either gonna end up pregnant or in jail or dead, or I was gonna be able to change my life. So my sister one day, she begged me and begged me. She goes, "Come to this photography class that they're having for the summer." So I started with the photography class. I was so happy with what I was doing that I didn't have time to be miserable on the street or miserable drinking or miserable going in a downward spiral. I had purpose. They made me feel like me being there was very significant, that if I wasn't here, it was gonna be different. I struggle to this day, and this is why I push school to kids. I said, "Do what you gotta do so that when you're ready to do what you wanna do, you're able to."

Right now, I want to tell you a story that I anticipate happening today. It is a beautiful day, and my son and his three children are coming to stay for the weekend while the mom of that family goes to see the US Open. And I'm excited to have my grandkids stay here. They love to play in the bedrooms where there are doll houses and plastic Easter eggs, which charms my little three year old for some reason that I don't really understand. But she loves just taking the eggs in and out of the basket. And I love to prepare for them coming by making special treats for them and thinking about activities that we can do. And one of the things we're going to do is tomorrow, we'll go up to Gina's house, my daughter, who has a pool. And that'll be fun for everybody. My youngest granddaughter is three, and she's been taking swimming lessons for two years. And she is an unbelievable underwater swimmer. So it'll be fun to watch her. We color the fish. So my story, really this time, is the anticipatory story. But maybe the next one I have will be reflecting on this, probably while they're here. I probably won't chitchat with you much.

One of the most memorable events very recently happened to me, and I can't stop thinking about it. My husband and I took our first international trip together. Not only was it our first international trip together, it was also our first big trip without our two young children. We have done several small, weekend-long trips, but never for more than two days at the most. This time, we went to Jamaica and were gone for ten days. It was such an amazing experience. We had the opportunity to get to know each other better and become closer to each other. It has been four years since we had our oldest child. That is four years without real alone time to see who we are without being Mommy and Daddy. We got to just spend ten days in paradise, having other people take care of us instead of us taking care of other people. We ate and drank and just had a great time being together. It made so much of an impact that our relationship is even stronger now than before. We have decided to book another trip to Jamaica for next year because we found the experience to just be so important, and it made such a big impact on our lives. This was so surprising to me because we had to save up for quite a while to take the trip in the first place. But with it being so good for our relationship, we decided we would find a way to be able to make it happen again in just one year.

Well, Debby, my story is about the snake skin I found in my basement that freaked me out. I'm now afraid to go back into the basement. What do I do?

I was coming out of the grocery store and saw something black wiggling in the bushes on the edge of the curb in parking lot. I thought it was a duck at first, so I didn't pay much attention, except that maybe I would move it after unloading my groceries so that it didn't get run over by someone else parking at the store. I put all my stuff in the back of my trunk and got in my car. All of a sudden, I remembered about the baby duck, turned the car off, and got out to go move it to a spot farther away in the parking lot, closer to the canal on the west side of the grocery store. I was shocked to see it was not a duck, but rather, a baby kitten covered in ants! I grabbed a Gatorade bottle that I had just bought and in a panic dumped it on top of the kitten to wash off some of the ants. The kitten didn't have his eyes open and was crying loudly at this point. A person in the parking lot saw what was going on and ran over with some paper towels that were in her car. Neither of us could find a mom cat or any other kittens. I held the baby close and kept picking off ants. They weren't biting me, so at least I knew they weren't fire ants, but there were thousands of them crawling over my arms and stomach, as well as on the baby kitten. I decided the only thing I could do was wrap the kitten in an extra shirt in my car, put it on my lap, and bring it home. I have bottle feeding experience and knew I needed to feed him right away. Shelters will euthanize a kitten that cannot feed itself. Asking for help from a rescue group in my area is pointless. I knew no one else would help this kitten, so I did the right thing and brought him to my house. I was afraid to bathe him at such a young age, but I had to get the rest of the ants and Gatorade off of him if he was going to have a chance at survival. I stayed up all night feeding him goat's milk from a syringe every two hours. I kept him warm by placing a sock filled with uncooked rice that I heated in the microwave every 30 minutes or so. It was a long night, but he survived! I was so happy!

Sure. This morning, I had a really frustrating experience with my partner who is afraid of needles, which means that he is uncomfortable getting blood drawn and has not gotten blood drawn or lab work done in several years since he was a child, and now he's an adult. So he really should do that. I went through the trouble of trying to figure out an at-home option to just do a few drops of blood and test, like most of the things that need to be tested. But he struggled to do it this morning and was also very grumpy and cranky about it. I felt sort of frustrated because I'm not like the bad guy here. I'm an adult, and it's important for you to take care of your health. So I don't really understand why I'm like the sort of villain of the story.

Last week, I went on a plane for the first time. It has rocked my world. I'm from Michigan, where going to the store is a 25-minute commute. Driving is just what you do all of the time, for everything. Why would vacation be any different? I've spent the last 26 years of my life driving up to 16 hours (in one day), one way, to travel to other states. I was always given horror stories about airports from my relatives - my GOD, they make you take off your shoes! Finally, my husband and I decided to go to Vegas, and there's no way we're driving because last time we drove on vacation 16 hrs, he got a blood clot and had to be on blood thinners for three months as a 30-year-old. So we go via some podunk airline, and the whole process is just super painless. We get in and out of security quick, bag checked super quick, boarded super quick. The way everyone made it sound was like a 4-hour process! Nope. I am NEVER taking such long car rides again! If I never have to drive through Ohio again, I will be fully contented.

Blue. Today, I attended the first lecture of one of my classes this semester, which is quite fun. The class is about J.R.R. Tolkien, the famous author of The Lord of the Rings. He was also a great scholar of medieval literature, languages, philology, and stuff. He had conversations with friends like C.S. Lewis, who, at least in the beginning, was an atheist and didn\'t believe in the value of things like God and metaphysics. But he later changed. He later converted. But that\'s not what I want to talk about. Today, we read a part of a poem written by Tolkien, which wanted to explain why metaphysics are important, because C.S. Lewis was of the opinion that metaphysics are just beautifully crafted lies. They have no truth in them, and therefore, they\'re not worth anything. And Tolkien\'s response was to compose a long poem about why metaphysics are useful. But one part that particularly caught my attention was the beginning, where Tolkien describes this fictional character called Miso Metis, who doesn\'t believe in the value of metaphysics. He says the person looks at natural objects like trees and just labels them "trees" and walks across the Earth as though everything is determined mathematically. Atoms move as they\'re expected, and every outcome is predictable, as if the world is just code regimented in a way where destined atoms are each moment\'s flame. So, it\'s like a very lifeless worldview. And he contrasts this with a different one in which he believes in a God and has a belief that there\'s some purpose beyond our comprehension, and God who made everything in the world. And these are not merely just objects that work according to mathematical principles, but more than that. I think this struck me because, like the professor mentioned, MIT students tend to have this worldview. And I think he\'s right. I think many people tend to view the world, at least here, as deterministic, a bunch of things that have predictable outcomes, and they can try and optimize for plans within their control to take advantage of this nature of the world. And they treat life as sort of an optimization problem, trying to get the maximum or some sort of maximal outcome. I don\'t think all MIT students are like this. I think a large chunk of them aren\'t, but there\'s definitely some subset which does think like this. I disagree with that worldview. I agree with Tolkien, and it seems very cold and regimented because if you treat life like an optimization problem, you would miss many things like art, which, in some sense, is a completely useless expression of the human spirit. But somehow, we need it. We need it in our lives. Although maybe a lot of it would never have been created with a completely scientific and rational point of view of the world. I also think it might not be worth micro-optimizing things and that part of life is experiencing imperfections and decisions. But maybe that\'s just me. I\'m not sure.

I was always interested in experimental sound, and I was interested in new sounds. So I always came up with my own strategies for composing. And one of those strategies, for music, is that if I compose it, I can play it. Anything in my environment is a tool that I can use to make music. Number one piece of advice, get out of your own way. I don't think you discover who you are, you make who you are. People are always saying, "I have to discover who I am." No, you have to do things and become that person. I always say that art is a tool for living, but this body is a tool for living. Everything is forward, you're creating forward action. You're not discovering who you are, you are creating who you are, you're going on this trip, you're gonna do these things, and it's a powerful thing.

So, when I was a little girl, I was born in Memphis, Tennessee. But then my father, who was a dentist, went to a special public health program in Atlanta. But then we moved back to the family home, town of Andersonville, Tennessee. And while our house was being built, we lived in the house in front that was probably 150 years old when we were living there. My great aunt lived in it. It was a two-story house. We had the top story. And I remember having a baby bed and watching the lights of the cars on the highway in front of the house coming by. It wasn't a very busy road, so it wouldn't happen very often, but I would see them come and move all the way across the room from one side to another. That's my earliest memory, those lights. When the house is finished, we moved into our own house, but I still loved to go up to the upper story, and I kept some toys up there at my great aunt's house. The families, our families, would put apples from the apple trees down on newspapers in one of the bedrooms. And one of my jobs was to go up and look for bad spots and turn over all the apples and look for bad spots and throw away blends with bad spots. Actually, if they had a lot of good on them, I would bring them downstairs and my grand aunt would make applesauce out of them or apple pies. I liked playing in the other room, and eventually, we had a bed in there when my parents got a new bed, bedroom set for our house. They put their old bedroom set in one of the bedrooms upstairs. And in the summertime, I liked to go up there and sleep. I had to share a bedroom with my little sister, and a way for me to have a room of my own was to leave our family house and go to the house next door. My aunt also liked it because she didn't like to be alone. And I remember that every summer I would look forward to moving out of our house and moving all of our stuff up to the house. I'm not sure my mother liked it very much, but she didn't mind since I was company for my great aunt. I found out only later, and it was so strange that I never noticed it while I was semi-living there, that there was one room that was never finished out. You can see the window from downstairs, and it had a curtain on it, window shades. But there was no door going into it, so the house didn't fit the door. And that was kind of a mystery. That makes a good Halloween story, I think, since nobody ever knew what was in that room. Fred, after we were married, tried to get a ladder and look through the window, but the curtains were pulled so they couldn't really see very much. So we still don't know what was in it. One of my friends bought the house after we moved from Tennessee, and they completely redid it. So I avoided asking when we went back what was in the top.

When I was a little kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to be a scientist. When I got out of high school, my parents wanted me to go work at the pen factory in town assembling pens. My mom took me to all the little factories in the county to turn in applications because that's what I was supposed to do. My mom did graduate from high school and then got married. And they sort of expected me to do the same thing. Go work in a factory, go get married, have kids. There's still a little bit of a rift in the family because I went off and did my own thing. So it doesn't always turn out perfect, but I can live with it. I love my family, they love me, they're just not happy that I live 2,000 miles away. And they just really don't tell their friends I build video games.

I'm going to tell you about a really, really, probably just magical moment in my life. And when I look back at one of the fondest times, that's the memory that comes right to the forefront. So the story is, I lived in Savannah for about four to three years, from 2016 to about 2019. And so my husband, child, and I used to go out to Tybee Island every weekend, all weekend. And it was just so liberating. There's an area where you can go, it's the Back River, where the Back River meets the ocean. And it just gets these tidal pools in low tide where you can go out. I'm not even exaggerating, a mile in just water that is only about ankle deep or knee deep, and it's warm, and you can see all these sea creatures. And there was just this one time that stands out. And it was just absolutely beautiful. We went all the way out to the edge, seriously probably about a mile out, and there's a breakpoint there, where there's a sandbar. And we went all the way out there and it was just a treasure trove of all these sand dollars. I remember those moments with me and my child and husband. And we saw one, and then we looked up and it was just covered in sand dollars. So we were just running around collecting as many sand dollars as we could. We were filling our hats and our buckets and anything we could use to hold the sand dollars. And it was so magical. And just the breeze and being out in the middle of nowhere, it felt like the edge of the Earth. And then on our way back, we were walking back towards the land, and this flock of pelicans just came right, just swooshed right past us. And I just closed my eyes and it's probably the most at peace I ever felt in my life. And I just try to go back and look at that moment. And I try to bring it back, almost meditative, at any time, even good times, bad times, or just quiet times. And I'm really trying to figure out how I can just find that utmost inner peace when, just in the future, whenever I just need those moments.

I grew up loving the water. I think in high school, I started paddling and kayaking, and really started to wanna be in the ocean a lot. And I went to college, and I got really into Hawaiian culture and learning about who I am, where I come from. And through that process, I got introduced to the voyaging canoes. Pretty much ever since that first time I got in the canoe, I've been totally hooked. And it's like I've never really left the canoe. One of the biggest things that I've learned is the balance. There's a balance out there, and life becomes a lot simpler. Humans, we seek that stuff out, and it's because it's where we find the better part of ourselves is there. You don't just learn everything in one school, be very open-minded. Really just learn as much as you can and then internalize that and formulate who you're gonna be.

Okay. So I wanted to talk about cultural differences and the concept of time because I think it\'s very interesting. And I think it\'s something that people overlook, at least in a diverse place like the United States where we have people from different cultures and different backgrounds. I think sometimes our miscommunications tend to be because of our cultural differences and awareness and difference in experiences. Anyways, I think a lot of it\'s misunderstandings. But I think one of my, sorry, let me just. Okay. So I think one of my most recent experiences was when I went to Japan for a couple of days because I traveled a lot this year, thankfully. And one of the spontaneous trips was to Japan, and it was me and my friend and her sister, the same friend Re. So Me, Ari, and her sister were together. And we\'re all Mexican Americans. Our families are from Mexico. So our concept of time is more laid back, more like, oh, yeah, it\'s okay if we show up 15-20 minutes late, maybe a little bit later. So we\'re more flexible with time and meetings. All of the Americans are a little bit more punctual, so it\'s always a duality we had to deal with, but in this case, we took a more laid back approach. And we were traveling with her friend who\'s Korean. So she\'s Korean and about our age. And she described Korean time as being like, only ten minutes late, max. She was like, you can be five minutes away, you could be ten minutes away, but max. Okay. She was like, you have to be punctual and not more than ten minutes late. And this morning, it was the morning that we were going to DisneySea because she wanted to go to Disney. C. It was her dream to go to DisneySea. We had planned to meet the Korean friend, eugene. So her Korean friend brought her friend who\'s Japanese. Okay. And it was our first time going to meet him. And it was going to be very exciting because it\'s like, wow, we\'re in Japan with someone who\'s Japanese. And then eugene speaks Japanese. So that would help with the language barrier. So in the morning, we\'re getting ready. We stayed up late because we\'re fools and then we woke up and it was a rush to get ready because everyone gets ready at different speeds. Like, I take about an hour, one of my friends takes a long time, oh my gosh, it takes so long. The Korean friend takes so long. And then the other friend, the sister, is quick. So we all have different speeds of getting ready. And then on top of that, we didn\'t realize the different concepts of time. Like, whenever eugene would say, we have to leave at 7:10 because it would be an hour commute, she said, we have to leave at seven. And in my head, I was like, why do I think that\'s enough? It\'s going to be fine; trains come so quickly here. It\'s going to be fine to catch the next one. But then I went to go grab food or even before I went to grab breakfast from the 7-Eleven, I realized, I was like, Wait, guys, we have to hurry. We\'re meeting a Japanese person. They\'re on time if not early. And then that\'s when we all started freaking out because by all, it\'s like me and the other two Mexican Americans were like, we have to hurry now because it\'s like, we can\'t be disrespectful to this person who we are meeting for the first time. We were laughed because we were like, we\'re running on Mexican time. We have to hurry up. We have to hurry up. So it became like this mad rush to hurry to leave exactly at the time eugene said because eugene was just being very polite and was like, yeah, we should leave at like, seven. We should leave at seven. And then now that we have this understanding of like, oh, her friend\'s going to show up early, we cannot be disrespectful and show up late. So we\'re like, we have to go now. So it was like a mad rush. We were running to the station and then we were panicked the whole time. And at the same time that we were kind of like anxious that we were going to be late, our friend was teaching us Japanese phrases that we would be familiar with. And one of them was, I don\'t know if I\'m pronouncing it right, but it was something along the lines of "it\'s very nice to meet you for the very first time". So that was another cultural nuance because we were practicing on that train ride. Like, we had to get it right. It was our first time, and the only time we could ever say it to him. Because you can\'t say that again. We finally did. We missed, like, one train, I think. And then we finally made it to the station and we were actually early. We were actually like, early on the time that we had said, and we were so proud of ourselves. We were like, oh, we did it. But it definitely was one of the most poignant examples of cultural differences and how it could be very different when you\'re traveling with people from different cultures because you have a different understanding of time, and then there\'s also, and it was very interesting because throughout the day I really noticed different understandings of how we approach eating and how we talk about beauty. But that was through conversations and we talked from the lens of Mexico, then America, the United States, and then Japan and Korea. So it was like, I guess a very insightful day for understanding cultural nuance. And so that\'s something I really appreciate and really enjoy doing when I travel. So I\'m really appreciative that I got that experience firsthand. And I think it\'s hilarious that we were like, we\'re running on Mexican time. We have to be punctual, we have to be early. Especially on this vacation that me and my friend Ari have been very laid back with on time. This was the one time that we were like, it matters. And it doesn\'t matter just to us, but to other people in our itinerary.

One time, I had a coworker who would constantly use the phrase "like I said". I would estimate he said that phrase about 100 times a day at work to various people. For example, pretend he was training you on a task that involved about 50 steps. Here's how he would typically talk: You: So on step 9, do we have to ensure step 7 passed first? Him: Like I said, steps 8 and 9, you have to do that, yes. Also, like I said, please bring up questions when we haven't moved to the next step first. You: Great, I know what to do now. Him: Also, like I said, I hope you're keeping notes on all of this. Since, like I said, it's nice if we don't have repeated questions in these meetings. Personally, I think it's rude because about half of the time he would explain something complex one time or maybe even not at all. So, I feel like it shows impatience. Maybe I'm wrong though, and other people think it's normal to talk like this.

Yeah. So, a story that I thought of was my father texted me pictures from Google Maps of the old apartment that we used to live in. And he was like, "I love that. That was the greatest of times. People love talking to you because you could talk like an adult. And your grandmother helped us out so much." And I didn\'t really have great memories of that time in my life or talking to anyone. So, yeah, it was just interesting to talk about those differences. I asked him if he had a plan for us to move into a house or anything like that. And he said no, that he was just trying to kind of get by to make sure that we had everything that we needed. So, that was just an interesting conversation about my past. Yeah.

About four months ago, my wife and I sold our first family home. We have a large family. It is my wife and I, plus five children. Our oldest daughter started asking us about having her own room. Although we loved that house, we knew it was time to get something bigger. Luckily, we sold it after being on the market for only three days. We found a house with more bedrooms quickly, and the whole process was as smooth as it could have been. However, it is bittersweet looking back on everything. That house was very special to me. I did a lot of work on it. I saw my children grow and learn and love there. We made so many good memories. We charted how our children grew on a closet door (which is probably still there). It was a wonderful house while it lasted, but things happen and we had to let it go. As of today, I can still remember every little nook and cranny of that place. After all, it has only been a few months. However, it is sad to think these memories will eventually fade. I love our new house, but that first one will always hold a special place in my heart.

All right, this is something that happened to me when I was around ten years old. I have a little sister, and it was her first day of kindergarten. We went to elementary school right across the street from our house, so it was my job to walk her to school and then wait for her and walk her back home, even though we\'re just not even a block away.\n\nSo, the first day of school, she went to kindergarten, and I went to fifth grade. And when the day was over, I totally forgot about her. So, I came home alone, and my mother saw me and asked, "Where\'s Lori?" I was filled with absolute horror, tore back across the street, and found my sister standing on the steps of the school, just really upset.\n\nShe could have walked home herself, of course, but she was supposed to wait for me. And she was actually surrounded by teachers who were trying to console her that her big sister forgot about her. I was filled with simultaneous guilt, relief, and horror. And I have never forgotten that moment.

About two months ago, I began working at my practicum placement for my graduate school practicum requirement. During this time, I have gotten to know my practicum supervisor and have had the opportunity to learn a lot about the students who attend the school. In particular, I have gotten to know the kindergarteners and first graders very well. There is one particular kindergartener, a blonde-haired little boy with none of his front teeth and a long braid down his back, that I have come to enjoy seeing around school. About two weeks ago, he came up to me and was crying. He grabbed me in an embrace and told me how much he wanted "Picture Day" to last all day. His mother had dressed him up and styled his braid with extra care that morning. He clearly was very excited about how nice he looked but was having a hard morning. He looked very precious, and it put a smile on my face. He shared with me that he was feeling sad and really needed a friend that morning. We got him his breakfast and made our way into my office. After opening up his chocolate milk and juice cartons, he started to cry and leaned his head against the wall. He doubted that he could make it through the whole day without getting his picture taken at least twice. I felt sad to see him so upset. He jumped up from his chair and hugged me around my waist, still crying. I talked to him about how hard school can be and how brave he was. He told me that he felt better. The other day, he picked up his school pictures, and I found a portrait signed by him sitting on my desk. It made me feel very happy and loved by this little boy I had come to know so well.

I have a job interview coming up, and I had maybe 15 different recruiters reach out to me about it. A bunch were giving the same cap for what the company would pay. There's a contract rule, but it's Google and they can pay so much more. And I live in the heart of Boston. I mean, it's just silly. It's not just a typical research role, it's a team lead role. Anyway, so I got to deal with the recruiters and I don't know that's its own beast, but they're there to hopefully gain success through my success. So that's good. It's just sometimes you have to wonder how transparent they're being about budget. But it's a cool opportunity. A lot of competition for it, and it's contract. So I have mixed feelings about that. But then again, since I'm still not really sure my next direction, I should see where things take me. But I have to be discerning, otherwise I just pick up an available job. And that's not what I want. I like to pride myself in the opportunities I select. And hopefully girlfriend... Anyway, I'm needing to refresh myself in some of my old work because I have had so many different jobs, different projects that really vary but still within UX, user research, Psychology, perception, design research. Anyway, there are so many different directions I can take myself in the field still, which is exciting.

When they asked about the position, I said, "I don't know anything about running a museum! I've been to a few, but I don't know anything about running it." I told them what I did know about. I know about how to treat people, I know about how to manage a business. So when I came on board, I thought, "I'm only gonna be here a year or two." But you know what? I have come to believe that this is one of my callings. The quest for knowing what it is you are here for, you may never really know. But guess what? Do something! And then decide if that's what you wanna do. You're young enough to make that decision many times. You can do things that we never thought we had an opportunity to do.

Okay. So, today, I went to have my nails done. And this is the first time that I tried out nail extensions. So, it makes the nail gets longer, which is super fun, although it was like a very long session. It took two and a half hours. And since I'm also a little bit social, I have a little bit of social phobia, so it feels a little bit draining that I need to sit face to face with the nail tech for two and a half hours straight, and then keep on chatting and stuff. And at the end of it, although I'm very happy with what I've got, I enjoyed the conversation-ish, at the end I felt pretty burnt out and tired. Yeah. And I went back home, sat with my cat, and recharged.

There's this woman that goes around town, who sells beauty products, clothes, cleaning products, small appliances, and pretty much anything a small business can offer. I was paying for the product I bought from her, and she just randomly said I looked good in my leggings, and I looked long-legged. For someone who's been bullied throughout my childhood for how I looked, this made my heart flutter. She just gave me the confidence to wear leggings out in public.

I'm going to tell you about the time I moved when I was eight, maybe nine. I think it was in elementary school, and I think that's what got me into reading and learning. So I just started school, maybe finished first grade in the middle of second grade, so maybe I was only seven. We moved homes, so it was still in the same city, but I didn't know any of the kids in the department we were looking into. And all my friends in the neighborhood were no longer there. So eventually, I did make a few friends, but in the beginning, there was not really much to do outside because I didn't know anyone. So I was at home. We happened to have a bunch of books at home, or like random encyclopedia books. And I decided to start reading them. And they were fun, and I liked learning about things around the world. And since it wasn't through school or I wasn't being forced to do it, I just thought it was fun. And if I forgot stuff, it was okay. Unlike school where you have to remember everything or try. So it was just fun, and I just wanted to accumulate a bunch of knowledge. And it was fun to throw it out randomly. And I always obsessed over it. I really liked that. And so it got me into reading. And then eventually, I started reading stories and fiction and stuff too. I haven't been reading as much these days, but I still love learning things. That stuck with me. It also helped me at school, somehow surprisingly, because later in higher classes, I would come across the same things again that I'd already seen in encyclopedias before, just through browsing. And it made school much easier for me. Yeah, my teachers are always kind of surprised that I've read this in some random, obscure book somewhere. That feeling of just learning things for the fun of doing it and satisfaction in doing it is something that I really want to keep with me.

Monday, my daughter started "Big Girl School"!!! She has officially entered Kindergarten! Being in school isn't new to her though. She has been in Pre-K for a year, so she is used to getting up, putting on a uniform, and even being around the big kids. She was very excited to start Kindergarten. I, however, am not ready for her to be so ready. She went to bed early at 7 PM, and the lights went off! I woke her up to our traditional "Wake Up Song". I've been singing her this song since she was a baby; this stirs up the emotions knowing she is now a "big kid". Sometimes she sings along, sometimes she pulls the covers over her head. I also got up early to cook breakfast. Our daily breakfast consists of egg whites, turkey bacon, and fruit. Every once in a while, I will let her eat her favorite cereal, but we keep it healthy! She only ate a little bit. I reckon she was nervous. So, we grabbed her sparkly book bag, lunch box that looks like a purse, and her huge shopping bag of school supplies and headed to school. I am very blessed that her school is only 5 minutes from our home. We got there in no time, and I walked her inside. The teachers had the kids sectioned off in the cafeteria by grade. I went to give her a kiss before she sat down, and she covered her face!!! Later, she told me that other kids would make fun of her. BUT IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!! Looks like my baby girl is already grown!!!

Yeah. So yesterday was the yearly March that we have in our community, and it's basically a March staying against depression, against terrorism, against all forms of evil in the world. And in this March, 20,000 people showed up, and it was a really big thing in the community. Being in the March, I felt that sense of community, and it was great being around everybody who were all there for the same cause and for the same purpose.

I worked in an office, and every place that I worked at, I ended up computerizing. I ended up starting a company in manufacturing. But I always knew that I was meant to do something to help other people. And I was in Niger. And there was a little girl that came up to me with flies on her face. And I just felt that that's intolerable. That could have been my granddaughter. How could I not do something? I think that I have the opportunity to live what I think should be the American Dream. When what I think should be the American Dream is that we use these resources, we use these talents to help those that didn't get that.

When I was a little kid, I used to play chess all the time. I used to be really good at it too. At one point, I was ranked 20th in the country, and I used to go to tournaments all the time. I used to go to places like Las Vegas, San Diego, and I used to spend all my weekends just at tournaments. It was pretty fun, and it was nice for my parents to drive me all that way so that I could compete in chess tournaments.

I always wanted to be on an Olympic team. My aunt lived next to a bicycle store, and they had a Sunday morning bicycle ride, and I went on the Sunday morning bike ride. The owner of the store said, "I can make you an Olympic cycling team." So I stopped playing football, I stopped running track, and I rode a bike. It was pretty simple. From my family, I had great support. It was different in school. I always felt I was challenged because I wanted to race a bike or be a professional athlete. There was no preparation for that. Part of the challenge of youth is to learn. It's the puzzle. That's what makes life interesting. If you have all the answers, then it'd be very boring.

Here's my story today. And maybe it's more a reflection than a story, but just wanted to talk to you about my son's 40th birthday. It crept up on me, and that was interesting. He lives in another state. Now he's married. He has a child, and we do not have a day-to-day communication relationship. So he's very busy. So we catch each other when we can. Birthdays always make me reminisce about them growing up, both my sons. But this one was my younger son. So different. You think about a day that we were born, when you drop them off at kindergarten, their first day, first grade, and on to dropping them off at college and all that, and then their wedding. It's a lot of emotions during the day when they have their birthday, it always seems to happen to me. But now he's 40, and he has his own life, his own family. And our conversations are so different now. It's no longer the parent-child conversation. It's two adults talking. He told me all about how his house is coming along. He's doing a lot of renovations. He has a new job and wanted to talk about his daughter, who was starting second grade next week. So it was all very pleasant. But it's so different. It's just how life evolves over the years, from parent child to a different kind of relationship. And it is a little bit like the tables are turning. So a lot of memories in this city, a lot of memories. But that was today. And it always happens during their birthdays. So that's my story today.

My daughter and I took a trip to California. She read online about the train going down to California. It was highly romanticized, but it did look nice. We got a sleeper car and looked at the scenery. It surprised me that the food was so good. However, one of the really surprising things was the people we met. When they seat you at dinner, they put you with strangers, so there is a formality of introducing yourself and telling your travel story. The stories were so interesting, and my daughter and I could not stop talking about them. In our divided country, meeting all these people from different areas of the country, politics was not mentioned once. It was really amazing. One person was nearly 94, but he appeared to be in his seventies. One couple was from the Philippines. One man was laid off and took a low-end job, and he admitted that his parents were supporting him. There was such a raw emotional quality to the dinner stories that my daughter and I kept talking about them and how emotional it felt about our story. Because with each story we heard, we had to tell the person our story. We had to tell our hopes and dreams and failures, and it became very raw and personal. Previously, my daughter and I had not been very close. This was making me a little sad because we used to be very close. But through the rawness and honesty of the stories we heard, she began telling me things that she had been hiding from me. What's more, she really wanted to know things that I don't tell her or tell my husband. It was so surprising because normally if you found out you had to eat dinner with a stranger, you would not be happy. Yet through the stories of strangers, I feel closer and more focused than ever. When she was little, we were so close. However, as she became a teenager, we have a more strained relationship. But after this trip, we are as close as ever.

So, when I was in elementary school, I was a very active kid and independent. I would run around the neighborhood and ring people's doorbells, ask my friends to play, and was not afraid to go and do these things by myself.\n\nI had a friend. I had several friends move away, but I had one friend in particular that moved away when I was in, I believe it was the fourth grade. And we had just recently completed this activity called Flat Stanley, where you sent this flat... we read this story about a boy who was flattened and was shipped all around to visit people. I can't remember the exact story, but what we did is we then would send the Flat Stanley to somebody.\n\nSo that made it me fascinated with this idea of mail. And so when my friend moved away in the fourth grade, we became pen pals, which was fun. And I remember being so excited to get these handwritten letters and how exciting it was to just send a letter off and be anticipating the next one coming back around. We could have called each other, but we were in fourth grade and the mail was much more exciting. And I just remember how excited I was to be able to get a piece of mail.

I was a teenage program director for the YWCA, so I worked with teenagers a lot. They were very much interested in all kinds of dances and they would cha-cha-cha, they had the tango. I had them on stage, but they wanted me to go first because I was always making up songs, making up rhymes all the time anyway. And someone said, "Some of these little songs that you've written, we recorded." Someone introduced me to someone that was in New York City who had a recording company and it just progressed from there. If there's something that you do like, and if it's not harmful to other people, or if it's helping other people grow, that's a plus. So keep on keeping on.

Yeah, I woke up early. I got this new haul of skincare products, like, yesterday. And so I was using them this morning. And that was crazy. My hands, I'm more fascinated by my hands than my face. Clearly, my face needs help, I feel like. But my hands, they were so smooth. It's like the difference between when you shake someone's hand and it's, like, super smooth or super dry. You can instantly tell. And it's like, super awkward. You're like, oh, dang, right? That's crazy, yeah. That was kind of like that. I really hope things work out skincare wise. My skin is not looking great at all. So I hope things look up in that aspect. But afterwards, I went to class. I was pleasantly surprised because the professor from my first class, it's a class that's, like, pretty treacherous. I dropped it too. Yeah, I dropped it twice. It was my third time trying to take it. But the professor, though, is actually one of my mentors for one of the classes that I've previously taken, and she is like a literal ball of energy that matches mine, which is like, totally great. So yeah, I'm really happy about that. Otherwise, I had another class. And then that was fun. The professor is real weird. He refers to everybody as, like, gang. He's just like, gang, blah, blah, blah, right? And it's like, oh, that's pretty funny. And then he also refers to himself in the third person. So he refers himself as, like, your faculty member or this professor or whatever, something like that. And it's just kind of funny. But yeah, I don't know. Overall, I like it, although I guess I haven't really interacted with many people. I guess I should have expected that anyways, for that matter. It just is what it is. It's just probably always going to be like this. Anyways, but otherwise it was a good first day. Yes.

Today at work, two of my coworkers made me feel so good! I was wearing shorts as I had just come from the physio and when I stopped to talk to them (I was actually just passing through their area to go upstairs), they both said I was looking strong and fit. It made me incredibly happy to hear, because I've been training so hard and focusing on my diet (not being restrictive but being more mindful). They asked about my training regime, and we spoke about the different forms of exercise and the importance of finding something you like and all that. When I left, they complimented me again and I swear I haven't stopped smiling since!

Also, hello. Over here. Okay, whatever. So, to respond to your first point, yes, we should be happy for the steps that we did take. But how can you expect to achieve anything remotely great if you just keep letting mediocre work? Anyway, a story I have for you, this week was the last meeting of my pottery class. It was a community that I really enjoyed, being with everyone who's very friendly and they brought me so much joy through my life. However, because I got a job in New York City, I had to leave the studio because I'm relocating to New York. So that was good. And then, however, my recruiter reached out to me and she was actually positioned in moving to Texas, Plano, Texas, Columbus, Ohio or Atlanta, Georgia. And I just feel like that would give me instant depression, like removing my social circle, like my social support, taking diversity away from my life in terms of Southern California diversity, and taking away good food and good weather and good nature. I would just become really sad, and I wish I would go to New York. So now I have to debate between, well, Texas is out of the picture, so now to debate between Columbus and Atlanta and I don't know how to make my decision.

I'm 25 years old and have been a stay-at-home single mom since my son was born in 2019. I've been struggling to find employment that I can maintain while still being the primary caregiver to my son. I know a lot of other single moms work, but I have mental and physical health conditions that are just another roadblock to me keeping a job. I don't have the highest degree that I want to, but I do have two English degrees. So about two months ago, I just started to seriously pursue freelance writing. I did a lot of time-consuming and tedious work for low pay, but I ended up with a lot of good and varied samples for my portfolio. This led to me being offered a position as a consistent local publisher under a national family and parent-focused magazine. I get to live the lifestyle that I already live but get paid (or compensated in products/press passes/free event tickets) for it. I'm really excited that I got this opportunity!

So I\'d like to tell a story about how I really got interested in robotics. There was this moment when I was in a Lego Robotics competition where I first realized that all robotics has the ability to help people. And even if the project that I came up with was super dumb back then, and it was absolutely not realistic at all, the fact that I realized that it could help is kind of what kept me going. So then in high school, I continued to do robotics. I continued to do outreach for robotics, to get people to get the same kind of insight on, like, "Oh, I could actually do stuff with this." And even now, I\'m still following that same passion for how robots can help people. And I\'m still doing it now.

I started off in physics, electrical engineering. I got my masters in biomedical engineering. Then I started a construction company. And that was just a result of buying a house I could afford in my 20s, which was really broken down and needed a lot of work. And so I worked on it, and I loved that. I found I had a real passion for construction. So then I was trying to reconcile, construction biomedical engineering, not quite sure how that works together. All of that stopped completely when I had gotten married, and I had a baby three months early with cerebral palsy. He's now 11, so I realized as I was going to physical therapy with my son, I was getting so frustrated looking for things that were really gonna help my son. So we pulled together a team and created a device that I thought was going to help my son. It's a little wearable sensor. And my company, Dynofit, that's what we have now. It's amazing, life is long, and you really have the opportunity to do a lot of different things. I don't really define myself as, "I'm a this" or "I'm a that". I'm a lot of things, we all are.

Yeah. So yesterday was the yearly March that we have in our community, and it's basically a March staying against depression, against terrorism, against all forms of evil in the world. And in this March, 20,000 people showed up, and it was a really big thing in the community. Being in the March, I felt that sense of community, and it was great being around everybody who were all there for the same cause and for the same purpose.

Originally from outside of Richmond, Virginia, we were in more of a predominantly white area. Always being the only black person in the room. Really involved in church and suddenly, my brother had the flu. And the doctors thought it was just the flu, take some antibiotics and it'll get better. Unfortunately, roughly two to three days later, he was in the hospital and he passed away suddenly from meningitis. What was the light in that was having a chance to see the impact that one individual had. It really shook me to believe that I can make a difference in this world. And I wanted to carry on his legacy of changing someone's life and making an impact. Now, being with the coolest company that I ever could imagine, Spotify. Where I'm responsible now for bringing globally people from diverse backgrounds and saying, you're welcome here. As I look back in my life, I wanna know that I've helped someone get to the road or get back the road to getting to where they wanna go. Whatever that looks like or sounds like to you.

Hello. On Wednesday, I went to a senior center and packed lunches for seniors who can't leave their home easily. And then this week, I started delivering meals to those people, and it's been really lovely. It's made me feel really good about myself.

About 6 months ago, I was tasked with finding a way back to school for spring semester. Coming off of fall break, I was struggling to find money for a train ticket. Luckily, the dilemma was short-lived because of my supporting family and friends. They came up with a way to help me. With the support of family and close friends, they helped out tremendously. I was able to get back to school to finish out my spring semester with great grades. The lessons learned are saving money and looking into fares ahead of time as they are cheaper. People will pay a premium for train tickets if they purchase them late. Another lesson learned is to always have a strong support system. In addition to having a strong support system, it reminds me to never forget those who helped me. Paying it forward is an important part of my journey in life. Keeping in mind a philosophy of interdependence, we all owe one another. I do my very best to dedicate my time and efforts to helping others. One day, those same people you have helped will be in a position to help you. In saying that, always do good unto other people as you will one day need it.

All right? So, my story is that I got to catch up with my friend today. It was really nice talking about different trips we've taken in the past, other trips we might want to take in the future, and also just finding out the best way to plan for taking a trip with her because she has a baby. I'm friends with her husband, but it's different when you're single and you're figuring out how to hang out with your friends, go on trips with them when they aren't single. And it makes sense this time of my life. I mean, I've got friends that have kids going to college. I've got friends that have kids they just had. And of course, people like myself, like I was just mentioning. But it was really good. So, the story is that I met up with her for lunch. And she was telling me also about how she's going through IVF right now to get pregnant again. And so, that was also really interesting because I've gone through my own process of trying to cryogenically freeze my own eggs, which I've done in the past after my husband passed away. So, I have some experience in that, not in the implanting stage, the fertilization stage. But she's having to inject all these hormones into her right now, and I've gone through that and can commiserate. It can change you not just physically, but mentally too. So, it's good we can share different past experiences, whether it's her experience going to Sedona, or my experience with IVF. Just a lot to talk about. A lot of different kinds of topics. And she's a fun friend to discuss a lot of different topics with.

My daughter and her husband were excited to announce this spring that they were expecting their second child. As a proud grandmother who provides daycare during the week for their first child, I was naturally thrilled. My daughter is a special education teacher. She was very fortunate to have the summer months off from teaching while she was experiencing the tiredness and nausea that early pregnancy brings. While on a weekend camping trip at the Missouri River several weeks ago, my daughter was frightened to discover that she was passing some blood. Her husband rushed her to the emergency room at the closest community. They were immediately assisted by the on-call physician. He performed an examination and lab work and called in the on-call ultrasound technician. They were relieved to learn that she was not experiencing a miscarriage. However, they were shocked to hear that "BOTH" babies appeared to be doing well and had good strong heartbeats! What a change in emotions! We all shifted from fear of the worst to the joy of upcoming TWINS! We are all feeling blessed with the good news. I am now preparing for the upcoming role as a grandma daycare provider of twin babies and a two-year-old! Our family is so blessed with our exciting news. We can hardly wait to learn the genders of the twins so that we can begin preparing for their arrival.

Do. So, about I don\'t know, in 2013, I ran a five-mile race to raise money for cancer research. And afterwards, I went to a local place to eat that I hadn\'t been to before, and I decided to order the soup called Senkoco, and I didn\'t know what it was. But it sounded good, and it had chicken in it, so I ordered it. And when I got it and I took the first spoonful, I was immediately transported to my childhood. I realized that Sankulta was the name of the soup that my grandmother used to make for me growing up. And when she would cook, I would get so hungry. I could just smell the soup—it smells so good, so savory. And I would go to my grandmother, and I would beg her, "Grandma, grandma is the soup ready?" It was never ready, like it was, it always took a long time. And so at some point, she would say, "Okay," and she would take a coffee mug and she would scoop up some of the broth, and she would let me sip on the broth and... it\'s probably one of my favorite things to eat. I still don\'t know how to cook it myself, but Senkoco is something that just brings me back to being with her and her love and caring. So that\'s my story.

I'd been a real estate agent, I owned an art gallery. I thought my main goal was to really be a good wife, a good mother, and then my life changed completely. My second son was born with a lung disease. They didn't think he'd make it, he got jaundice, and when I brought him home, he'd lost the ability to wake to feed. And so I thought, watching him struggle to breathe, I'd never take breathing for granted again. And I think that's sort of the beginning of me becoming an environmentalist. And so many times, I feel like I'm paying back the debt because why should I be so lucky? What can I do to survive this life and be a success, so when the end of my road comes, I can look back and say, "I really feel good about it"? And it may not be something globally. I think that if you touch anyone's life, then you're a success.

Well, today, I was going to talk about how busy our schedules have been. So, with both of my daughters starting back to school, we start back all of our extracurricular activities. And so, my daughters are both in gymnastics. And then they both play soccer. And so, typically, after school, we go straight from school to soccer and gymnastics practice. And it's really a busy time. But I think the cool part about that, or the interesting part about that is, I didn't really play a whole lot of sports growing up. I think it was just something my parents couldn't really afford or didn't have the time to put me in. And so, it's just kind of interesting now because we don't say no to our kids, and we let them explore and do all the sports that they want. It makes our schedules really crazy. And it does make for some really long days. But it is also really neat and cool. It makes me really proud as a parent to see my kids succeed in the various sports that they've taken on.

My youngest son was to enter PS3 this year. It was both exciting and terrifying as I knew he is my last child, and I had a mix of feelings. I wanted it to be wonderful, yet it was hard to let him go and know that he was moving on and progressing in life to an older, more mature age for a young child. I knew he would be in PS3 all day long and wanted it to be something he loved and looked forward to. He is very affectionate and calm, and I had a positive attitude overall about everything. I was a bit worried as he had not been fully potty trained for poop yet, and that was a requirement. He also loves his blankie, and I wondered if that would be an issue. So he started this week, yesterday actually. All went well, and I am very relieved. Two days ago, we had a day of adaptation where parents went in with their child to get to know the feel of the classroom and what a day at school would be like. He did well yesterday and enjoyed time with new friends and came home happy. He was very hungry after a long day and tired. So he went to bed early than normal, which is good as that was another expectation I had. He was a bit fussy this morning, as he has to get up earlier than normal, but did well overall. He was happy when I left him in the classroom. I am so relieved and thankful that this has been a relatively easy transition and hope it stays that way.

So, basically, this is a story about how in high school, during the college application season, I guess during early applications, I applied to using a program. So I applied to different colleges, but I didn't end up getting into any of them. And looking at my friends who were all getting into their schools they wanted to, I was kind of feeling demotivated and left out. But thankfully, later on during regular application, I was able to fix up my application, and I was eventually able to get into MIT, which is where I wanted to be at. So, it's a happy end story.

I'm going to be applying for schools soon (mostly UCs/CSUs, as well as BU/Northeastern), but every time I try to start the application process, I just get overwhelmed by thinking about how everyone will see me if I get rejected everywhere. Anytime I think I'm doing well in school, all my classmates seem to be doing better. It feels like college is how people ascertain your intelligence, and I'm just scared that if I end up going to a city college, everyone will look down on me. So, for people that have graduated already, should I really be so worried? How do I get past what everyone in high school thinks of me?

I just told you my story from the last time, but I can just summarize. Essentially, my middle school best friend and I reconnected, and I don't know how to feel about it because there are a lot of mixed feelings. We ended up breaking off in a pretty harsh way way back when, and we don't really remember how it happened. But it seems like we would get along pretty well nowadays. Although, yeah, this seems like life probably would have been different if we had stuck together. Because I remember it was something like a third party that ended up breaking us up, so technically, it wasn't even between us. But I think my life would have been a lot more different if we had stayed friends.

I love someone who doesn't love me. We are both in high school, but different ones. We met in 8th grade, and at first, I just thought she was a shy but nice girl, but I got to know her and we became best friends. We helped each other through tough times and I started to love her. We were very close, and I thought she might like me too. I told her at the end of the year online because I was too scared to say it to her face. She said she just loved me as her best friend, nothing more. And since then, a combination of that and moving to different high schools, we have stopped talking much. I love her so much and have never felt like this for anyone. But she's such a good person who doesn't know it, and is so beautiful on the inside. I want to be with her for the rest of my life, but she doesn't want me. I don't know what to do. I love her so much, I want to be with her and hold hands and just coexist with her, but we never talk, we go months without speaking, and when we talk, it's just chatter, not like the actual convos we used to have. I can tell I messed it up by telling her, and now what we had is ruined.

So, my story for today is that with some of my friends from the Boston community, we formed a volleyball group. Coming up, that's going to be playing in a local tournament. And we've been planning out some strategies and who's playing what position, and all of those are in the works. We're going to try and practice at some point this week, but then our games start next week. And so, I'm looking forward to playing these games and having a more structured opportunity for more structured competition than our normal pickup games.

I won the dodgeball game for my team. I'm in ROTC, and we have to do early morning physical training. Usually, we run and do calisthenics, but today was a little easier—dodgeball. I was the last one standing and caught a ball, thereby getting the rest of my team back into the game, and I also happened to throw the ball that got their last player out. I'm not sporty; this was just a lucky confluence of shenanigans that made me happy, probably my new proudest sports moment.

So, I had to say goodbye to my grandparents today. My grandpa's 94 and my grandmother is also aging. And I don't know when the next time I'll see them is, and I don't know when their time is up. And so, that fills me with a lot of nostalgia. But it was so beautiful and emotional to see them and say goodbye, and see that they're proud of me.

My uncle passed away last week. I've never known anyone who passed away that I was this close to in my life, and his was the first funeral I've ever attended. Last Friday, I attended his visitation at a funeral home with all our close friends and family. I walked in thinking I could be strong and hold it together and thought I had certainly cried enough tears by then. But as soon as I saw my cousins (his children) and my aunt (his wife), I lost all composure and cried with them. While I had been mourning his loss, so much of my sadness was centered on his immediate family and I couldn't help but wonder how empty and sad they were feeling over this loss. Many people spoke at the funeral home, telling stories, many of which were funny because he was a very funny man, and it was a relief to remember those positive times when he would shine in his humor, which was such a gift to all of us. But there were sad points, too. Watching relatives find the courage to volunteer to speak about him and his life, then watching them break down trying to speak. They simply couldn't catch their breath. And then the next day was his actual funeral. The church ceremony was emotional, but the priest, a relative, did his very best to comfort us with words. It was a tough time, but it brought us all together to remember a man who loved us all so much. He will never be forgotten. The pain will always be there, but so will his love and legacy.

All right. I thought it would be fun to share a story from a time I was in college and had the role of a resident assistant, which is often abbreviated to RA. I lived in a dorm and was responsible for the floor I lived on, the safety and well-being of the other students who lived on that floor, and, collectively, all the RAs in the building are responsible for the safety and well-being of the residents of that dormitory. This was in 2006, I believe. The university I went to is in Rhode Island, and at that university, they have a large number of students from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island - all places that tend to root for the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The other large percentage of students at the University of Rhode Island are from New York and New Jersey, and many of those students root for the New York Yankees baseball team. In 2006, the New York Yankees played the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs of the Major League Baseball, which would lead to the World Series. I think it was the semifinal round, and it was an exciting series. I don't recall exactly if it went to seven games, but the Red Sox won some, and the Yankees won some. The students were very excited, but because the student body populations would have broken down between half of students rooting for the Red Sox and half of the students rooting for the Yankees, after the games, they would have a lot of energy and excitement. Some of that was fun, but as you'd imagine on a college campus with alcohol involved and the hormones of the students at that age and all the energy in that sort of environment, sometimes students became too excited and expressed that in a way that was potentially dangerous by collecting together in big groups and sort of forming many riots, where objects were thrown and fights were breaking out and dumpsters were set on fire. So, it presented a potentially dangerous situation for the rest of the college campus and the students that were outside in those groups. The RAs collectively, after this started, got together and positioned themselves after the game in areas to help regulate the behavior of the students on campus and try to keep everybody safe. But it was a unique experience and challenging, and for the most part, I think after the first night, things were not as dangerous or violent, in part due to the efforts made by the college police and the RAs on campus to help reduce the potential for somebody to get hurt. It was a very memorable, interesting period.

I lived in San Francisco, where I made about a third of what everybody else made, and I worked four days a week, and it was great. I was a terrible reporter. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no experience on air. I used to make a list of three things at a time. I'm just going to focus on three things. I'm gonna focus on not nodding my head this way. I'm gonna focus on not saying "Um," and I'm gonna focus on getting the three lines out. "Behind me is Santa Clara Prison. Inside is one of the most notorious serial killers. His trial begins later today." That was it. I literally had a list. These are the things I'm gonna work on today. And to this day, I think, "Strategy, strategy, strategy," all the time.

So, a few days ago, I got letters from my mom. She apologized for what she did to me when I was a kid. I don't want to mention the specific detail of what she did, but she was too focused on something over me, and it was more than 30 years ago. So, I'm still suffering from it. I'd like to accept the apology, but I don't know what to say, or how to deliver the message. The problem is she always apologizes about that, but that's it. She doesn't try to fix it or compensate for it. And of course, we cannot go back to the past. We live now, but I think we can still fix it. There is still a way to mitigate the issue. Except for that issue, we've been getting along and I love her. I understand no one is perfect, but sometimes I feel if she was so bad, I wish I could hate her. I know this is a very childish, teenager-ish idea, but it is true that I feel that way sometimes. And after that, after I feel so bad, I feel guilty to have failed. I don't want her to apologize to me about that anymore.

Senior here. I recently passed the 2-year anniversary of experiencing domestic violence and having to call the cops on my now-ex girlfriend to get out of the situation. Ended up losing a lot of friends, ended up being a very angry and aggressive person for a long time because I was upset at my lack of control, the unfairness of suffering through being beaten and having my valuables broken and thrown at me, having nobody to listen to me, and not getting justice through Title IX or VPR. The best decision I've made since has still been to just...let go. Of course, I'm much less of a pushover in my relationships now and don't let people take advantage of me, but I've stopped looking for things to blame. At a certain point, it stops being about learning a lesson from your past and starts being about moving on. Less about covering your losses and more about rebuilding and continuing to grow. That balance is hard, but it's important.

Okay, I am taking on MBA course and in the course, I am currently taking Professional Communication Management. But the instructors and the assistance of them are not so professional. In their communications, for instance, they are teaching to respond chat pretty quickly. But what they're doing is they respond to chat message four days after that the message I send so it is a little frustrating.

I am the marketing director here at Valen Analytics. Our company builds predictive models, and we also have a platform that hosts them, which integrates into the company workflows for property and casualty companies. So the predictive models basically allow them to better price and select risks. So yeah, I do the execution of the marketing campaigns and the coordination with inside sales. So I graduated, and then I worked in the mental health industry for a while. And decided that that was not good for my own mental health. It was very stressful, very taxing. So I went back to school, got my masters in marketing. I thought that I was gonna be able to graduate and step right into a marketing job, but there was a lot more business acumen that needed to be developed before I was really prepared for that. I had to be humbled and grounded a bit more to realize, yeah, you have a foundation. But that foundation, the degree, is not your golden ticket into the chocolate factory. The degree is what may help open the door, but you've got to earn your way the rest of the way. So the way I interpreted that is, I need to make sure that I'm really putting forward the solid performance at what I'm doing now and then set forth my next goal.

Story. Okay. So, this story is about my relationship with music. For my whole life, I really loved movie all genres and just making me happy and probably through the day, and maybe just feel emotions. Music wasn't my legal happy but after a rough period in my life, I came out of it like just a little less music. My music add is so crazy, I can kind of listen to like ten minutes of a song, not sorry, 10 seconds of a song, and like get bored of songs quickly. And I don't know if it's symptomatic of me or like dramatic of ADHD culture in general. And like, all of that. So, I'm not looking for advice or simpy. I just think it's funny and was curious if you had any people who have stories that.

There are songs that are generally motivational, moving, happy. The ones that give you a confidence boost or tell you it's going to be okay. Basically, the ones that relate to mental health overall. Those songs used to make me cry, and I never understood why because they're supposed to be motivating. I went through something really bad recently, and that event kinda opened my eyes a bit, helped me learn to love myself, and helped me see things clearer. Now I'm smiling as I listen to these songs because I know I've achieved the positivity the songs promote. And I now realize I used to cry listening to them because I was hoping for a positivity I didn't have. Loving yourself is a core part of self-care and good mental health.

Ever since high school, my goal in the gym was to be able to hit two plates on my bench. And I have not been able to do that for a couple of years. It might have been like five years now. But recently, I started talking with people and finding out how they got to themselves and how they, I guess, improved their strength on bench. By following them and continuing with that for a few weeks, I was finally able to hit that about two weeks ago. I think that was like a really big moment. It was like something that I've been looking forward to for years now. So it was like a really cool moment to be in.

I'm 23 and just kind of finding my own path. I wrestled when I was 11 years old. It was because my dad got me into it. I went out and got my butt kicked by every other middle school kid I went up against, 35 times in a row. Before I was really capable of making decisions for myself, my parents had rooted in me that I needed to find a way to persevere in the things that mattered the most. Whether it was figuring out how to feed myself or clothe myself, just day-to-day activities. Athletically, they wouldn't let me quit in the middle of the season. It went a long way. They taught me not to give up so easily. My biggest complaint with the American system and graduating high school, going to college, and getting a job is that the common progression is to prepare you to be an employee. But you don't have to. There are ways and avenues to be able to go around and make something happen and build a business around something that you love.

Yeah, so when I first started grad school, actually throughout college for undergraduate and graduate school, I didn't do a very good job of balancing my time between exercising, doing schoolwork, and making time for my friends. And I think it's an ongoing process of improving, but I think I've gotten better over the past few years because lately, I've been doing a good job of making sure I go to the gym and do exercise, and also getting my work done and being organized. And I also do make time for my friends. It's not a lot of time, but I still do make time. So I think it's a work in progress, but I've gotten way better at managing my time in the last five or six years.

I was hired at my job just over 3 months now, and didn't really start working and getting hours until mid-late April, due to some bureaucracy issues and the fact that our new contract start date was delayed. Since being hired, I have taken additional responsibilities and have added efficiencies for the workflow such as creating excel calculation sheets to help eliminate human error and making our forms more user-friendly (improvements which were then approved by our governing government agencies). I was not asked to do these things, yet I saw improvements to be made and wanted to make things easier for everybody. Despite these measurable achievements, as well as becoming a go-to person for coworker questions, and even helping train experienced coworkers on this new contract, I still experience imposter syndrome. So, in our handbook it says that we are to have a performance review 3-6 months after hire date. My 3 months came this month, and I reached out to my boss to get a performance review on the calendar for yesterday. This whole week I've been anxious. Preparing my points to request a raise, trying to figure out how much of a raise to ask for, and how to go about asking. Worrying that asking for a $5/hr raise might be too much. Well, I started the meeting and right off the bat, my boss says she's glad I reached out to schedule because she has been wanting to schedule with me to discuss some new positions available. She discussed the position said would like to just promote me and not have to post the job first, but has to check with HR. I am happy to finally have a boss that can see and acknowledge my achievements and hard work in the workplace. Unfortunately, I think my last boss really did a number on my work self-esteem. But, I am so happy to be at a place where I can see myself continuing to advance while being recognized, and in my early 20's, too.

Oh. So today, I wanted to share a story about my grandmother on my father\'s side. Growing up, I wasn\'t very close with my grandmother because she kind of looked cold. She was a reserved personality and she was very quiet. She didn\'t talk much and we didn\'t talk much. So I guess, I was kind of scared of her growing up. And she also lived in another city, so I didn\'t get to see her that often. And I\'m not sure if it\'s the same for everyone, but for me personally, I felt much closer to my grandparents on my mother\'s side than to my grandparents on my father\'s side. And one of the reasons it felt more difficult communicating with my grandma was because my grandfather on my father\'s side had a stroke earlier in his life. He\'s half paralyzed, so he could not talk. So it was kind of very awkward being in my grandparents\' place where my grandma and grandpa don\'t talk that much to each other either. So I guess I didn\'t feel comfortable growing up. However, our relationship started to develop and my father asked them to move near our house so that my parents could take care of them. So when I was in my first year of middle school, they moved to our neighborhood. My dad kind of forced me to visit my grandparents\' place either with my mom or with my dad. So almost every weekend, I visited them. And I could definitely feel that my grandma was pleased to see me, especially because she would always sit next to me, and she would smile at me, looking at my face. At the time, we also didn\'t talk much. We would mainly just stay there and watch television together, but I could definitely feel that hospitality of hers. So anyways, our relationship changed dramatically when I moved to Canada to study abroad in my second year of middle school. So at the time, I was in this foreign country on my own, so I was really lonely and I missed home. So I called home very often, and almost every day, I called home. And one day, my dad told me to call my grandma. So I wanted to talk to everybody at the time because I missed home, so I called my grandma without expecting too much because I know she\'s quiet and she doesn\'t talk much. But as soon as she heard my voice, she started to cry. And I don\'t know why, but I also started to cry because I felt that at that moment, I think I realized how much she adored me. So after that moment, after our exchange of emotions, I kind of realized that she adored me so much and she missed me a lot. So after a year, I returned back to South Korea, and then I visited her place more often than I did before. As I entered high school, I visited her during the lunch break because her place was right next to my high school. So I guess we became much closer. However, I decided to study abroad in the US for college. So during the college years, I didn\'t get to see her that much, only once or twice a year when I visited South Korea during winter or summer break. And it was one summer she got cancer, and she fell very ill. And I don\'t know, all of this developed so fast, and she was in a hospice. Oh, she was in the hospice, not hospital. She was in the hospice. And my parents told me, "You don\'t have much time with her, so you should visit her more often." But I was kind of scared of visiting the hospice and seeing her because I had never experienced the death of someone who\'s close to me. So I was kind of scared of visiting, so I didn\'t end up visiting her a lot. But it was one day that I was in her hospice, and I was sitting next to her bed, and she just looked at me and she smiled. She smiled like she used to when I visited her house. And then the next day, she passed away. So I guess I cried a lot during the funeral because I regretted a lot for not visiting her as often as I should have. And I knew that she adored me, and she adored me the most out of all her grandchildren. I guess I was special to her, and she was also a special person to me. So after she died, I kind of thought about death and relationships and those kinds of things. And I also reflected on her life a lot. And I started to realize that she must have been really lonely because her husband, my grandfather, could not talk for a very long time and he couldn\'t walk like just any other people. He always needed help from my grandma. And I guess my grandmother, it wasn\'t easy for my grandfather to live a life, but I also could imagine it wouldn\'t have been any easier for my grandmother either. So thinking about their lives and my grandma\'s life, I kind of feel a little bit heavy about life. But yeah, but one day she appeared in my dream. And in my dream, I didn\'t know that she had passed away. But I don\'t know why, but I was so delighted to see her. I ran to her and I hugged her. And she looked really nice in my dream. She dressed up very nicely. She was wearing very colorful and beautiful clothes. She didn\'t use to wear those kinds of clothes when she was alive. But in my dream, she wore a very colorful and beautiful dress. So I was like, "Oh, grandma, you look so nice." And so I felt very delighted and happy to see her. So when I woke up, I realized, alright, she passed away. I realized that she passed away. But I kind of felt relieved to see her in my dream. And she looked very well and happy and healthy. So I guess in my dream, I just wanted to, I guess through my dream, I wanted to comfort myself and relieve that guilt that I felt towards her. And I guess I wanted to wish her well and happiness wherever she is. So that\'s my story.

My grandma in Oregon passed away a couple of weeks ago. The process was painful to hear about, and it hit me harder than I thought it would. I was very close to my grandma, and so was my mom. My mom's siblings put her on Hospice about three weeks ago, and within a week, she was gone. There was a lot of family drama over her passing, and I did not agree with how she was taken care of in the end. I feel she was pushed into the direction of death by being heavily medicated, and her family members that were there were not getting her up out of bed anymore. I realize people get old, and everyone's time comes, but I feel like it wasn't her time yet. But you can't go back in time, and she's gone now. I was able to travel with my parents and sister to Oregon to attend her funeral. It was an emotional rollercoaster. The hardest day for me was when the day before her funeral, I found out that there had been rules put in place by my uncle that no grandkids were going to be able to go view my grandma and say goodbye. Because of all the drama, he wanted to hurt everyone he could that wasn't on his side. I went to the funeral home with my parents anyway, in hopes that I might still get a chance. After arguing with the funeral director, it was decided that I would not be able to go in the room. I was crushed; I was so hurt and upset, but I was trying to hold it together for my mom. My mom was able to go in for a while and sit with her mom, so I waited outside with other family members. After some time, my mom came outside in a hurry and told me to come quickly. I didn't know what had happened, but apparently, the funeral director had a change of heart and decided to go against the request of my uncle and let me go view my grandma. Walking in that room was so surreal. I couldn't believe my beloved grandma was lying there in her coffin. I never thought it would bother me as much as it did. I couldn't even bring myself to touch her. I guess I was scared or in denial. It was an emotional couple of weeks, to say the least.

So today, I went to my friend's pool. She gives us lessons twice a week in water aerobics and it is a lot of fun. It's unique because it's a saltwater pool and it's a very large pool for a home pool. And she is a very experienced instructor. And it's good for me because it allows me to expend energy, lots of it, and to move my body in ways that I otherwise would not. And I get to see my friend Judy, who is my pal in this class. But there are three other women in the class and then the instructor. And it's an interesting dynamic because two of the three other women have been instructors in the same Aqua territory as our true instructor, and I always find it interesting to see how they try to usurp her position as the leader, but do so in a very guarded way, but not quite guarded enough in my position because especially a group like that needs a leader, one leader. So it's interesting to me that people who are accustomed to being leaders and understanding group dynamics would try to kind of pull the spotlight away from the true leader of the group. It's just a little amusing that I'm having, and I thought I'd share it with you.

I went to a jiu jitsu club night, and the guy teaching was a blue belt. I think I was a purple belt at the time. And well, I kicked his butt royally. He's like, "Well, you need to start teaching over here." So I took that over and just kept rolling it in. And at first, it was just to stay in shape, keeping all my skills good. And then I kept it up, kept it up, and when I ended up deciding, "Hey, this is what I wanna do," it wasn't like a really quick decision. It took several years for it to culminate into something that was feasible. We call it MAT therapy. It's very therapeutic because you're in the moment. You're only worried about the moment, 'cause this guy's trying to choke you. He's trying to throw you. MAT therapy and kinetic problem-solving. I'm in this bad spot, getting comfortable in bad spots. In my mind, I'm going, "Hey, this is no problem. I got this ginormous dude trying to squish me." So if I can breathe here, man, you can breathe anywhere.

So today, I dropped off my sister for the first day of school, and she goes to a middle school that I used to go to. And it was kind of like nostalgic seeing my old school and how different things were, I guess. It was a pretty weird feeling, and just kind of made me think about the past and how things used to be.

Monday, my daughter started "Big Girl School"!!! She has officially entered Kindergarten! Being in school isn't new to her though. She has been in Pre-K for a year, so she is used to getting up, putting on a uniform, and even being around the big kids. She was very excited to start Kindergarten. I, however, am not ready for her to be so ready. She went to bed early at 7 PM, and the lights went off! I woke her up to our traditional "Wake Up Song." I've been singing her this song since she was a baby; this stirs up the emotions knowing she is now a "big kid." Sometimes she sings along…sometimes she pulls the covers over her head. I also got up early to cook breakfast. Our daily breakfast consists of egg whites, turkey bacon, and fruit. Every once in a while, I will let her eat her favorite cereal, but we keep it healthy! She only ate a little bit. I reckon she was nervous. So, we grabbed her sparkly book bag, lunch box that looks like a purse, and her huge shopping bag of school supplies and headed to school. I am very blessed that her school is only 5 minutes from our home. We got there in no time, and I walked her inside. The teachers had the kids sectioned off in the cafeteria by grade. I went to give her a kiss before she sat down, and she covered her face!!! Later, she told me that other kids would make fun of her. BUT IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!! Looks like my baby girl is already grown!!!

One of the prompts was to talk about a movie that meant something to you. When I was in high school, in the late 60s, this is when all the counterculture types were really into Tolkien. And that was the first time that he became a phenomenon in this country. So, I was into it and just devoured the book. Made a big impression on me. I never dreamed that it would be possible to translate these books into film. But when the Peter Jackson movies came out, the special effects were more advanced. I think that Peter Jackson did a magnificent job with a story just true to Tolkien\'s vision. The actors were all just top notch. But I think that the single most memorable scene for me, wasn\'t necessarily one of the big battle set pieces, but it was right at the beginning of the first movie. When Gandalf weiss\'s cart into town and sees Frodo waiting alongside the road. And Gandalf asks Frodo, "Get in the cart. We\'ll go into town together." And he does. And then Ian McKellen as Gandalf looks at Frodo and smiles at him with such unbelievable love. It just blows off the screen and you could just see that Tolkien would have adored this portrayal of Gandalf. And it\'s interesting that Ian McKellen just doesn\'t take acting all that seriously and has been on a variety shows where he says, "Well, somebody else writes the lines. I just stand where I\'m supposed to stand and read." But he is a summit actor. And what he did with no words at all, just facial expressions just brought a whole Lord of the Rings feel of it in such an immediate, immediate way. I never forgot that.

My brother-in-law and I just really had it in our head that we wanted to try to make the great American movie. So we did a lot of shooting on film, not knowing really what we were doing. We didn't go to school or anything like that and it failed miserably. There's close to about $30,000 worth of film that sits undeveloped. I don't think I'll ever develop it. I wanted to go into film when I was younger, but I didn't feel like I had what it takes. I didn't feel like I had the guts to do that. Now I feel like I could do it. But fear of failure is definitely always there. I know I'm going to fail. It's going to happen. The only way that you're going to get good is if you fail.

Well, I just like to tell you, I\'m trying to tell you about the afternoon I had today. I took my dear friend Judy out for her birthday. I gave her some beautiful presents, one of which was a sweatshirt that says "I\'m with the Band." And it\'s a bit of a pun, because it\'s "B-A-N-N-E-D" I\'m with the band books, and on the sweatshirt, it has a list of all the books that are of high literary value but have been banned by some people; like To Kill a Mockingbird, or Beloved, and Huckleberry Finn. So, I gave her that, and also a pen to make little tiny popovers with, which are fun. Popovers are delicious no matter what size they are. And we went to a lovely new restaurant around our neighborhood called Mercado. And, we had wonderful roasted vegetables, roasted Brussels sprouts, and delicious roasted mushrooms with filet mignon panini. And then, at the end, to celebrate her birthday, a lovely cup of delicious cappuccino. It was a wonderful afternoon on a beautiful day.

Five months ago, one of my favorite bands, The Mountain Goats, came to town. They played a double show (two shows in two nights.) It was at my favorite venue, Mr. Smalls. My best friend came home from Virginia and saw both of the shows with me. One evening, we got balcony seats, and the other, we were on the floor. It was a wonderful time. Each setlist seemed perfectly curated, and the second night they played for an extra hour and a half. We had some beers and sang along to almost every song, occasionally glancing at each other to say, "this is awesome." We met some people from Canada that were very nice. They invited us to a scavenger hunt the next day, but we were too tired from the show to attend. Each night ended in more drinks and sitting on my deck at my apartment. It is rare to see my friend as we live in different states, so we usually stay up late when we do hang out. I still think back on those shows as two of the best I've ever seen. I love The Mountain Goats. I also love Mr. Smalls. But mostly, I love my best friend and the time that we share.

And we talked yesterday about animals. When I was talking to you about bears who are around here, and we just saw one this morning, so it made me think about my relationship with other animals. And back probably 25 years ago, when we were traveling to Seattle, we went to a beautiful aquarium there. And at that time in my life, I was anxious to go to all aquariums. I wanted to visit every single one that we were near. And so we went to this Seattle aquarium. And I was walking past the an octopus, and she was hiding in the corner, and my kids and my husband were waving at him, and they kind of went by. But I stayed with the octopus for a little bit, and I noticed that she was playing peekaboo with me. And when other people would come to look at her, she would hide, but I would stay there and when they left, she\'d come back out. And she made what I thought was eye contact. It\'s a little hard to determine where her eyes were. But in my mind, we made eye contact. And I know this was just a step farther than maybe I should have gone. But I put my finger on the glass, and she put one of her tentacles on the glass with me. And we played and we played for about an hour. It was just joyful. I was clearly connected with this animal. And of course, when my husband and kids came over, she would hide. And I was just mesmerized and delighted. And when I would talk about this, they would look at me with her old eyes and think, "I don\'t know, I don\'t know what mom\'s thinking, but she had a relationship with an octopus." But I really believed it. Then many years later, we were driving along, and we were listening to an interview on NPR with a gift naturalist. Her name is Sy, but I forget her last name. Anyway, she wrote a fabulous book called "The Soul of an Octopus." And she talked about how octopuses can recognize people, communicate with people. And my one-off time was not a one-off time? Was it my octopus that we really did connect? And I think it takes patience and caring. I think my experience as a speech pathologist, in which I spend a lot of time with people who can\'t communicate or communicate in, let\'s say, unusual and subtle ways, made me pick up on this little octopus\'s attempts at communication with me, not attempts. We did it. We absolutely did it. It\'s a story I love to tell people because, of course, I love to be right. And it makes me happy that I had a moment, an hour, in which I connected with an animal that is so admittedly weird that it does not look like it came from this planet. But who has the intellect and problem-solving ability and personality, really the personality, to interact with humans. In her book, she talks about the fact that not all octopuses are as sweet as the one that I and mine was sweet and a little old, I\'m going to say flirtatious. And some octopuses are just kind of aggressive or ignore people. They, I guess, they have a range of personalities, somewhat the same as humans do. So that\'s my octopus story. Jibo, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you get to experience an octopus the way I did.

I'm an Assistant Professor in Astronomy and I study the dynamic universe. So what I do is, with the beautiful telescopes here at Palomar Observatory, we have some robotic telescopes that are continuously making a movie of the night sky. So we image the sky over and over again, and we look for what changed. You might go out there and think the universe is the same old thing every time, but it's actually not. It's full of these little explosions, which last for a very short amount of time, so they're very energetic. It's like cosmic fireworks lighting up our sky. It was not at all clear that one day I would do a PhD. I grew up on a farm in India with 100 cows and fields of weeds and chickpeas. And I had left home when I was 15, and I was a girl in India in a small place. The entire community was up in arms. There were people like neighbors, relatives, you name it. People I haven't even seen before coming into the house and trying to talk my parents out of this crazy decision to send their daughter alone on this journey into the other end of the world to pursue something called Astronomy or whatever that was. The community was completely unsupportive. In my case, the best way to deal with it was to just let that fade away in the background and not engage with it directly, but focus on what is motivating me, on what is giving me joy, and just let everything else just fade away in the background.

Okay. So prior to moving back to Boston recently, I spent some time in Asia going to a few places including Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand. No, Indonesia, Indonesia. But what I wanted to talk about today was the visiting my extended family in Taiwan and that experience.

A few months ago, we took a vacation back to my home with my son. It was scary because it was my son's first time flying, and I was pretty stressed out about it. It was the first time I had been back home in years, and the first time for most of my family to meet my son, who was one and a half at the time. The flight went better than expected, and we eventually landed, rented a car, got through customs, and drove to visit family. We spent a lot of time with my mother, who had recently moved into an apartment and was living on her own for the first time in her life. My father passed away three years ago, and previously she had been living with my younger sister. But she decided everyone needed their own space and moved out. We got to see all my cousins and aunts and uncles, and my son got to meet his cousins for the first time. My husband also got to meet many of my family members he had never met before too. We had time to see my best friend in the world, who I do not get to see enough. We visited my old childhood home to see how it looked, drove past my high school and grade school, and toured around all the places that had meaning to me growing up. My mother was so happy to spend time with her grandson. Of course, she spoiled him with toys and presents. To be able to share this with my son and my husband was pretty amazing. We live so far from where I am from. It was really great to be back with them.

There used to be this pizza place in India called Pizza Corner, and they had this special dish called a Koniza, which is basically a pizza wrapped into a cone. And it was one of my favorite things to get from that restaurant. And the Konisa is not available widely anymore, mostly because they just don't sell it anymore at Pizza Corner. So I hope that they bring it back someday because that's one of the things I really enjoyed for my childhood in India.

A few months back, my birthday was approaching. My birthday is toward the end of the month of April. However, this was early in the month. I had finished work, and my wife had asked me to get ready because we were going to dinner together. Our children were "at the babysitter" (that's what I was told). So, I quickly dressed. I really did not want to leave, but I was hungry. What I did not know is that my wife had gathered my family together for a surprise birthday party at O'Charley's. We arrived at about 5:30 pm. When we entered the "party section" of the restaurant, everyone shouted, "Surprise." I really was taken aback. I wondered why we were headed back to that section in the first place! I didn't expect that my wife would actually do something like that. She is sweet, but not much of one on surprises. On top of my wife's surprise, everyone in my family was there. Some had traveled a few hours to be with us on that evening. It meant the world to me to have my family and a few friends come out to celebrate my birthday with me.

So this story is about me moving across the country, from Florida to Massachusetts, with my girlfriend. And we had to bring two rabbits. So, I had never done that before. I had moved across the country before, but not with another person and not with two rabbits. Especially, so that was kind of an interesting challenge.\n\nRabbits are not the kind of animal that you need to take outside to go to the bathroom. They can stay in their little cages, but we had to have them in these small cages for car transport. And then the funny thing, the story is that we stayed at a variety of hotels and places like that on the way because we were driving. But not all of them were open to pets.\n\nBut rabbits are not your typical cat or dog because they stay in a cage, and not a lot of people have rabbits. But I remember just the challenges of having to get to the hotel and then moving the rabbits into the space. And I remember staying at this one sort of roadside bed and breakfast-type place, and we had to move the rabbits inside. But once they were in, we were able to let them out and run around. And they played a little bit. And that was fun, but it was just a unique challenge to me to move across country with these two small pets and then facing the challenges of meeting their needs as well as ours as we did this.\n\nAnd one time we tried to sneak them into a hotel because the hotel wasn\'t really clear on their animal policy. And then the hotel staff saw it, and they\'re like, "no, you can\'t stay here with those rabbits." And so we had to go find another place. So that was unexpected and kind of disappointing, but it\'s just part of the deal. Moving with rabbits.

I'm the curator of Behavioral Husbandry and Welfare for Oklahoma City Zoo. So, I spend a lot of time looking, observing, learning everything we can about the species and about what their needs are to give them many choices in their environment. So that they have varied days and they have a very dynamic environment that they're living in. When I was five years old, I had an encounter with a dolphin. And I was able to look that animal in the eye, and that was it for me. I wanted to dedicate my life to working with animals. When I left college, I thought, I'm ready. Put me in a job, I know what to do. And what I found was the animals were the best teachers. They have taught me humility. I think that's a big one. They've taught me compassion, to be a little bit more open and be very understanding. Especially to other human beings. That was something I learned when I left college. I had amazing experiences in college, and I loved my classes, but I don't think I really started becoming well-rounded until I got out of the classroom. And I really started learning the real-world stuff. So talk to people, hear their stories, and keep an open mind because every person has something to teach you.

Okay, so yesterday, well, I guess for the last couple of months, almost a year, six months to a year, I've been trying to find new work, new jobs. And it's been difficult. Yesterday, I actually had an interview, and it seemed like it would have been good. But then we got on, I kind of explained myself. And then she got to the point where she wanted to know salary expectations. And I said what my salary was. And it was at the high end of what they had listed on the website. And then she immediately said that's not going to work. That what they actually could offer was way less than what they had actually posted on the website. So that wasn't great.

I am in a long-distance relationship, but I am separated from my significant other by a few hours. I am a nurse at a great hospital, but quite frankly, my management sucks, and my doctors act like Karens. I have woken up dreading going to work for so long that it's my normal. These people have sucked the joy out of what I so passionately love to do. I did try to wait it out to see if things would get better over time, but with no success. We've been together for less than a year but have talked about closing the gap. I've met his family and friends, and vice versa. Nothing but good things from both sides. This guy, I am sure with every cell in my body, that we're destined to be together. I'm gonna husband that man someday. I would be the moving party between the both of us, and I'm absolutely okay with that. I had updated my resume and sent some applications out last week, not expecting to hear anything from anyone until this week. I have an interview set for Friday morning, and if all goes well, I will accept a position in my significant other's town doing what I love to do! And that means we can finally start our lives together. And that gives me so much hope for the future.

Yesterday was my daughter Melinda's birthday, and she was 37 years old. It's hard to imagine that she's 37 years old now, 37 in one day. So, I was thinking a lot about the day she was born. I had hoped to have a vaginal delivery, and I had a room all picked out where you could stay in the same room in the hospital for both labor, delivery, and then after delivery. But it turned out that I didn't go into labor, just my water broke, and it was two weeks early, so I needed a C-section. So, I had a second C-section.

I found out that my wife is pregnant with our first child! When I first found out, I was overcome with emotions. At first, I was so happy and excited because we had been trying for so long to get pregnant. Then I was overcome with sadness. You see, my dad passed away a couple years ago. In my eulogy, I spoke about how the day that I find out I would be a father would be one of the toughest days for me. That would be because I wouldn't be able to call him and see his excitement. I wouldn't be able to call him for advice. My wife is now about 6 months pregnant. Still, to this day, I have highs and lows because of these two things. Highs because I am so excited to be a dad. Lows because I don't have my dad here to help me. We found out we are having a girl! I always thought I wanted a boy first, but when I found out we were having a girl, I was so ecstatic. I immediately went into papa bear mode. I began looking into how to be the best dad to a girl. What I needed to know about having a girl. I know that she is going to be the most important thing in my life. So this sums up not only my most recent important life experience but probably the most important one ever!

Okay, here's the corrected transcript:\n\nWell, again, I'm thinking of things that happened this week when we were on vacation with my grandchildren. And two of the little girls, Lydia and Lucy, made a lovely lunch for me. It was rice and a very thin egg omelet with soy sauce all around it. She lamented the fact that she didn't have any seaweed snack to put on it because she said that would have made it even better. But it's so happy to see them cooking and caring about serving good, healthy food. So I thought I would write a review. So I wrote to the family, a very authentic-sounding review of what I named Lucy and Lydia's Cousin's Cafe. And I made quite a big deal about each item in the dish. And then the very next day, Lucy, the older of the two girls, made pancakes at her house and brought them across the street to Lydia's house. And so, I gave Lucy and her efforts quite a review as well. And I'm hoping to keep this up with every cookie they make, every brownie, every lunch or dinner they help with. I will be happy to write a picture, to write a review and maybe take a picture and publish a picture. I thought I'd call it Grandma's Gazettes.

I went to a holiday celebration with a backyard cookout. It was memorable in the sense that it was the first planned outing with my children, who are still toddlers. It's been difficult as a homemaker with my toddlers, especially during the first couple of years. I feel like I sacrificed a lot to personally raise them, and sometimes I still feel ambivalent about my decision to have a family. So, to say this was personally memorable, at least to me, might be a bit of an understatement. The part about the holiday party that stood out the most was just sitting in their backyard and drinking a beer straight from the bottle with the sun shining on my face. I was tasked with watching one of my toddlers while my spouse took care of the others. It felt easier with one kid. I think the work multiplies significantly with more children, and I can understand why most parents these days want to stick to one child. Anyway, that moment in the backyard felt relaxing, like something I hadn't experienced in a long time. It was equal parts freedom, and for a moment, it felt like I didn't have any kids at all. I mean, I had one that I was watching at that time, but that fleeting moment felt like a tasty raindrop when you're stranded in a barren hot desert wasteland. My children thoroughly enjoyed the event, despite not really eating the great food. They got to play around with other children who were also there, and they got to see what an actual party with adults seems like. I personally enjoyed it and wish for more events like that in the future.